Becoming Girl-Woman-Bride

Liminal consumption within Nigerian wedding rituals: The interplay between bridal identity and liminal gatekeepers

“…Building on prior studies, we propose a revised definition of bridal identity as the reconciliation of the bride's consumer tendencies with the collective norms and expectations of social group(s) she subscribes to, negotiated by market forces and actors in the planning and execution of her wedding ritual. This definition differs from previous studies in that, while we acknowledge that wedding rituals do not occur purely within the market, they are intermingled with contemporary socio-cultural norms, structures and actors (Mupotsa, 2015). Furthermore, this definition considers the contradiction earlier expanded upon, that bridal identity is an expression between individual preferences and collective expectations, particularly due to the collective nature of wedding rituals with the simultaneous centring of the (consumer) bride (Boden, 2003;Ingraham, 2008).…”

“…However, unwillingness to compromise sets the bride up for conflict with the gatekeepers. Novice status of the bride reduces her chances of success if she does not compromise (Boden, 2003; Otnes et al, 1997), whilst in the Global South where social and cultural hierarchy plays a bigger role in the wedding planning (Mupotsa, 2015), this further diminishes the bride’s capacity for a successful ideal bridal identity. This will also be expanded on when Marginalisation is discussed.…”

“…A typical understanding of bridal identity, via Western studies, is that it is a consumer identity consisting of the bride's tastes, aesthetics and preferences expressed via consumer artefacts through a wedding ritual (Boden, 2003;Ingraham, 2008). However, this definition is limited to considering the bride as socially isolated and fails to account for the socio-cultural context that informs the bride's preferences, aesthetics and tastes (Mupotsa, 2015). Building on prior studies, we propose a revised definition of bridal identity as the reconciliation of the bride's consumer tendencies with the collective norms and expectations of social group(s) she subscribes to, negotiated by market forces and actors in the planning and execution of her wedding ritual.…”

Evasive Youth, Oblique Politics

“…Attempts to go beyond formal and institutionalized political engagements towards questions of what young people seek in their everyday lives encounter the issue of individual good versus collective good. For example, can we view conspicuous consumerism as an active attempt to challenge racist assumptions of worth and dignity in Southern Africa (Mupotsa 2015) and beyond? The individualizing ethos of contemporary capitalism seeps into discourses everywhere, and while often described as a 'Western' preoccupation, it is a global phenomenon whose articulations can be detected in the chapters here.…”

A Queering-to-Come

“…- Keguro Macharia,"Pleasure (in 5 Movements)" This special issue has a performative relation to the concerns it hopes to bring to the fore: the problems of finding a usable past for both the lived experience and the study of African sexual subjects, and how queer theory elaborated from Africa can inform queer theory's Euro-American silent ethnocentrisms (see Camminga 2017;Matebeni 2014;Matebeni and Msibi 2015;Mupotsa 2015;Musangi 2018;Nyanzi 2013;. Our three opening epigraphs -from a memoir, a poem, and something that approaches a manifesto, respectively -suggest some of the lineaments of the queer customary: its temporal complexity containing ancestral time, the present, and invitations to futurity.…”