Tales From the Dumpsite: Nigerian Women Waste Pickers’ Narratives of Resilience and Resistance
Conference: The 23rd Annual International Conference of the Igbo Studies Association (ISA) (2026)
Presenter(s): Adaobi Muo
Presentation Date: May 14, 2026 @ 14:22 PM
Tags: Nigeria Aba Abia National Institute for Nigerian Languages
Abstract
Waste pickers, though largely invisibilized, are vital actors within African urban societies such as Aba and Onitsha. In Nigeria, the waste-picking population is predominantly composed of women. These women, including those of Igbo origin, mobilize waste picking as a site of resilience and resistance in negotiating survival amid urban poverty, unemployment, informal sector precarity, gender inequality, and environmental injustice. Drawing on two unpublished personal narratives collected through semi-structured interviews and informed by Shari Stone-Mediatore’s (2023) feminist framework on the epistemic value of marginalized stories as knowledge practices of resistance, this study examines how experiential testimonies articulate complex strategies of endurance, agency, and contestation. The analysis reveals that, beyond confronting economic deprivation and ecological degradation, these narratives challenge the dominance of the formal economy, the stigmatization of informal labor, restrictive notions of work, unsustainable consumption patterns, systemic marginalization, and entrenched cultural norms. Furthermore, the study demonstrates how these stories reframe waste picking as an opportunity for empowerment, specialization, autonomy, and social validation. It concludes that women waste pickers, as agents of resistance and cultural transformation, contribute significantly to social justice and therefore merit greater recognition, institutional support, and policy inclusion. This perspective aligns with global commitments to inclusive development, environmental sustainability, and resilient futures.
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