Grace Adeniyi-Ogunyankin: Future Matters: Youth and (In)Concrete Time in Lagos

Public lecture in the framework of the course Africa, Method, Theory, followed by refreshments

We live in a time when concrete dominates the urban landscape in many major African cities (Choplin, 2023) and the city is constantly under construction and destruction. We live in a time when we cannot deny that precarity is ever pervasive. Uncertainties, ever certain. In the so-called concrete jungle, not everything is concrete. Yet, desires and dreams for more concrete opportunities, possibilities and futures persist. This presentation examines how (in)concrete time is perceived, negotiated and resisted in Lagos, a "city of the future", by real estate developers and youth. In doing so, I argue that the real estate developers (in concert with some politicians) have embarked on an Afropolitan Imagineering project of owambe urbanism. Afropolitan Imagineering refers to the production of new images/narratives of Africa and Africans as world-class and cosmopolitan. Owambe urbanism is a spatio-temporal neoliberal project concerning destination, arrival and place-making, which promises a shared and happy future for all urban dwellers. I also assert that owambe urbanism presents new opportunities and challenges for youth in terms of the aesthetics and practices of daily life, particularly the pursuit of enjoyment and luxury consumption.

Grace Adeniyi-Ogunyankin is the Canada Research Chair in Youth and African Urban Futures and an Associate Professor at Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada. Her current research examines contemporary urban transformations on youth identity, labour practices, psychosocial well-being, and future orientation in Lagos and Ibadan, Nigeria.

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