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Anthropologists and Development: Observations by an American in Nigeria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

David H. Spain
David H. Spain*
Affiliation:
University of Washington
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Extract

Water must be rationed in the chronically overcrowded hospital because there is insufficient pressure in the inner-city system. A few blocks away, local elites cavort around an azure swimming pool, its olympian form brimming with thousands of gallons of water. … A key person in a planning ministry reports to his town planning consultants that a decision must be made regarding the site of a major development project. He gives them a few days to make the decision in spite of their protests that it will require several weeks of study to produce a recommendation that will fit with the needs of all who will be affected by the decision. The ministry official is under pressure from others further up in the government hierarchy and insists on a quick decision. After many hours of overtime work, the town planners provide a site, complete with justifications which include such diverse factors as soil conditions and basic principles of the master plan which they were hired to develop for the area in question. Later, the town planners are told that the project has been sited by others superior to the ministry in a way that runs counter to virtually every factor noted by the planners when they justified their decision. … Small change is hoarded for months by people as they seek to accumulate enough money to buy one of the few modern technical necessities the average peasant family can afford-a portable radio.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , December 1978 , pp. 17 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1978

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References

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