The Culture of Development in a Southwestern Nigerian Town

In this chapter I examine changing cultural practices associated with fertility and local development in the small town of Itapa-Ekiti in southwestern Nigeria. As Ekiti Yoruba, people there have their own distinctive cultural practices and history, which relate the social ideal of raising children to adulthood with the development of their community. Indeed, the word for development, ìdàgbàsókè—literally, “the fact of growing up (sí òkè) to become an elder (di àgbà),” supports this connection. This interpretation of development, conceptualized as a type of growth that conflates economic and human development, has a particular moral cast. ¹ Those whom others have helped to “raise up” have a moral obligation to help family members (e.g., supporting elderly parents or educating junior siblings) and to contribute to improving their hometown. The reciprocity generated by being a responsible member in extended family groups, and the social networks formed through participation in neighborhood and improvement associations, represent two of the primary ways that townspeople constitute social capital—characterized by obligations and expectations of reciprocity, exchange of information, and social norms and sanctions. ²