PS -- in addition to the New Yorker article there is an excellent chapter on Lagos and its chaotic-seeming but brilliantly organized informal economy (everything from computers from China to penny bags of clean water) in Robert Neuwirth's "Stealth of Nations".
This is one of the most fucked-up posts I've seen here. I don't see Bethany doing anything to verify the story, but the Independent uses what appears to be a Nigerian news site as its source, and that source is merely copying what appears on another website. A city is named, but no hotel is identified and no individuals are identified. The story seems as likely as the lesbian lobster egg story, but of course it makes sense to think of Africans as cannibals, doesn't it?
Here's one commenter on the Independent's site. This isn't verified, either, but it seems illuminating.
I have attempted to follow the news trail to find out the original source of this “news” and my findings are as follows:
13th and 14th February 2014: News item published online by several western media including Yahoo, The Independent, Metro and Mirror all quoting “Osun Defender”
5th September 2013: News item published by Osundefender.org acknowledging it was curled from “Naijazip”
4th August 2013: News Item published in Naijazip.com acknowledging it was curled from “Naijaloaded”
8th February 2014: News item published in naijaloaded.com.ng by a person simply identified as “Dellyma”. No further acknowledgement of secondary source.
Please note the dates of these publications. It seems someone is trying to use the publication in naijaloaded.com.ng to tie up loose ends. All the quoted Nigerian websites have no physical contact address and are suspected to be run by people of Yoruba tribe; perennial antagonist of the Igbo tribe in whose land the incidence is alleged to have occurred. The two sides were on the opposing side in the Nigerian civil war.
I'm very dubious of this story. Nigeria has some horrors but cannibalism isn't one of them. Having visited it a few times it is chaotic and an environmental nightmare. Lagos is heavily polluted and a mega-city out of control. What Nigeria needs is good management.
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…
This "pastor" ordered the most expensive thing on the menu without asking what it was?
File this one with the lawsuits claiming that the witch doctor made the plaintiff's penis disappear.
I have attempted to follow the news trail to find out the original source of this “news” and my findings are as follows:
13th and 14th February 2014: News item published online by several western media including Yahoo, The Independent, Metro and Mirror all quoting “Osun Defender”
5th September 2013: News item published by Osundefender.org acknowledging it was curled from “Naijazip”
4th August 2013: News Item published in Naijazip.com acknowledging it was curled from “Naijaloaded”
8th February 2014: News item published in naijaloaded.com.ng by a person simply identified as “Dellyma”. No further acknowledgement of secondary source.
Please note the dates of these publications. It seems someone is trying to use the publication in naijaloaded.com.ng to tie up loose ends.
All the quoted Nigerian websites have no physical contact address and are suspected to be run by people of Yoruba tribe; perennial antagonist of the Igbo tribe in whose land the incidence is alleged to have occurred. The two sides were on the opposing side in the Nigerian civil war.
You're not a reporter and you weren't perpetuating a story that advanced a racist stereotype.