Fast food in Ibadan: an emerging consumption pattern.(Report)

ABSTRACT

In its modernization garb, development has come to mean the inculcation of foreign values resulting in the fundamental transformation of modernizing nations. Ironically, little attention is being drawn to the consequences of modernizing influences. This is the cote of the article. Through qualitative research methodology consisting of in-depth interviews (IDIs), participant observation and informal interviews, the article examines the emergence and ascendancy of fast foods in Ibadan, Nigeria. Our finding is that the middle class, the youth and children, as conveyors of imported cultures (into which they have been socialized), are the major customers whose values are projected through marketing strategies by the fast food outfits. Unfortunately, the health implications of these foods have not been properly grasped by these consumers, and neither have the market operators attempted to sensitize them. The article concludes that even when modernization influences are to be incorporated in the globalizing world, their initiatives must be well contextualized, comprehended and their contours managed for objective development to be achieved and sustained.

RESUME

Sous son apparence de modernisation, le developpement designe desormais l'inculcation de valeurs etrangeres debouchant sur la transformation fondamentale de nations en voie de modernisation. Paradoxalement, les consequences des influences modernisantes ont recu peu d'attention. C'est de cela que traite cet article. Au moyen d'une methodologie de recherche qualitative basee sur des entretiens approfondis, des observations participantes et des entretiens informels, l'article examine l'emergence et l'essor de la restauration rapide a Ibadan (Nigeria). Il constate que les classes moyennes, les jeunes et les enfants, en tant que vehicules de cultures importees (au sein desquelles ils ont ete socialises), sont les principaux clients dont les valeurs sont proietees au moyen de strategies marketing par les enseignes de restauration rapide. Malheureusement, ces clients n'ont pas bien saisi les implications de ce type d'alimentation en matiere de sante et les acteurs du marche n'ont fait aucun effort pour les y sensibiliser. L'article conclut qu'il convient, meme lorsque les influences modernisantes sont a integrer dans un monde globalisant, de bien contextualiser et saisir leurs initiatives et de gerer les contours de ces initiatives pour arriver a un developpement obiectif durable.

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An unmistakable new pattern of food consumption is emerging in Nigeria. The country is witnessing an upsurge in the number of fast food restaurants. At present, there are well over 70 different brand names. They are so conspicuous that it would be difficult to miss their 'colourful edifices and billboards' (NigerianBusinessInfo.com 2000-1).

Fast food is a longstanding and well-established mode of consumption in Nigeria, and a particularly distinctive feature of the Yoruba culture. There are indigenous/traditional ranges of fast food such as akara (fried bean cakes), eko gbigbona (hot maize gruel), eko jije (solid maize loaves), isu. sise ati sisun (boiled and roasted yam) and dodo (fried plantain), as well as 'foreign' fast food such as hot dogs and hamburgers. The indigenous fast foods are sold by itinerant sellers from trays or boxes on their heads, from stalls in the markets, or by the wayside in small rural towns as well as larger urban centres. The outdoor eating habit is therefore not new or strange to western Nigerians. This is likely to have affected their attitude to 'foreign' fast food, which could be incorporated readily into existing patterns of consumption. But the 'foreign' fast food (what we mean by 'fast food' in this article), at present consumed mainly in restaurants in urban centres, also capitalized on the modernizing processes of the country, and came to represent class, status and wealth structures.