Lifestyle

Makoko Floating School Collapses in Storm, Residents Vow To Rebuild

After a tumultuous storm in Lagos, Nigeria, the beloved Makoko Floating School (pictured) collapsed Tuesday night.

The floating school resides in Makoko, which has the distinction of being Nigeria’s oldest slum.

Makoko, which sits on stilts, was built on the Lagos lagoon. And even though it houses close to 100,000 residents, last year, it faced demolition due to its prime location.

The construction of the Makoko Floating School, however, would stop the dismantling of a community in its tracks.

As Face2Face Africa previously reported:

“…Architect Kunle Adeyemi came together with the Makoko Waterfront Community to create, design, and build the Makoko Floating School, which has given both a renewed hope and purpose to the lagoon community.

By April 2015, officials would announce their plans to scrap their demolition plans and use the architecture of the school, instead, to “regenerate” Makoko.

Since then, Makoko has received international press as well as a re-energized community.

But this week, Makoko’s beacon of hope, which was initially created to be storm-proof, was destroyed.

Watch community members vow to rebuild the school here:

Abena Agyeman-Fisher

Abena Agyeman-Fisher is the Editor-in-Chief of Face2Face Africa. Most recently, she worked for Interactive One as the Senior Editor of NewsOne, she worked for AOL as the News Programming Manager of Black Voices, which later became HuffPo Black Voices, and for the New York Times Company as an Associate Health Editor. Abena, a Spelman College graduate, has been published in Al Jazeera, the Daily Beast, New Jersey’s The Star-Ledger, the Grio, BlackVoices, West Orange Patch, About.com, the Source, Vibe, Vibe Vixen, Jane, and Upscale Magazines. She has interviewed top celebrities, icons, and politicians, such as First Lady Michelle Obama, Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett, Civil Rights activist and diplomat Andrew Young, comedian Bill Cosby, Grammy Award-winning singer Jill Scott, actress and singer Queen Latifah, Olympic Gold winner Cullen Jones, international supermodel Alek Wek, and five-division world champion boxer Floyd Mayweather. Most recently, she served as the First Lady’s press reporter during President Barack Obama’s U.S.-Africa Summit, Young African Leaders Institute event, and the 2013 presidential trip to Senegal, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Tanzania. Abena is also a 2015 International Women's Media Foundation Africa Great Lakes Fellow, where she reported on women candidates and Chinese sweatshops in Tanzania for CNN and Refinery29.

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