AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Every day this week, we have been bringing you stories from NPR Africa correspondent Emmanuel Akinwotu. The series follows his 600-mile journey along the rapidly urbanizing coastline of West Africa. From Lagos, Nigeria, to Abidjan in Ivory Coast, this fast-growing chain of cities is forming a massive urban corridor. That stretch could soon be home to more than 50 million people. It's a region full of opportunity, but also one that is facing enormous challenges as it struggles to keep pace with its own rapid growth. Emmanuel Akinwotu joins us now to reflect on his journey. Hi, Emmanuel.
EMMANUEL AKINWOTU, BYLINE: Hi. Thanks for having me.
CHANG: Well, thank you for being with us. So wow, 600 miles by road across West Africa - what were you hoping to understand at the outset when you first started this trip?
AKINWOTU: Well, it's such a fascinating area and region. And, you know, the wider context for this was that, you know, Africa is one - the world's youngest and fastest-growing continent, with a population expected to triple to 4 billion people by the end of the century, according to the U.N. So - and really, that growth is especially dramatic in this coastal stretch of cities that are linked through historic trade routes and cultural ties and migration across five countries - Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana and Ivory Coast. And they're connected by a single coastal road on the edge of the Atlantic that's now being upgraded into this super highway. And this region is sometimes called this - a megalopolis, sort of similar to the U.S. East Coast and some of the world's biggest urban regions.
CHANG: Yeah.
AKINWOTU: So it's rapidly urbanizing. But when you take a closer look at these cities, it reveals a lot about how this transformation is unfolding and really whether urban expansion is creating real opportunities and needs or actually making life more precarious for the people who are there. And I spoke to Alice Hertzog. She's an urban anthropologist who's researched communities along this urban corridor.
ALICE HERTZOG: So cities aren't delivering along this corridor. They're not delivering in terms of infrastructure. They're not delivering in terms of educational opportunities. And so that promise of life improvement that comes with urbanization is not always there.
CHANG: Not always there. Well, Emmanuel, as you traveled from city to city, what sorts of people did you meet?
AKINWOTU: Well, we met all sorts of really fascinating people. Really, one of the things that really struck me was just how much movement there was - of people, of goods. You know, usually when we think about migration in Africa, people think about people who are desperate to leave and boats making these dangerous journeys to Europe. But about 90% of West Africans who migrate do so locally, according to the U.N., and we saw that constantly.
We set off from Lagos and met travelers and traders - especially women - working in major markets, selling in many of the big cities. But they had to navigate so many challenges. Free movement is meant to be guaranteed within the regional bloc of countries called ECOWAS. But even we - as we were moving through these countries, we had attempted extortion by police, customs officials, immigration, at virtually every border. And we also saw a lot of development, especially in countries like Benin, where there's so much construction.
But we also met people like Ahissou Vernant. He's a man who was weeping outside his destroyed home, one of hundreds that were demolished by the government to make way for tourism on the beachfront outside Cotonou. And it's a dynamic playing out across the region.
CHANG: So many fascinating stories. Thank you so much. That is NPR's Emmanuel Akinwotu in Lagos, Nigeria.
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