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What Happened To Nigeria Essay

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On page 425, Obzine says, “When I started in real estate, I considerd renovating the old houses instead of tearing them down, but it didn’t make sense. Nigerian don’t buy houses because they’re old. A renovated two-hundred-year-old mill granary,you know, the kind of things Europeans like. It doesn’t work here at all. But of course it makes sense because we are Third Worlders and Third Worlders are forward looking, we like things to be new, because our best is still ahead, while the West their best is already past and so they have to make a fetish of that past.” Now this a very powerful and analytical quote about development and perceptions of the developing world, and I am sure we could have an entire discussion on this one quote alone, so I add a few comments because I think it underlines some themes in the novel. As Nishant mentioned, when Ifemelu returned to Nigeria it is clear the country is becoming more materialistic and this could be occurring because the country is trying to follow the west. Stephen, offers the cell phone …show more content…

Furthermore, the television channels that Ranyinudo watch are American or British. Additionally, after the man that repaired them did an insufficient job constructing tiles in her flat, Ifemelu assertively threats the man and forces him to properly implement the tiles and she even admits that she would have made the man fix the broken tiles in the past ( 385 ebook). So, it is clear— at least from Ifemelu perspective— that more Nigerians are becoming more materialistic, but I would argue that materialistic is just another way of saying “westernized.” As Obzine mentioned in the quote above, while the mentality that the best days of Nigeria is ahead is optimistic, there seems to be a mentality to

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