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This is an image from Lagos, Nigeria. You can see cars and telephone poles and apartment buildings. The road is dirt. There’s mud on the side. The women are walking in sandals.

Wealthier Nigerians have homes and cars and their children go to school. Poor Nigerians live in crowded city areas without sturdy homes or education. Others live in villages outside the city, even in homes with houses made with mud walls. Other homes are made of wood.

There are Christians and Muslims in Nigeria. Muslims arrange marriages. Some take more than one wife. A dowry, a payment, is made to the groom’s family.

It is a culture where men are in charge. Men dominate in Muslim areas. In other areas women generally have more freedom, but everywhere they are expected to take on the role of wife, mother, and homemaker.

At the same time, many women work. They work small fields and they work in the markets. They are often denied access to loans or other means to have their own financial freedom.

In the picture above, she is selling dried fish. They also eat a main dish which is a thick pudding of corn meal and water. They also eat plantains, onions, and tomatoes, and fruits like papaya, and mangoes.