Gibbous Moon Over Lagos: Pursuing a Dream on Africa's Wild Side

Description

Lagos, Nigeria, a city of about 20 million people is growing fast and it is not the same Africa as that of the open plains of the Serengeti or the thunderous white cloud of Victoria Falls. This is Africa's wild side, a place where ethics can be lost and where enormous good can be done; it is where Africa's future will be made. In 2005, Australian Pamela Watson, a one-time intrepid cyclist who peddled her way solo across Africa turned Lagos-based businesswoman, embarked on a thrilling five-year entrepreneurial journey. It included the highs of creating a successful hand-made paper social enterprise and making a difference to an embattled community, and the lows of discovering the human cost of a corrupt system and anxiety over the integrity of those she believed shared her business dream. This original story explores whether Lagos's gibbous moon is waxing to full or waning back to the dark side, and what happened to Pamela's own cycle of business adventures. Along the way, we gain rare insight into this megacity of contradictions - as open as it is opaque, as full of opportunity as it is of hazards, as exciting as it is frustrating. What becomes clear is that effervescent, hard-working, self-aware and brutally self-critical Lagosians are determinedly chasing dreams and opportunities in this untamed urban environment. Gibbous Moon Over Lagos is a timely, spirited and inspiring read for those keen to know an Africa that challenges old stereotypes.

Pamela Watson is an intrepid adventurer and businesswoman. Born in Perth, Western Australia she grew up watching the sun setting in the west and as an adult followed its pathway to Africa. From her intoxicating solo cycling journey in the '90s, travels to 32 countries in Africa, her thrilling entrepreneurial and diplomatic adventures in Nigeria in the 2000s and her ongoing work in Africa, she has a rare insight into Africa's complex and challenging past and present, and offers an optimistic appraisal of how its future might unfold. Pamela is passionate about doing business to her own beat and championing Lagos and the unleashed potential of Africa's female entrepreneurs.