Youth, Football and Everyday Lived Experience in Ajegunle, Lagos

Bibliographic Data

ID2173302
AuthorsPatrick Okpalaeke (0000-0003-2417-6863, University of Uyo)
Year2022
Volume34
Issue1
Pages68-79
Publication date2022-01-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of African Cultural Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1369-6815 • E-ISSN: 1469-9346
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13696815.2021.1960488
OpenAlexW3201342795
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited19

This article presents in-depth insights into how soccer is helping some of the youths in Ajegunle – Nigeria's most notorious slum – to defy the odds in their day-to-day lived experiences. Through an ethnography informed by personal and in-depth knowledge of the area, I demonstrate how football has become an important social tool for many youths in terms of social inclusion, capital, and identity formation, as well as serving as a beacon of hope for the most vulnerable. Contrary to popular expressions in existing scholarship on the Nigerian slum life, portraying slum-marked areas as dens of juvenile delinquency and negative social attributes, I show that community-based soccer clubs (despite the absence of government interventions) are helping many young people to navigate the hurdles of slum life through a more-positive medium. I argue that soccer in Ajegunle plays a multidimensional role in the lives of young people, especially in the area of social inclusion and re-engineering, as well as a social mechanism for personal development, identity and capital formation

Ethnography · Everyday life · Football · Government (linguistics · Identity (music · Participant observation · Political science · Population · Public relations · Scholarship · Slum · Social capital · Social science · Sociology · Youth engagement · African history and culture studies · Anthropology · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society · Gender Studies

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