Thirty-five years ago in mid-July, bulldozers demolished the homes, hopes and aspirations of over 300,000 people in the low income community of Maroko, in Lagos, Nigeria. This remains Nigeria’s biggest forced eviction to date – the complete annihilation of about 30 neighbourhoods at one time.
The evictions were framed as an attempt to improve people’s living conditions and minimise exposure to flooding. But hundreds of thousands of people were left homeless.
A new film, Displaced – A City’s Scars, documents how communities in Lagos have suffered a century of evictions, which continue today through a new wave of gentrification.
