Edmond fortier and the lagos tram (1908)

The French photographer Edmond Fortier, who lived and worked in Dakar (Senegal) from the 1900s, produced more than 3,000 pictures/postcards during his extensive trips in French West Africa. While his photographs are celebrated today in scholarly and commercial circles, his 1908 series of twenty-two Lagos pictures has not so far attracted the attention it deserves. Partly representing views from the Lagos steam tram and partly depicting the tramline as a background feature, this photographic series constitutes one of the rare pieces of contemporary evidence that relates to the tram. Operating between 1902 and 1933, the history of this line has hardly been researched as well. This commentary reflects on the historiography of these two relatively unknown episodes in colonial West Africa: That of Fortier’s visit in Lagos and the subsequent series of photographs; and that of the Lagos steam tramway which served as their background.