Area boys of Lagos: the real story behind the name

In Lagos, area boy is one of those words everybody uses and nobody needs explained. It is the young man on the corner who knows everyone, who will watch your car for a fee, who might demand money for letting you unload a lorry on “his” street, and who will, on another day, push your broken-down car out of the road. The phrase can be an insult, a warning, a joke or, now and then, a badge of pride.

This article looks at where the term and the street groups came from, what area boys actually do, and why a fair picture needs more than one word. Facts are drawn from the sources listed at the end.

What is an area boy?

In Nigerian English, an area boy is a young man, usually without regular work, who makes his money on the street in his own neighbourhood: his “area”. Dictionaries treat it as a synonym of agbero, the motor-park tout. Researchers describe area boys as loosely organised groups of street children, teenagers and young men, mostly male, found in big Nigerian cities including Lagos, Ibadan, Onitsha and Enugu.

The word “area” matters. What sets area boys apart from earlier street groups is that they are local: boys known in their own neighbourhood, rather than newcomers to the city. The street is theirs because they grew up on it.

Where did area boys come from?

Lagos has had young men living on their wits in public for a century. Historians of the city trace a line of names:

• Jaguda boys, from the 1920s: young pickpockets in Lagos and Ibadan who worked crowded markets and stations.
• Boma boys, in the 1940s: unlicensed guides who attached themselves to servicemen in the Second World War.
• Touts and thugs, from the 1950s: young men working the motor parks, some of them reportedly hired by politicians.

The term “area boys” is usually dated to Lagos in the early 1980s, though the exact start is hard to pin down. What grew with them was the informal economy: street trading, load carrying and motor-park work, the jobs that are there when nothing else is.

What do area boys actually do?

The honest answer is: a lot of different things, some useful and some not.

• Odd jobs. Carrying loads for market customers, pushing dead vehicles, running errands, guarding cars, helping drivers find a way round potholes.
• Informal security. Watching a street or a shop for a fee, which can be a real service or protection money, depending on whether you can say no.
• Levies. Charges on people who start building in the area, on traders, or on anyone doing business on the street. This is the side that tips into extortion, and residents and traders complain about it with good reason.
• Worse. Some groups sell drugs, some members use them heavily, and some are involved in violence. Researchers and a UN development report have described drug use as a serious problem among them.

Studies have also tried to count and describe them. A 1996 study of Lagos Island, by Abubakar Momoh, put the number there at around 1,000, mostly aged between 12 and 35, and found that only about a quarter came from Lagos State itself. In 2005, after a soldier was stabbed, the military mounted a crackdown in Lagos, and reports said the groups’ activity declined for a while afterwards.

Why the stereotype is not the whole story

The trouble with “area boy” is that it gets used for any young, poor man on a Lagos street. That is unfair to a great many people who are simply working: the load carriers, the car washers, the boys selling water in traffic. It also hides why the street economy exists. A young man without schooling, connections or capital in one of the world’s biggest cities takes the work that is there, and in some neighbourhoods the work that is there is the street.

None of that excuses extortion or violence, which hurt the same poor neighbourhoods first. But a fair account sees both: the corner that charges you to unload, and the same corner that pushes your car out of a flood.

Area boys in films, music and slang

Because the figure is so familiar, it turns up everywhere in Nigerian popular culture: in Nollywood, in comedy, in music and in everyday teasing. Calling a friend an area boy can mean he is rough, streetwise, or just too comfortable on the block. Like a lot of slang, the tone depends entirely on who is saying it, and to whom. For more of that language, see our guide to Nigerian slang.

Danger and Benny, the area boys of Room 8

AJ Cities is a free browser game set on the edge of Ajegunle, Lagos, and two of its people are area boys, written as people rather than props. Danger, real name Daniel Eze, grew up in Ajegunle on what his mother made selling pepper. He carries loads, pushes dead cars, fixes the generators their owners gave up on, and writes verses in a school exercise book. When he walks up to the gate the waiting area goes quiet, and the children follow him down the street in a line. Benny, Benedict Adebisi, can sell anything to anyone and keeps the money and the notebook. They share Room 8 of Iloro House, and lately the club owner’s men have been handing them errands, and Benny, who knows what everything he sells costs, is wondering what is in the bag. Read their story.

What is an area boy in Nigeria?

A young man, usually without regular work, who makes money on the street in his own neighbourhood, through odd jobs, informal security or levies. It is close in meaning to agbero.

When did area boys start in Lagos?

The term is usually dated to the 1980s, but Lagos had earlier street groups: jaguda boys from the 1920s, boma boys in the 1940s and motor-park touts from the 1950s.

Are all area boys criminals?

No. Many do odd jobs and casual work. Some groups extort money, sell drugs or use violence, which is why the word is also used as an insult.