In August 2015, I took a train across Nigeria. I’d always wanted to go, and only managed to finally make it on my third try.  

It was my first try with a formal letter of permission from the Nigerian Railway Corporation, addressed to the attention of HEAD RAIDING SQUAD / CHIEF HEAD GUARD.  

The colonial rail line reopened in 2012 when it was rehabilitated by the Chinese after years of disrepair. It's an epic journey from Lagos, the hub of growth and change and the center of the New Africa, to Kano, an ancient but impoverished trading city at the foot of the Sahara desert struggling against Boko Haram.  

The 720-mile journey takes anywhere from 36 hours to four days.  

The north and south are essentially two different entities, and this epic journey is a chance to see all that’s pushing forward towards progress and all the complicated reasons things are held back.  

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This work was commissioned by the New York Times Magazine for their first ever Voyages issue.