Nigeria theme park offers escape from biting economy
At Magicland, one content creator from Borno state -- where international headlines typically center on jihadist attacks -- filmed TikTok dances as a brightly colored big wheel towered behind her. Others took to the carnival rides, including 26-year-old public health worker Mary Adeleke, who said she'd once been an adventurous person. 'But as I grew up, with how the country's structured and all the struggles, I lost that part of me,' she said, adding she was on a quest to regain it, one roller coaster at a time.
Children hold inflatable guitars at Magic Land amusement park in Abuja.
A balloon vendor walks through Magic Land amusement park in Abuja.
A content creator dances under a heart-shaped floral archway at Magic Land amusement park in Abuja.
Visitors carrying balloons walk at Magic Land in Abuja.
Park visitors ride a chair swing ride at Magic Land in Abuja.
A park visitor walks past metal sculptures shaped like musicians at Magic Land in Abuja.
Amusement park visitors react as they ride a bird shaped carousel at Magic Land.
A ride operator waits for guests at the Ferris wheel at Magic Land amusement park.
Children exit an attraction at Magic Land amusement park.
Visitors sit in front of a swing ride at Magic Land amusement park.
A visitor holds a child while riding an attraction at Magic Land amusement park.
A child rides a mini truck on a track next to animal sculptures at Magic Land amusement park.
A child picks a balloon from a vendor at Magic Land amusement park.
A ride operator waits for passengers inside a ride at Magic Land amusement park.
A general view of the carousel at Magic Land amusement park.
Visitors sit on a spinning ride at Magic Land amusement park.
A family sit on a caterpillar shaped ride at Magic Land amusement park.
Visitors cycle on a ride at Magic Land amusement park.
A park visitor reacts as she sits on a chair swing ride at Magic Land.
Park visitors ride a carousel at Magic Land.
The west African nation is, by some metrics, a success story: a tech powerhouse, a major exporter of global cultural staples like Afrobeats, and the continent's leading oil producer. But rampant inflation, a cost of living crisis and continued insecurity have proven hard for much of the country's 228 million people. Walking out of a swinging pendulum ride, Victor Bamidele, 28, offered a review. 'I thought it was something that would take my soul out of my body,' the medical device supplier said in typically colorful Nigerian English. 'But it definitely did not,' he added. 'It was quite enjoyable.'
Victoria Friday drove 30 minutes from Nasarawa state. She paid the 1,500 naira ($1) entry fee, but seemed less keen on buying ride tickets. In a move relatable to budget-conscious young people the world over, the 20-year-old stylist said she 'just came to snap my friend' -- taking photos for social media among the colorful backgrounds. 'Our prices are still very low,' said park manager Paul Oko. 'Those who don't earn much can still come,' he added, though he admitted the number of visitors has declined.—AFP
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Kuwait Times
7 days ago
- Kuwait Times
Italian Brainrot: The AI memes only kids know
In a Japanese shop selling pocket-money trinkets, there is a rack of toys, stickers and keyrings based on a global crew of AI-generated characters that almost every child knows about -- and very few adults. A walking shark in oversized sneakers, an orange with muscular arms and a twirling 'Ballerina Cappuccina' with a mug for a head are among the strange stars of the online phenomenon called Italian Brainrot. 'At first it's not funny at all, but it kind of grows on you,' 16-year-old Yoshi Yamanaka-Nebesney from New York told AFP. 'You might use it to annoy someone and find that funny.' The name nods to the stupefying effect of scrolling through mindless social media posts, especially over-the-top images created with artificial intelligence tools. Shouty, crude and often nonsensical Italian voiceovers feature in many of the clips made by people in various countries that began to spread this year on platforms such as TikTok, embraced by young Gen Z and Gen Alpha members. The dozen-plus cartoonish AI creatures have fast become memes, inspiring a stream of new content such as 'Brainrot Rap', viewed 116 million times on YouTube. A YouTube Short titled 'Learn to Draw 5 Crazy Italian Brainrot Animals' -- including a cactus-elephant crossover named 'Lirili Larila' -- has also been watched 320 million times. 'There's a whole bunch of phrases that all these characters have,' said Yamanaka-Nebesney, in Tokyo with his mother Chinami, who had no idea what he was talking about. School-age Italian Brainrot fans can be found from Kenya to Spain and South Korea, while some of the most popular videos reference Indonesia's language and culture instead. 'I went on trips with my boys to Mexico' and people would 'crack jokes about it' there too, Yamanaka-Nebesney said. This photo illustration shows a small bag of novelty merchandise for the online phenomenon called Italian Brainrot, containing collectable cards and a small figure of Frulli Frulla (center), purchased from a shop in Tokyo. 'Melodic language' Internet trends move fast, and Italian Brainrot 'hit its peak maybe two months ago or a month ago', said Idil Galip, a University of Amsterdam lecturer in new media and digital culture. Italian -- a 'melodic language that has opportunities for jokes' -- has appeared in other memes before. And 'there are just so many people in Indonesia' sharing posts which have potential for global reach, Galip said. A 'multi-level marketing economy' has even emerged, with AI video-makers targeting Italian Brainrot's huge audience through online ads or merchandise sales, she added. Nurina, a 41-year-old Indonesian NGO worker, said her seven-year-old loves the mashed-up brainrot world. 'Sometimes when I pick him up from school, or when I'm working from home, he shouts, 'Mommy! Bombardino Crocodilo!'' -- a bomber plane character with a crocodile head. 'I know it's fun to watch,' said Nurina, who like many Indonesians goes by one name. 'I just need to make him understand that this is not real.' Some videos have been criticized for containing offensive messages that go over young viewers' heads, such as rambling references in Italian to 'Bombardino Crocodilo' bombing children in Gaza. 'The problem is that these characters are put into adult content' and 'many parents are not tech-savvy' enough to spot the dangers, warned Oriza Sativa, a Jakarta-based clinical psychologist. Tung Tung Tung Sahur The best-known Indonesian brainrot character 'Tung Tung Tung Sahur' resembles a long drum called a kentongan, which is used to wake people up for a pre-dawn meal, or sahur, during Ramadan. Indonesia has a young, digitally active population of around 280 million, and 'Tung Tung Tung Sahur' is not its only viral export. This summer, video footage -- not AI-generated -- of a sunglass-wearing boy dancing on a rowboat during a race at a western Indonesian festival also became an internet sensation. Noxa, the TikToker behind the original 'Tung Tung Tung Sahur' clip, is now represented by a Paris-based collective of artists, lawyers and researchers called Mementum Lab. 'Noxa is a content creator based in Indonesia. He's under 20,' they told AFP. 'He makes fast, overstimulated, AI-assisted videos.' 'He doesn't call himself a 'contemporary artist', but we think he's already acting like one,' said Mementum Lab, which is focused on complex emerging issues around AI intellectual property, and says it is helping Noxa negotiate deals for his work. Noxa, in comments provided by the collective, said the character was 'inspired by the sound of the sahur drum I used to hear'. 'I didn't want my character to be just another passing joke -- I wanted him to have meaning,' he said. Cultural nuances can be lost at a mass scale, however, with one 12-year-old tourist in Tokyo saying he thought 'Tung Tung Tung Sahur' was a baseball bat. And the generation gap looks set to persist. 'What's that?!' laughed a woman as she puzzled at the row of Italian Brainrot dolls. 'It's not cute at all!' — AFP
Arab Times
7 days ago
- Arab Times
Taylor Swift announces 12th studio album, 'The Life of a Showgirl'
NEW YORK, Aug 12, (AP): Look what you made her do - Taylor Swift has announced her 12th studio album, "The Life of a Showgirl.' Swift announced the album on her website shortly after a countdown timer expired at 12:12 a.m. Tuesday. No release date was announced, but her site said vinyl editions of the album would ship before Oct. 13. Fans have long theorized that Swift's 12th album would soon arrive. On Monday, Taylor Nation - an official branch of the pop superstar's marketing team - posted a TikTok slideshow of 12 images with the caption "Thinking about when she said 'See you next era…'' Swift is seen wearing orange in every image. A special limited vinyl edition of the album will be released in "Portofino orange glitter," according to a pre-order page on her site. A special cassette edition is also available for pre-order. Sensing a pattern, eagle-eyed fans noticed that 12 minutes earlier, the popular "New Heights' podcast posted a tease for Wednesday. The show, hosted by Swift's boyfriend and Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce alongside his brother, former Eagles center Jason Kelce, posted an orange image on social media with a mysterious silhouette, many believing to be Swift. The podcast announced early Tuesday that Swift would appear on "New Heights' and a teaser video posted about her appearance showed her pulling the album from a briefcase. The actual album artwork, just as it is on her website, is blurred. "The Life of a Showgirl' follows last year's "The Tortured Poets Department,' announced during the 2024 Grammys and released during her record-breaking tour, which raked in over $2.2 billion across two years and five continents, making it the highest-grossing tour of all time. The album is also her first release since Swift regained control over her entire body of work. In May, that pop star said she purchased her catalog of recordings - originally released through Big Machine Records - from their most recent owner, the private equity firm Shamrock Capital. She did not disclose the amount. In recent years, Swift has been rerecording and releasing her first six albums in an attempt to regain control of her music. The project was instigated by Hybe America CEO Scooter Braun's purchase and sale of her early catalog and represents Swift's effort to control her own songs and how they're used. Previous "Taylor's Version' releases have been more than conventional re-recordings, arriving with new "from the vault' music, Easter eggs, and visuals that deepen understanding of her work. So far, there have been four rerecorded albums, beginning with "Fearless (Taylor's Version)' and "Red (Taylor's Version)' in 2021. All four have been massive commercial and cultural successes, each one debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Swift's last rerecording, "1989 (Taylor's Version),' arrived in October 2023, just four months after the release of "Speak Now (Taylor's Version).' That was the same year Swift claimed the record for the woman with the most No. 1 albums in history.
Kuwait Times
06-08-2025
- Kuwait Times
Dutch windmill village churned by overtourism debate
With its historic windmills and gabled wooden houses nestling by a meandering river, the picture-perfect and TikTok-famous area of Zaanse Schans is a must-see for any visitor to the Netherlands. But the village of centuries-old buildings near Amsterdam has become 'a national symbol of overtourism', according to local authorities, who now want to charge a hotly contested entrance fee. The fierce debate over the 17.50-euro ($20) ticket planned for next year comes during a global backlash against mass tourism that has seen hotspots like Venice charge for day trips. On a glorious summer day when AFP visited, long queues for the world-famous windmills snaked outside the doors and crowds shuffled over bridges, waiting in line for Instagram-ready snaps of the bucolic scenery. Buses disgorge scores of day-tripping tourists all day long, packing into a relatively small area that is public and free to visit - for now. The council in nearby Zaanstad says the fee is vital to preserve the heritage buildings, which are coming under 'severe pressure' from high tourist numbers. 'For several years now, the Zaanse Schans has been a national symbol of overtourism,' said alderman Wessel Breunesse. Around 2.6 million tourists visited last year, a figure set to rise to three million in coming years if nothing is done, the council says. An entrance fee could reduce the annual volume to around 1.8 million and bring in millions of euros to preserve these historic buildings. 'Doing nothing is not an option. Without sufficient resources for adequate maintenance, the heritage will be lost in the short term (five to seven years),' said the council in a statement sent to AFP. Tourists take a picture of a windmill in Zaanse Schans. Tourists walk in front of windmills in Zaanse Schans. Tourists take a picture in front of windmills in Zaanse Schans. A staff worker operates a windmill in Zaanse Schans. Tourists take pictures of their ice cream in Zaanse Schans. Tourists are seen visiting windmills in Zaanse Schans. Tourism-dependent economy What many tourists do not know until they arrive is that while many of the buildings date from the 16th century, the site itself is a recent and artificial oddity. After World War II, traditional timber construction was in danger of dying out for good. Eager to preserve this slice of history, local mayor Joris in 't Veld came up with a plan: he would uproot the houses and relocate them to a new protected site. The first mill arrived in 1955, the first house a few years later. Eventually, the 'Zaanse Schans' site was famous enough to be officially 'opened' by Queen Juliana in 1972. 'The Zaanse Schans was never conceived as the international crowd-puller it is today, attracting millions of visitors from all over the world,' noted alderman Breunesse. But for local resident and businesswoman Ingrid Kraakman, the plan to charge an entrance fee would spell disaster, both as a citizen and for the cheese shop in which she works. 'As a resident from this area, I don't want to live behind a fence... that's not OK,' the 62-year-old told AFP from her 17th-century home in the heart of Zaanse Schans. Kraakman and her husband Ko have lived in the area for 33 years and believe an entrance fee would be a death blow for the local economy and jobs. 'There's a lot of fear,' she said, estimating that around 80 percent of the local economy is dependent on tourism. Her cheese shop is brimming with tourists, attracted by free samples and souvenirs, but she said the fee would be a major drag on spending. A family of four would already be paying around 80 euros with parking, reducing their budget for on-site purchases, she noted. 'They don't buy cheese. They don't buy clocks. They buy a souvenir or maybe the smallest cheese there is,' she told AFP. Referendum demand The Kraakmans have collected more than 2,000 signatures for a referendum on the issue, but their push has so far fallen on deaf ears in the town hall. Aware of some local hostility, the council has pledged the site will stay free for locals and that there will be no physical fence around the area. Although the plans are for next year, an amendment was introduced to allow for the possibility of delays. Now 2026 seems too short a deadline - a 'moonshot', said one local official on condition of anonymity. Most tourists said the trip would be worth it even if they had to pay. Spanish visitor Robert Duque told AFP: 'It's a lovely place but sometimes it's too crowded and you don't really get to enjoy the full experience.' The 35-year-old operations manager said he would welcome the entrance fee to crimp tourist volumes. 'I think it's good, so we can stagger the arrival of guests and we can enjoy the facilities more,' said Duque. — AFP
