English>

Market News

Children in Nigeria learn chess to seek escape from country’s slums - NEW YORK POST

MAY 07, 2021

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 Kenyan slum through chess, Omoyele hopes chess will help him, too.

“On the chessboard you work hard in order to win and from winning chess games I believe I can do better in becoming a champion and being wealthy also.”

Babatunde Onakoya teaches children to play chess at a community palace in Makoko, Lagos, Nigeria May 5, 2021.
Reuters

Omoyele practices at home, in a room with watermarked concrete walls and peeling blue paint and the din of crying children in the background.

“This is why we are teaching them chess, as a way to raise a new generation of intellectuals, people … who will be curious enough to question everything, who will be curious enough to innovate,” he said.


SEE HOW MUCH YOU GET IF YOU SELL

NGN
This website uses cookies We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you've provided to them or that they've collected from your use of their services
Real Time Analytics