Urbanites and the ideology of home: Engaging with a sociocultural issue in Nigerian Cities

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2011 in the subject Ethnology / Cultural Anthropology, University of Ibadan, course: Anthropology, language: English, abstract: This paper, through a qualitative study conducted in Ajegunle, an urban slum in Lagos, Nigeria, dwells on the notion of urbanism as a product of urban-rural interaction. It specifically focuses on the rural elements in the urban, explaining how the rural is exploited for creating the network that is crucial for social and economic survival in cities marked by impersonal relationship. The paper further examines the ideology of home, explicating on the factors that make urban dwellers to construct their identity mostly in rural terms. The paper concludes by reflecting on the strong allegiance of Nigerians to their rural origins and the implication of this for a sense of nationalism.