WATCH: ‘Awon Boyz’, insightful documentary on Lagos hustlers, hits Netflix

BY IDRIS SHEHU

Netflix on Wednesday released ‘Awon Boyz‘, a documentary that portrays the life of street hustlers across Lagos, for streaming.

The documentary, which was produced and directed by Tolulope Itegboye, cracks open the ‘hard guy’ cuticles of “area boys” and lays bare their emotional and vulnerable sides.

The film documents the stories of street boys from the notoriously cut-throat world in Oshodi to Monkey Village, New Afrika Shrine, and other shanty towns across Lagos.

Awon Boyz, a documentary that portrays the life of the everyday street hustler, AKA agberos, is now streaming pic.twitter.com/kAsynWkP8v

— Netflix Naija (@NetflixNaija) April 14, 2021

Muri Malik aka ‘Ete’ talks about his regrets of shunning education for violence while in school.

“I no like trouble,” is not a statement expected from the marijuana-darkened lips of a street urchin. But that’s what Lekan Raphael Oladunjoye aka “Agamma” said as he narrates the death of two friends.

“One night, Femi [Kuti] just finished a show, like Thursday’s show,” Agamma recounts.

“My friend Deji and another one that we call Lion. Lion bought suya and was eating it and Deji went there to pick cabbage; not meat but just cabbage from the suya. And Lion punched Deji once. Deji fell down and broke his head. Lion tried to escape but other area boys caught him. They said, ‘No, Lion, you’ve already killed your friend, so you have to carry him.’

“They took Lion to prison and when he thought about it he started hitting his head on the wall of the prison yard. Lion would shit and he’d eat the shit. Lion died December. Deji died before December. They were area boys. And they are cool niggas. They didn’t rob, they didn’t do anything bad. But look what happened. I lost both of them just because of cabbage on a suya.”

The documentary is loaded with more emotional tales and confessions about genuine happiness.

Watch ‘Awon Boyz’ HERE