Heather Murdock MAKOKO, NIGERIA — Sometimes called "The Venice of Africa" the village of Makoko floats on a lagoon in the heart of Lagos, the financial capital of Nigeria. But unlike Venice, houses there are built on sticks and dugout canoes are the main form of transportation. And while the government fights in court to tear down the watery slum, the community is digging in by building a "floating school" for Makoko's children. “A fish cannot live on land,” Makoko residents are fond of saying, and “neither can we.” Their sprawling village is a collection of sagging wooden homes on stilts in the Lagos Lagoon. We take a canoe...
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