Intersectionality, Relativity and Multiple Deprivation in Upper Saponba Area, Benin City, Nigeria

Abstract

Intersectionality is discussed as a harvest of multiple disadvantages and deprivations by majority of urbanites. Parameters of disadvantage include cash poverty, poor health, lack of electricity, water and sanitation, proneness to crime and illiteracy, unemployment and underemployment. The study adopted a mixed method model and proceeded with a structured questionnaire administered to a sample of 1022 respondents in Upper Saponba area, the largest slum district in Benin City, southern Nigeria. Supplementary data were collected through in-depth interview with a purposive sample of 10 community members. Results seem to negate the culture of poverty hypothesis even as many poor residents express despair on the prospects of a good life in the city. This desolation coincides with new public policy by which governments withdraw from public space in the face of increasing poverty. We conclude that social intersectionality in urban Africa is a simultaneity of poverty and deprivations exacerbated by exclusionary public policies. Effectual public policy will depend on a recognition of the inter-linkages between parameters of disadvantage, deprivation and social exclusion.