Several canoes paddle toward Makoko, a vast floating slum built on stilts in the lagoon at one end of Nigeria’s economic hub of Lagos. Riding on the vessels are giant cardboard puppet animals along with their puppeteers dressed in black.
Once on the water, the animals — a gorilla, a leopard, an elephant, a wildebeest, a giraff and a donkey — all come alive. The gorilla hoots, the donkey brays and wags its tail as the leopard bends its neck toward the surface as if to drink but halts just before its face meets the water and then turns to look around.
