ABSTRACT

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.

摘要

本文深入探讨了足球如何帮助尼日利亚最臭名昭著的贫民窟 Ajegunle 的一些年轻人在日常生活中克服困难。通过个人和深入了解该地区的民族志，我展示了足球如何成为许多年轻人在社会包容、资本和身份形成方面的重要社交工具，以及作为希望的灯塔最脆弱的。与尼日利亚贫民窟生活的现有学术研究中的流行表达相反，将贫民窟标记的地区描绘成青少年犯罪和负面社会属性的窝点，我表明以社区为基础的足球俱乐部（尽管没有政府干预）正在帮助许多年轻人通过更积极的媒介来克服贫民窟生活的障碍。