Iloro House

In Lagos, a face-me-I-face-you is a rooming house where every door faces another across a single corridor, and everyone shares the kitchen, the bathroom and the noise. Iloro House at No. 3 June 12 Street is one of them, and it is where AJ's story begins: on the bench on the veranda, two weeks after London.

The rooms, door by door: Room 1 is Mama Ronke and her family. Room 2 is Tayo, a student. Room 3 is AJ's. Room 4 is Sade, the tailor, whose machine runs late. Room 5 is Mr. Akin, the elder, who has opinions about the bathroom queue. Room 6 is Dozie, who is in opportunities. Room 7 is Tara, the hairdresser from the salon outside the main gate, who keeps the bathroom roster on the kitchen wall. Room 8 is Danger and Benny, two area boys who share one mattress, one fan and a rota for the side by the fan. Rooms 7 and 8 stay locked by day, because their tenants are out working. And by the back door, beside the bathroom, is the box room, the old storeroom, which the landlord rents out and calls "Room 9" so he can charge for it. It is the smallest room in the house, and it belongs to Tiny, the tallest man on the street, who has no money and the busiest door on the street. One man has no room at all: Kingston, the Rasta preacher, who sleeps in everybody's, a night or two at a time, and pays no rent. Behind the house is a back yard, and in front of it, the veranda, where everybody ends up in the evening when the power goes.