0:00

this message comes from npr sponsor bleecker,

0:02

street presenting the film mr malcolm's

0:05

list when rejected by 1818,

0:07

london's most eligible, bachelor, julia

0:10

seeks revenge by convincing her friend

0:12

to play the role of his match now,

0:14

playing only in theaters

0:17

legos is the city of travelers hoping

0:20

to either

0:20

the find a lock or make it from scratch

0:22

you listening to rough translation from

0:25

npr every few

0:26

the it i discontent

0:29

with my stayed pretty lives

0:31

in london i wonder if wonder if

0:33

be

0:33

the lakers play the simpsons

0:35

to be happening

0:38

this is from an essay called frontier town we

0:40

encountered in the travel quarterly strangers

0:44

the , she boon do a new zone thinks

0:46

longingly of the city of her birth lagos

0:48

in nigeria but she's also wary

0:50

of who she might become if she left london

0:53

and move back home we asked her to read

0:55

this excerpt

0:56

lagos is the only place i know

0:58

whether now

0:59

the oppressor is used as a

1:01

compliment for most

1:03

people the tude creep up

1:05

on you without you even noticing

1:09

will you become illegal the

1:12

mood defense to get the more

1:14

difference you get the more likely

1:16

at the end of an oppressor on

1:18

you deliberately swim against

1:20

the tide of cultural expectations

1:25

they become an oppressor if i moved to

1:27

lagos

1:31

my instinct or egalitarian

1:33

life is a lot easier in there goes limp

1:35

people perceive

1:36

you have money the police tulsi

1:39

with respect

1:40

you don't wait for hours in the bank

1:42

i not do this about myself when i'm in legal

1:46

i stopped caring more about my clothes

1:48

my shoes what legal

1:50

sense would call my packaging

1:54

they go feels like home to her but with legos change

1:56

her where chip away at the version

1:58

of herself that she wanted to be

2:01

in usa to boon to talk about one

2:03

person from whom she might seek advice

2:06

on this question her older brother

2:08

chino other a new so ten years

2:10

her senior

2:12

we were properly when i was a young adults and

2:14

he was taking his first steps into a career

2:17

and private equity by

2:19

the time i was in boarding school in england

2:21

and he had returned to legos to become a full

2:24

time hustler it seemed

2:26

to me

2:27

mm brother, she has a side hustle

2:29

that she calls it is trying to transform

2:32

the landscape nigerian cinema, to

2:34

make nigerian films for export he

2:36

produced the wedding party, which is one of

2:38

the highest grossing nigerian film, any

2:40

sex films on netflix and amazon prime

2:42

if anyone had some advice for her

2:45

about the price of making it in lagos, he

2:47

might in

2:49

legos, everything is heightened but,

2:51

i i live feverish

2:53

pitch for longer than a three-week

2:55

holiday that's another

2:58

thing

2:58

i want to know

3:00

the better the other three novels the first

3:02

of which when the betty trask awards and was shortlisted

3:04

for the dylan thomas prize she's also frequent

3:06

contributor to the guardian and other outlets

3:09

where she often writes about nigeria

3:11

there was much she did not know about her own

3:13

brother story how exactly

3:15

he'd written up and lagos and what

3:17

he had to confront about himself

3:20

hm how you

3:23

that our the a comment on that to i can

3:25

see your stack of books and i was like it's

3:27

a very big stack of books

3:31

this is rough translation of go everywhere

3:33

if you've ever that yourself the need to be hustling

3:36

more but worry that hustling my

3:38

turn you into a hustler or something that you're

3:40

not that's exactly what she boon

3:42

to sell going into this conversation with her brother

3:45

their conversation with so thoughtful and wide ranging

3:47

we're going to play an extended excerpt of it here

3:50

victim with you boon his own writings and

3:52

then we're going to check back in the to punto about how

3:54

this conversation changed her it's

3:56

ourselves of works on rough translation

3:59

back

4:12

requests and flower have always been

4:14

at the center of the biggest conflicts an american

4:16

citizen schools this summer school

4:18

colors the new series some coast which an npr

4:21

take you to the front lines of that struggle will

4:23

explore how one district in the most diverse

4:25

place in the world confronted divers he plans

4:27

that opens up new and old wounds

4:30

listen to school colors right into code sweet

4:32

spot test

4:34

we're back with rough translation and

4:36

gregory warner hebrew do had lots

4:38

of questions for older brother about the

4:40

person he had become in lagos that

4:43

she started the conversation at the beginning who

4:45

was he when he first less nigeria

4:47

at age fifteen seems the england

4:50

when you were fifteen to go to boarding school

4:52

just sayin winchester

4:54

and will about like when i was a winchester

4:57

i was from nigeria so

4:59

basically so basically a completely different experience

5:02

than three much everybody else in school and

5:04

odyssey we know you like your siblings

5:06

the us to nasa

5:08

where everybody in the industry

5:10

and rest of your friends now call you know

5:12

as and if i'm again i'm only

5:14

missing this of but as you like the name

5:16

as

5:16

the him from winchester college is this

5:18

true so basically

5:21

full there was this thing that they

5:23

did was we were a winchester

5:25

where they used to give the

5:27

black kids nicknames

5:30

after he was weird don't ask me why it's

5:32

so they basically said all be

5:34

should call you will and i'm like no

5:37

i don't anything like will smith that so random

5:39

and then they when i go but we cannot pronounce your

5:41

name tunnel guys to develop it finds you

5:44

can call me as that were and that

5:46

methodist weird that as also have now

5:48

let's find something that's like listening

5:50

like a rapper and then like yes but with is

5:52

that so that's mr de howard's doc

5:55

okay i'm just saying your friends

5:57

that you're boarding school wanted to call you will

6:00

because you are black and that this

6:02

is worried but as he added those are like a generational

6:04

thing i'm like definitely a much younger

6:06

millennials i used to i'm south sinks

6:09

micro aggressor on from the rooftops

6:11

been permitted so i mean i

6:13

suppose is war by anyways are not

6:16

fair that sir i went are examined

6:18

my life oh boy here

6:23

right right sequencers

6:25

one of the old as boarding schools in the world that

6:27

you go to duke then you guess it must

6:30

says affirm did

6:32

you was that another culture shock for your

6:34

or had to do so

6:36

the com our climate ice it is very privileged

6:38

very wide sort of species by going

6:41

to winchester says trial really

6:43

yeah really very privileged very white

6:45

really yeah yeah yeah okay so

6:48

but as the think do so as to let me put

6:50

it differently so one of the things

6:52

that would just that does that it expects you to conquer

6:54

the what like comfort one like it basically says

6:57

you are a member so this

6:59

is it is going to sound a certain way

7:01

but that you a member of the elites

7:04

go on dates and so if

7:07

so if you do the work

7:09

you can achieve anything you put your mind right

7:12

i then apply for jobs it's not

7:14

two or three interviews it's ten

7:17

right you name it i interviewed

7:19

deutsche bank jp morgan

7:22

credit suisse a

7:24

city by more marines

7:26

morgan stanley etc etc

7:29

that know no offense like literally

7:33

my brother moved back to nigeria

7:35

after graduating with an economics degree

7:38

from an american university and a masters

7:40

from a british university

7:42

the knew what he had to offer and if you

7:44

failed to hire him or was your

7:46

loss not his

7:48

the extreme confidence is

7:50

typical of liquor cents

7:54

the

7:56

man behind my own self confidence

7:58

eroded by live

7:59

in london where i am honestly

8:01

minority and i , some

8:04

of that lagos mentality a

8:06

micro aggression is somebody elses

8:08

problem not mine i

8:10

know why am i know what i'm capable

8:12

of

8:13

if you don't recognize it the out

8:16

of here

8:21

that in the that it's like you're having

8:23

next go so the let's go further with the

8:25

next five to ten years is basically

8:27

build out a global creator from my trip

8:30

to that uncle right about how the koreans

8:32

have done the british have done syrians have

8:34

done we wanted basically build global

8:36

creators from nigeria that living

8:39

up to the us just want to enable the creation

8:41

of that

8:41

that it is also like my my whole

8:44

thing with see that i find fascinating about use

8:46

because

8:48

i don't think as an outsider he would

8:50

have been able to break into the

8:53

hollywood film into sealed assume interesting

8:55

to you too

8:55

i can't think of

8:57

many producers in the uk about

8:59

would have a string of films or television

9:02

psych student goes to film school you

9:04

don't know dispersing you know you know that person

9:06

i just say oh i want to make films i'm

9:09

so yeah i guess is to questions you want

9:11

how did you break into the diggers film industry

9:14

the one of the things about

9:16

so ministers and get like the

9:18

more structured it is the hardest to break

9:21

him right in general because the

9:23

forest and you're hired just by the nature

9:25

of it's in the us and uk like both

9:27

those and to printers over there special

9:30

but a nigeria everybody's

9:32

an interpreter your i mean because we

9:35

believe that that is the culture is

9:37

doesn't like nigeria rewards and

9:39

subpoena ship but paradoxically

9:41

measure our also punish

9:44

his failure a lot the rest

9:46

of success or hi to be to figure out

9:48

also high or so people

9:50

are like i cannot feel and

9:52

i must succeed culprit of the reason

9:54

why i wanted to how's this causes

9:56

some b c is sporadically

9:59

every to

9:59

two years i think would

10:02

life be like if like moved back to

10:05

nigeria

10:06

then use of images in gosh i wish

10:09

i hadn't moved back to nature

10:11

no

10:12

when i mean okay i think that back though

10:15

it's a supergroup of so

10:17

when i'm back the

10:19

car that was available for me to drive was

10:22

this oh so my up my uncle

10:24

of a frog legs me is

10:27

o max amount

10:29

of the as an old car they were

10:31

coming home on sodomy lamb bridge

10:34

and there was a broken

10:36

down struck on the side of

10:38

the road on ,

10:41

how that lights know coach

10:43

sean know nothing he was just putting

10:45

your throat throat then i saw

10:47

it and then i tried to change

10:49

leave the bus left to meet you know

10:51

let's me literally

10:54

would like a molecule but he can you will

10:56

not over take me i'm gonna win

10:58

divorced sped up so

11:00

literally that was our describe as crass

11:03

because it was drive ice next to be

11:05

was refusing to let near so

11:07

litter the i have to speed up as

11:09

well rounded missed it by

11:12

insists right and

11:14

are answered right was my job coach i did not show

11:19

maybe don't like two months after i was back injury

11:21

your macros employees why didn't you slow

11:24

down know

11:26

, i could have no no

11:28

how could a could no

11:33

no no no no

11:35

so i was because he wouldn't

11:37

have worked as

11:40

it has been able to next sex

11:43

in that

11:45

in a split second assessment slowing

11:47

down have been worse

11:48

okay cause i you that's i'm a type

11:51

pretty well you both to buy the next week

11:53

we i was no no and i

11:55

will risk my life but i'm gonna win know

11:58

i mean age as age

11:59

they looked at his like that of the nicest been

12:02

nice had a decision was like yet so

12:04

i'm in their few times when you're was go rob

12:07

like but stuff like that but thanks least i haven't

12:09

been robbed in traffic i mean they've knocked on my window couple

12:11

of times the size of things i was at a bar

12:13

when robbers were outside

12:15

i guess this is a wild west seeing

12:17

that sort of does make me apprehensive

12:20

that moving back to so like legal

12:21

like yoda thing cause it in comedies

12:23

and yeah i was in a bar they were robbers outside

12:26

on yes not bad idea but is

12:28

so i'm like

12:30

i did i but i

12:32

am i ready to just accept that

12:34

that would be does it passes the background

12:38

the wild west at least that's

12:41

of hollywood's imagining a man

12:43

could walk into walk saloon for saloon drink and

12:45

end up so that by an outlaw

12:49

a liver

12:50

a person can drive to work one day and

12:53

end up

12:53

the traffic at gunpoint

12:55

the certain

12:56

it's an honor to almost dying

12:59

and then carrying on as is nothing has happened

13:02

the ghosts of don't have a stiff upper lip

13:05

the appellate are made of concrete but

13:08

at what cost

13:14

i do our duty cop local citizens where

13:16

you basically called me a slacker

13:18

though your house so

13:20

i wouldn't use the what's like habits of our most

13:22

there is beulah that the

13:24

what i have said i'm is

13:27

that you should go for

13:29

the things that you want that

13:32

was one of them because you always choose when

13:34

the daniel bryan one the

13:37

would like this conflict you shy away from the conflict

13:39

as though my general point is that he should

13:41

have won it with of public is part of the thing that you

13:43

want there's go down the great dogs

13:46

one way or another

13:47

the basically i need to step on their

13:49

salaries so when define is next to me

13:51

instead of pressing the brakes

13:54

basically i need to get more that's not

13:56

i'm going hillary pass you

13:59

know as or

13:59

anything that see that

14:02

the think that different hazards of printers and

14:04

i'm an entrepreneur somebody will see was so passionate

14:06

about a problem that the think daddy only

14:09

one who can solve it's it's it's actually

14:11

divorced from what that the accuracy

14:13

without the i what am i would you have his belief

14:16

on nazis

14:16

the not i mean that many things i believe

14:19

you know i believe that okay

14:21

that the uk government is is that

14:23

policy towards young people is

14:25

faulty that many death

14:27

they should be doing to me to the young from in this country

14:29

have more opportunities

14:30

i believe it but am i going to believe

14:32

this

14:32

those two actually got time for going into country

14:35

i don't know what i'd be more likely to the

14:37

politics and i do i think i would know

14:40

but let me ask you a question is is a progressive

14:42

between two cents if he went

14:44

to what's your council your

14:47

local governments so if you went

14:49

there are you what's up to them and said

14:52

i want to do x y z

14:54

has a proposed that i was going after school saying

14:56

what does that ended up with they say no

14:59

no they wouldn't say niceties know they

15:01

know they would is a new the only senior

15:03

i'm your rights are city

15:06

though

15:06

then as after you stop the series

15:09

as a celebrity also you they all

15:11

can you give me x amount of pounds haven't

15:13

piloted in eggs savvy tickets

15:15

citywide how we take his house

15:18

he was terminated listen way

15:20

you really believe that that was what you should

15:22

do you have you can do

15:24

it you just don't be easy enough

15:27

for use against us

15:29

, to my to know where i guess

15:31

it up my points as

15:33

like as wanted to do something like

15:36

the council was sceptical

15:49

rough translation also

15:51

needs a break just a short one will be right

15:53

back

16:03

we're back with rough translation of

16:05

gregory warner

16:06

when she boondi told her brother that she'd be

16:08

more likely to enter politics if

16:10

she lived in nigeria that's a trend

16:12

that she's seen before this a long

16:15

history of right says

16:17

guessing your foes in politics

16:19

in nigeria look because they want

16:21

to but just because they feel compelled

16:23

to she

16:26

points out the nigerian writer wireless

16:28

link a was in prison during the nigerian

16:31

civil war chinois chevy

16:33

campaigns internationally for be offering independence

16:35

and albums also not the city sink a

16:37

and she'll be i just to very prominent

16:40

examples but there are others

16:43

because of the prominence you're racing gives

16:45

you you can't stand on the sidelines

16:48

when push comes to so whereas in

16:50

this context by i don't think people expect

16:52

a derisive today is even if you do write

16:54

about politics and in london for example

16:57

i don't think anyone did expect ceases to

16:59

then gone

17:07

in strangers guy their say that introduced

17:09

us to to burn do she worried that lagos

17:11

would chip away at her moral stance turner

17:14

slowly into an oppressor flashing

17:16

the outward signs of success in exchange

17:18

for access this is the flip side

17:21

that fear that she feel obligated

17:23

in lagos to become a reformer something

17:25

that she doesn't feel quite ready for in

17:27

nigeria or in england if

17:30

you are it for this call with her brother should actually

17:33

gone to her local youth center in london

17:36

and volunteer to organize a mentorship program

17:38

for the summer either , it's

17:40

author has a meeting at i go home

17:42

i was like

17:44

what's on my gotten myself

17:46

into have i take it on

17:48

our rights a t dot sigma i'm things and was the

17:50

cs and then i love that i was like how

17:52

they just over promised see

17:55

felt cel stout as soon

17:58

as you put action

17:59

to your belief

18:01

hundred since

18:03

and then immediately is the only got

18:05

a it's a what was

18:07

that doubt around was hiding like ceiling

18:10

the world

18:11

i don't like sitting that a team on two

18:13

months which is why she worried about moving

18:15

to nigeria were seen that all her friends

18:18

and family were taking on as much as possible

18:20

is twenty two bottles about how late

18:22

oh you don't have to turn every

18:25

hobby

18:26

into a job that as capitalism

18:28

that makes issue like npc do enjoy doing

18:30

you have to monetize it's and

18:33

some people to buy that in the western world but

18:35

like illegals this is to the like times

18:37

ten say you know year

18:40

end zone a

18:42

in seeing ice cream said

18:45

now you're going to have to have

18:47

about eating ice cream and sell advertising

18:49

about like sides as one it's

18:51

i have vanilla ice cream specific

18:54

stop button we turned into like you fight

18:56

both of my league us is like this

18:58

is your site opens every

18:59

when you these are the only getting something

19:01

and she will do hundred did she have the energy

19:04

to live in a place where everyone's finding their hustle

19:06

everyone's pressing their advantage so

19:09

busy that jumps raised code signs

19:11

of i

19:12

so what is effectively means is that

19:14

everybody's out there to take advantage

19:17

of right so you have to live your

19:19

lives accordingly but

19:21

that was one one of the

19:23

lf it's just that i made was to not

19:26

do that

19:27

you know the tells the story about when he first

19:29

moved in a jury of his early twenties the

19:31

hired a motorbike driver and okada

19:33

driver to take him a fairly long distance

19:36

the right to almost an hour before

19:38

they sit out they settled on a price of hundred

19:40

nearer which back then was worth

19:43

about one dollar

19:44

the ones interests me like

19:46

our guy said as boss it

19:49

says it's very very far please

19:51

add something for me if

19:53

the lair and i said no ragweed

19:55

hundred and i would hundred and i walked away in

19:58

there would have made no difference but

20:00

the idea in my head was the i had

20:03

told you this was face and

20:05

i had over shorts what

20:07

was reasonable based on appraised but since

20:09

we agreed it was made for sense

20:11

for me to be like you kind of obvious that i walked

20:14

away and i was like no

20:16

passage about what our mid old defense

20:19

in his life for for you just

20:22

he doesn't get him that extra fifteen that's been

20:24

an argument so at i always remember that because

20:26

that is the consequences always

20:29

winning you end up in these weird

20:31

zero sum game that don't have to

20:34

, myself about

20:36

they have that this need to win at all

20:39

costs is that limit as

20:41

most interesting like

20:43

added value in sometimes

20:45

you might lose because someone

20:48

might take advantage of you but

20:50

what you'd lose by being hired all the

20:52

time is even greater

20:53

the question is always what do you

20:55

believe in what do you believe

20:58

to be true that no one else does right

21:01

that is between right and that is one minute to

21:03

know and that is what is because someone

21:06

so the question that question was the second what do

21:08

you believe in

21:13

i think is is been isolated

21:15

good to hear where you're thing about

21:17

about believe i think i do have

21:20

more self doubts

21:22

done you

21:23

maybe you do how self doubts are

21:25

you don't present

21:26

that's much i think i

21:28

do venture the sort of like

21:31

myself into going on the

21:33

was i want but i think i do it is a

21:35

lot more hand wringing and

21:37

likes or is is the right decision

21:40

on said i said not i don't

21:42

know

21:43

people will look down on business of

21:45

big shots because of this in this our

21:48

it is like conviction is a fool's

21:50

errand and you really be sure can you know

21:53

you but you cannot know but what do

21:55

you believe and what are you willing

21:57

to do to make you have to be happy because

21:59

ritual of your belief is

22:02

how much are you willing to to fight to

22:04

be tested

22:07

the buddha i wanna ask you bet

22:10

this last part of your conversation with your brother

22:12

about police because

22:14

when i listened back i think a second

22:17

or third time i started hearing you guys discussing

22:19

police in a in a bigger

22:22

way

22:24

something like about believes that wasn't

22:26

just about success

22:28

or making it i think we're talking

22:30

about how do you do something

22:33

the see you

22:35

believe in you see not talking

22:37

about making money and or

22:40

pricey bus or whatever it's as if

22:42

you have something

22:45

you see or think you

22:47

want to do how

22:49

does this thing move from a name

22:51

dear into certain

22:56

i think that saw it to he

22:58

about to do new came into

23:00

this conversation with a brother doubting

23:03

that she had the energy to hack it in

23:05

a place as entrepreneurial as

23:07

lagers the talking to her brother she

23:09

remembered how she feels whenever she goes

23:11

back home for the feel

23:14

more confidence

23:16

the putting a city i went

23:18

to

23:20

the airport

23:22

and

23:23

the guy who was taking our passports when

23:25

i landed illegals

23:27

he wasn't wearing a uniform

23:30

and i told him off

23:32

i know that why you

23:33

the uniform you should be wear uniforms and

23:36

anything i wouldn't dare do that added

23:38

regress dug in london but

23:40

, i just how this was a coincidence

23:42

of i am home you know nobody

23:45

can tell me anything this is my country

23:47

i love my energies it because

23:49

his big to wonder energy to serve

23:52

as it's nice to the world very confidently

23:55

in confidently am i am trying to put some

23:57

of that energy here as well and cities

23:59

here

23:59

to london she meets that's your plan now she

24:02

still not quite ready to move to legos that

24:05

you go try to import that confidence and

24:07

that energy to make a small difference

24:09

in her adopted country hebrew do

24:11

told our producer justine yeah that

24:13

despite her dad's she is going ahead the summer

24:15

with the mentorship program

24:17

the youth center like the amount of

24:19

effort you put into his shoes

24:21

how much a nice you house and

24:25

you're an he's right thus not illegal

24:27

the nicely you to think us to slake

24:29

it has to be site is about what's inside

24:32

you and you was into did this summer

24:34

i it's gonna be good and i think i

24:36

should be a game loves my brother has affected

24:38

me so this is your side

24:40

, ha , ha

24:42

i didn't have to live feather

24:45

the do strong but them

24:47

this

25:01

the next episode of at work how do

25:03

you drive and eighteen wheel truck while

25:06

the same time home schooling your kid

25:08

you know we've had dry erase markers

25:10

where she is just writing down the side

25:13

of the window a math problem that

25:15

she's struggling with and so we're walking through it together

25:17

women truckers tell their stories

25:19

of freedom and loneliness in the long

25:21

haul that's next week on

25:24

rough translation

25:42

this episode was produced by justin un

25:44

cobbler grass and our lead producer adeline

25:46

a lanci nice edited by bruce

25:48

auster is our senior supervising producer

25:51

the rough transition team us includes louis stress

25:53

tests of the only nick i'm nervous and busker

25:55

chowder editorial insight from

25:58

sound across the cause

25:59

good a that is a below

26:04

do one uso is not only a writer she's also

26:06

a singer in fact this is one of her tracks

26:09

called coming home

26:18

vk to the magazine strangers guide

26:20

where we sounds produced as a if you don't

26:22

have strangers guide we're big fans of it's here rough

26:24

translation they devote each issue

26:26

to a single place and then they commissioned local

26:29

writers and journalists to talk about that

26:31

place very thoughtful beautiful

26:33

photos circular saw

26:37

john ellis composer theme music additional

26:39

he's very first com is akin to that sessions

26:41

mastering by just new of fact checking

26:43

by fact the poor a sad legal guidance from

26:45

michael ratner and eduardo me sally and

26:48

pure standards editor is tony cabin

26:50

emily bogle or visuals editor for supervising

26:53

producer as the on as since trump or senior

26:55

vice president for programming is on

26:57

your grandma

26:59

i'm gregory warner back next

27:01

week with more accurate from

27:03

rough translation