Cosmopolitan Identity Formation and Consumer Culture: A Study of Ndibe’s Foreign Gods, Inc.

The dream of a cosmopolitan utopia and the idea of being locally situated yet globally connected has never seemed more plausible than today. Globality has made the vast supermarket of goods, home decor and exotic items locally available to consumers, irrespective of their geographical setting. The consumption of such goods from around the world has made so-called cosmopolitanism possible. In a way, Cosmopolitanism has acted as an emancipatory force capable of overcoming global inequalities. However, recent global economic trends suggest a contradictory nature of “capitalism-tamed-cosmopolitanism”. Through the study of Okey Ndibe novel Foreign Gods, Inc. (2014), the article argues that capitalism, which is an intrinsic element in global processes, tends to reproduce divisions, which cosmopolitanism claims to dissolve. The paper also addresses the nuances of Aesthetico-cultural cosmopolitanism and its role towards identity formation. The analysis of the text suggests that there is a difference between ‘cosmopolitanism of having’ and ‘cosmopolitanism of being’.