A dozen children crowd around plastic tables in the Majidun neighborhood of Lagos. Intently focused on plastic mats printed with chess boards, the children thoughtfully move pieces on the board as supervisors observe their moves.
The waterside shanty town is just across the lagoon from the mansions and towering office blocks of Nigeria’s commercial capital. They hope the cunning and strategy they learn on the chess board will help them make the leap out of their homes in the slum.
“To live here is hard,” said Michael Omoyele, who at 14 has already dealt with food scarcity and worked to feed himself. Inspired by “Queen of Katwe”, the 2016 film about a girl who escapes poverty in a Ken…
Keep on reading: Kings of Lagos: children learn chess to seek escape from Nigeria’s slums