No compound, no care? Rethinking Yoruba <i>Omoluwabi</i> ethics and caregiving in urban Nigeria

Abstract

This article examines how Yoruba ethics of care are being reshaped amid urban housing transformations in southwestern Nigeria. It adopts a qualitative design, drawing on in-depth interviews and ethnographic narratives from 46 purposively selected participants across Lagos and Ogun States, analysed thematically using Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). The study explores how the cultural ideals of ile (home) and Omoluwabi (moral personhood) inform caregiving amid the decline of compound housing and the rise of individualized dwellings. Findings show that while modern housing disrupts the communal spaces that once sustained caregiving, Yoruba actors adapt by reconfiguring apartments, mobilizing neighbourhood and religious associations, and using digital platforms as new arenas of kinship. Framed through CHAT, the study introduces the concept of houses of care to explain how caregiving values endure despite spatial and infrastructural change, contributing to debates on care, kinship, and domestic space under urban modernity.