This study animates the crossroad of poverty, social mobility and integration in Lagos between 1851 and 1960, interrogating these concepts through an examination of livelihoods and lifestyles during the period. It engages the nature of social status and mobility strategies of individuals; the manner in which poverty interjected the trend and the implications for society at the time. It analyses the manner in which individuals became poor, rich and efficacious and the factors that were responsible. It substantially interrogates the pattern in which a ‘commonplace’ immigrant or indigene of Lagos rose from being ‘socially insignificant’ to becoming a prized inhabitant of the city - becoming successful in a chosen career as well as having great influence on political economy and social life.

Speaker: Dr Tunde Decker (Osun State University) Chair: Prof Richard Fardon (SOAS)

Please RSVP to cas@soas.ac.uk

Photo extract from A. B. Aderibigbe’s edited book ‘Lagos, the development of an African City’ and Michael Echeuro’s book Victorian Lagos’. Last photo credit satanoid - Creative Commons license

INTEGRATION, SOCIAL MOBILITY AND STATUS DEFINING POVERTY IN LAGOS: 1851 – 1960

Monday 31st October | 5.15 - 7 pmRoom 4429 | SOAS University of London