Made in Nigeria

Duress and Upwardly Mobile Youth in the Biography of a Young Entrepreneur in Enugu

in Conflict and Society
Author:
Inge Ligtvoet Leiden University i.j.g.c.ligtvoet@hum.leidenuniv.nl

Search for other papers by Inge Ligtvoet in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Close
Restricted access

Abstract

What does duress mean in the lives of those who are not by definition understood to be living in duress—namely, upwardly mobile young people in a relatively peaceful city in southeast Nigeria? In this article, I try to answer that question by presenting the life story of Azu, a young designer in Enugu who has made his way out of a poverty-stricken background through a relatively successful entrepreneurship.His biography, based on interviews and observations, and partially through a shared experience of constraint in Nigeria, serves as an example of duress in the lives of those who—by family, educational background, or career success—are considered “well-off” compared with most youths in the country. I argue that duress for these youths is informed by social expectations due to their acquired status as much as by the sociopolitical uncertainties that they have been confronted with throughout their lives.

Contributor Notes

INGE LIGTVOET is a PhD candidate at the Leiden University Institute for History. She is currently writing her dissertation on the ways in which upwardly mobile youth in southeast Nigeria navigate their lives in a context of experiencing long-term socioeconomic uncertainty and political insecurity. The dissertation has a particular focus on young people’s use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), especially social media like Facebook and WhatsApp. Email: i.j.g.c.ligtvoet@hum.leidenuniv.nl

  • Collapse
  • Expand

Conflict and Society

Advances in Research

  • Apitzsch, Ursula, and Irini Siouti. 2007. “Biographical Analysis as an Interdisciplinary Research Perspective in the Field of Migration Studies.” Unpublished manuscript. http://www.york.ac.uk/res/researchintegration/Integrative_Research_Methods/Apitzsch%20Biographical%20Analysis%20April%202007.pdf.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Barman, Roderick. 2010. “Biography as History.Journal of the Canadian Historical Association / Revue de La Societé Historique Du Canada 21 (2): 6175. https://doi.org/10.7202/1003088ar.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • BattaBox. 2016. “CRAZY: How Nigerians Struggle with Power-Cuts Every Day.” Video, 10:02. Posted 31 March. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIhcI17GuWI.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Bayart, Jean-François. 1993. The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly. London: Longman.

  • Bouju, Jacky, and Mirjam de Bruijn. 2014. Ordinary Violence and Social Change in Africa. Leiden: Brill.

  • Buitelaar, Marjo. 2014. “‘Discovering a Different Me’: Discursive Positioning in Life Story Telling over Time.” Women’s Studies International Forum 43 (3): 3037.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Davies, James. 2010. “Introduction. Emotions in the FieldIn Davies and Spencer 2010: 134.

  • Davies, James, and Dimitrina Spencer, eds. 2010. Emotions in the Field: The Psychology and Anthropology of Fieldwork Experience. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • de Certeau, Michel. 1984. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: University of California Press.

  • FRN (Federal Republic of Nigeria). 1998. National Policy on Education. 3rd ed. Yaba: Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Imam, Hauwa. 2012. “Educational Policy in Nigeria from the Colonial Era to the Post-independence Period.Italian Journal of Sociology of Education 1: 181204.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Iwilade, Akin. 2013. “Crisis as Opportunity: Youth, Social Media and the Renegotiation of Power in Africa.” Journal of Youth Studies 16 (8): 10541068. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2013.772572.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Jackson, Michael. 1998. Minima Ethnographica: Intersubjectivity and the Anthropological Project. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

  • Jackson, Michael. 2010. “From Anxiety to Method in Anthropological Fieldwork: An Appraisal of George Devereux’s Enduring Ideas.” In Davies and Spencer 2010: 3554.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Johnson-Hanks, Jennifer. 2002. “On the Limits of Life Stages in Ethnography: Toward a Theory of Vital Conjunctures.” American Anthropologist 104 (3): 865880. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.2002.104.3.865.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Leavitt, John. 1996. “Meaning and Feeling in the Anthropology of Emotions.” American Ethnologist 23 (3): 51439. https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.1996.23.3.02a00040.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Ligtvoet, Inge, and Loes Oudenhuijsen. 2018. “Jeunesse Rebelle? Médias sociaux, leadership charismatique, et jeunes ‘radicalisés’ lors des manifestations de 2015 au Biafra” [Rebel youth? Social media, charismatic leadership, and ‘radicalized’ youth at 2015 Biafra events]. In Biographies de la radicalisation: Des messages cachés du changement social [Biographies of radicalization: Messages of social change], ed. Mirjam de Bruijn, 157179. Bamenda, Cameroon: Langaa RPCIG.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Napolitano, Valentina, and David Pratten. 2007. “Michel de Certeau: Ethnography and the Challenge of Plurality.” Social Anthropology 15 (1): 112. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8676.2007.00005.x.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • NBS (National Bureau of Statistics). 2018. “Key Statistics > Unemployment.” Accessed 12 August. http://www.nigerianstat.gov.ng.

  • Reynolds Whyte, Susan. 2009. “Epilogue.” In Dealing with Uncertainty in Contemporary African Lives, ed. Liv Haram and C. Bawa Yamba, 213216. Stockholm: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Rosenthal, Gabriele. 2004. “Biographical Research.” In Qualitative Research Practice, ed. Clive Seale, Giampietro Gobo, Jaber F. Gubrium, and David Silverman, 4864. London: Sage.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Smith, Daniel Jordan. 2007. A Culture of Corruption. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

  • Svašek, Maruška, and Zlatko Skrbiš. 2007. “Passions and Powers: Emotions and Globalisation.” Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 14 (4): 367383. https://doi.org/10.1080/10702890701578415

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

Metrics

All Time Past Year Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 3517 1897 119
Full Text Views 47 4 0
PDF Downloads 47 8 0