Lagoon

Acknowledgments

Thank you, Lagos, Nigeria for being Lagos, Nigeria. Two decades ago, I knew I’d write about you someday. And someday, you will be the greatest city in the world.

I’d like to thank my significant other, Taofik Yusuf, for his help with the grittier Nigerian Pidgin English sections of the novel and insisting that I change the title of this book from Lagos to Lagoon. Thanks to Nollywood director and friend Tchidi Chikere for his meticulous help with the Pidgin English sections, as well. Thanks to my ambitious editor, Anne Perry, for convincing me to keep these Pidgin English sections as I originally intended them, as opposed to toning them down. Thanks to Beegeagle for all his first-hand information on the Nigerian military. Thanks to the Ethiopian-American rapper and visionary Gabriel Teodros and New Orleans artist Soraya Jean-Louis McElroy for being Lagoon’s first readers. Both of them loved the opening swordfish chapter and this fact meant a lot to me.

Thanks to the South African science fiction film District 9 for both intriguing and pissing me off so much that I started daydreaming about what aliens would do in Nigeria. This novel was birthed from my anger at District 9, but it quickly became something else entirely.

And of course, last but not least, I’d like to thank my daughter, Anyaugo, who was the first person to hear the summary of Lagoon (back when it was still titled Lagos). She loves Nigeria as much as I do, and she thought the story was utterly hilarious (especially the road monster parts).