Beyond the Hawker’s Cart: Reaktor, EbonyLife put human faces to Lagos’ hustle

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Before the rush of Lagos traffic, the shouting of prices and the constant movement that defines the city’s streets, there are people simply trying to make tomorrow better than today.From Obalende to Oshodi, Yaba to Ikeja, countless Lagosians wake up each day with the same quiet determination which is to work, hustle and push through the city’s chaos in the hope of building a better life.

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That human side of Lagos’ hustle is at the heart of a new storytelling project by Planet Bottling Company, makers of Reaktor Energy Drink, in partnership with EbonyLife Creative Academy. Through two productions, On the Move and On the Move: Chasing Tomorrow , the partners turn their attention to the people behind the city’s informal economy, the hawkers, distributors and everyday workers whose struggles are often reduced to what they sell.

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For Planet Bottling Company’s Marketing Communications Manager, Franklyn Eluagu, the project was an opportunity to move beyond simply seeing hawkers on the streets and instead understand the people behind the trade.

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“We wanted to document the lives of actual people who are living this life. Hawkers are out there every day. We see them, and we also see those who do business with the hawkers and provide the drinks they sell,” Eluagu said.

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He said the documentary was designed to show that the struggles portrayed in the fictional production were not distant or imagined experiences but realities shared by many Nigerians.

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“Reaktor is encouraging everyone out there to keep up with the process, be consistent and stay on the move,” he said.

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Marketing Manager of Planet Bottling Company, Naji Awada, said the films were also a reflection of Reaktor’s broader message of determination and the pursuit of personal goals.

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“Reaktor, as the slogan says, is about pushing your limits. This is a way for us to show that if you have a goal and push towards it, you can reach there, evolve it and make it into something big,” Awada said.

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For Awada, the stories are bigger than the brand. They speak to Nigerians who continue to pursue their ambitions despite the obstacles standing between them and the lives they want.

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The partnership also gave EbonyLife Creative Academy an opportunity to bring its creative training closer to real Nigerian experiences.

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Michael Oyebade, Head of Administration at the academy, described the collaboration as a meeting point between two shared ambitions.

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“It is a coming together of ideas and a coming together of missions.” Oyebade said.

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He explained that graduates and alumni of the academy were involved in the creative process, including ideation, story development, filming and production.

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“We use our graduates, the alumni from the academy, to do the sprints, the ideation, the story development and the filming itself. Everything has been done by students of the academy,” he said.

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Ultimately, On the Move and On the Move: Chasing Tomorrow seek to remind audiences that behind every roadside transaction is a person, a family, a dream and, often, a difficult decision about how to make it through another day.

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For Lagos’ hustlers, the journey is rarely just about staying afloat. It is also about staying on the move.

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By Enitan Abdultawab

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