Visual storyteller Taiwo Aina Adeokun spent several months traveling across Nigeria in 2025-2026, documenting parts of the country where large amounts of smoke containing black carbon, a sooty pollutant, are part of daily life.
In some cases, soot comes from the Nigerian tradition of smoked cooking. In other regions, it is a byproduct of the country’s oil industry.
“I couldn’t stay in the smoke for too long because my eyes were watery and red and I was coughing.” Aina Adekun told Mongabay by phone.
“I’m sure that if we do a medical scan, we’ll find systemic effects, including respiratory problems. But most people there have been in this business for decades, so they’re used to being in the smoke. ”
“When we breathe in[soot particles]they get into our lungs and affect our respiratory health,” Tom Grylls, an air pollution expert with the Clean Air Foundation, told Mongabay on a video call. “However, because they are so small, they can pass beyond the lungs and into the bloodstream, and are therefore associated with effects on the heart and nervous system.”
Black carbon mainly affects low-income households with limited access to electricity. It also particularly affects women, as many residential exposures occur during cooking. This is a task primarily performed by women in many cultures.
Port Harcourt in Rivers State, a region of Nigeria about 500 kilometers (310 miles) southeast of Lagos, is also famous for smoked dishes such as cow hides.
Burning wood gives the dish its characteristic smoky flavor. Household electricity and gas with low soot emissions are expensive and not common in the region. However, even those who can afford these heat sources often prefer charcoal because of the flavor it imparts to the food.
“They didn’t see (smoke) as a problem. They saw it as their lifestyle. That was really impressive to me.” Always Adeoku Said.
“I once traveled for a long time and left my foam mattress against the wall,” Happiness Gift, a resident of K Dere village in Ogoniland, Nigeria, told Aina Adeokun. “When I came back nine months later, the mattress had turned black.”
“It’s hard to know when (soot) has affected someone, unless they get black soot in their nose or cough up black particles,” Gift added.
Indrama Eleme Petrochemicals Ltd. will burn gas at its Port Harcourt refinery. Gogo Apollos, a biochemist at Rivers State University in Nigeria, wipes his hands in a nearby car, showing the soot on his hands.
“Nigeria is one of the largest oil producers and people in these regions have been suffering from the effects of soot for decades.” Aina Adekun told Mongabay.
Rivers State in Nigeria is rich in oil resources. For years, illegal and legal refineries have extracted and burned petroleum products, causing widespread soot pollution in the region. Government crackdowns on illegal refinery sites have reduced soot levels over the past four to five years.
Banner image: Portrait of Antonia Aconas. All images courtesy of Taiwo Aina-Adeokun/Climate Visuals.
