Nigerian Diaspora and the Online Construction of Identities: Visualisation and a Changing Self

Abstract

“The movement of large masses of people across national boundaries, technologies that deliver modern instantaneous communication, the culture of simulation, and globalisation in all its forms are some of the forces determining the contemporary context of identity (Paul Gilroy, 1997: 303)”

This paper focuses on the changing individual and collective identities of Nigerian Diaspora members, by revealing the different identities that result from the migrants’ use of the Internet. The paper situates the transformation of the Nigerian diaspora members’ identities within the context of the growth of the Internet and its role as a tool for a people experiencing new political and economic challenges. The relative freedom and limitlessness of cyberspace encourages equally boundless online activities of diaspora members. The boundlessness combines with its low cost and easy access to help form new identities or the firming up of old ones. Some of the new identities may simply be limited to life online, as they could have little or no offline relevance. These may therefore be online identities. The paper reasons that online identities can occur where, for instance, the many online debaters do not find corresponding roles offline. The construction assume a new dimension, as is more common, where participants online roles are recognized offline, like in the case of those, as shall be shown, who have become popular as webmasters, and newsgroup moderators.