What do you need to be successful in Nigeria? It can’t be that easy, can it?
CHIKENA
Dagold
Acrylic on canvas, 61х142
Nigeria, Lagos
Acrylic on canvas, 61х142
Nigeria, Lagos
How does the traveller see it?
(Fragment of a post from a Facebook page)
An illustration of good fortune by Nigerian artist Dagold. A caricatured figure in the left-hand side of the painting tells a saleswoman, “Give me Amala” - a local cassava-based dish. He orders 12, as well as 14 (meat) and 4 (Biggy): a bottle of coca-cola. Chikena doesn’t mean add chicken to the order; it means that’s it, order up! It’s a word from the Hausa language, but both the Yoruba and the Igbo – Nigeria’s two main ethnic groups – use it in their Pidgin English, which people here refer to as “Naija”.
In the bottom right section of the painting, the man’s more successful friend (judging by his clothes) initially looked down on him. But after the man’s tremendous order, the friend switches to envy (right side, top). What a poser! Show off. That’s how easy it is to be cool.
In the bottom right section of the painting, the man’s more successful friend (judging by his clothes) initially looked down on him. But after the man’s tremendous order, the friend switches to envy (right side, top). What a poser! Show off. That’s how easy it is to be cool.
And what do you think?