1Ad hoc practices of disability support especially in Africa, are constantly applauded for their potential to alleviate poverty. Yet, it proceeds from disability imaginaries which marginalise and exclude disabled people from mainstream society. Disability imaginaries are embedded in devaluing perceptions of disability (Campbell, 2011; Gammeltoft, 2014). The World Health Organisation (WHO) frames disability support as a range of interventions including support services, personal assistance, advocacy, and other non-therapeutic interventions (World Health Organization, 2011: 139). Despite disability imaginary, the path of disabled people and their “benefactors” constantly intersect at the scene of disability support. The assemblages formed at those intersections complicate how we come to understand disability and practices of disability support. To conceptualise disability support as a disinterested pre-occupation of a philanthropist aiming to elevate the quality-of-life of disabled people is a dominant narrative that is yet to receive a critical re-evaluation.
2This article analyses assemblages of disability support and the interactions that emerge in the context of disability support. Relying on Ingold’s (2011) materialism and Deleuze and Guattari’s (2004) materialist ontology the article maps out the entities that constitute disability support, and how they structure the experience and discourse of disability. Assemblage analysis is appropriate for analysing the experience of disability in the Global South, where disability is constituted in more complex ways than the hegemonic paradigms in specific parts of the world (Meekosha, 2011; Araneda-Urrutia & Infante, 2020: 340). As an Igbo, based in the Global North, and doing fieldwork in the Global South, the first author couldn’t find any specific “paradigm” of disability during fieldwork (Mackenzie & Knipe, 2006). Thus, the paper is an attempt to set an agenda for new materialist design for disability research in the Global South.
3This paper was developed from fieldwork conducted in Southeast Nigeria between 2014 and 2017 within the context of a PhD project where ambiguity of disability emerged as one of the themes (Nwokorie, 2020: 215). However, the research data are constantly updated. Back then, the framework for data analysis relied on Ingold’s (2011) world of materials. To expand our analytical scope for this article, we decided to borrow assemblage analysis from Deleuze and Guattari’s (2004) toolbox.
4In the following sections, we render a compressed account of materialist ontology underpinning assemblage analysis, followed by snippets of Tim Ingold’s (2011) materialism. Next, is a brief extract of Deleuze and Guattari’s (2004) ontology including their assemblage analysis, and what assemblage analysis contributes to the paper. Then, we review some disability studies focusing on assemblage analysis. We thereafter frame disability support, introduce the research context, and overview of the local setting. Finally, we present the methodology section, data analysis, and discussion of the results.
5The materialist ontology conceives of matter as a force (Ingold, 2011: 28) with agential capacity (St. Pierre, Jackson & Mazzei, 2016: 101). It rejects an anthropocentric lens and a priori binary distinction in analysis of social problems (Fox & Alldred, 2020: 3, 6). Also rejecting the distinction between the physical world and social constructs of human thoughts, materialist ontology analyses how non-human actors can be social agents (ibid.: 3) in the assemblage of human and non-human entities (Monforte, 2018: 385). Thus, the scope of what counts as material entities extends to abstract ideas, including desires, cultural practices, thoughts and bodies (Fox & Alldred, 2014). For this article, a materialist approach would focus on an “ecosystem of disability support” by placing equal value on the role of human, non-human actors.
6The agency of materials lies in the fact that they cannot always be captured, predicted or contained (Ingold, 2010: 8) because materials, including bodies are processes (becoming) whose inherent properties are emergent. Moreover, materialist ontology rejects notions of fixed identities, given that any list of an entity’s capacity to affect and be affected will be ongoing as the entity’s capacity alters (Feely, 2020: 177). This ontological viewpoint indicates that the concept of disability is a moving target (Block, et al., 2015).
7Ingold’s materialism critiques Cartesian form-matter model of thinking (Ingold, 2012, p. 432; Abrams, 2016). Ingold re-thought the ontology of boundaries by emphasising on processual approach to life as “movement of opening” in “a world-in-formation” (Ingold, 2010: 10; 2011: 14, 72). In the context of disability, Ingold’s movement of opening would re-frame disability as a form of movement of opening (Block et al., 2015; Nwokorie & Devlieger, 2019: 2). Within disability support, “movement of opening” entails disabled persons’ productive engagement with affordances by those who possess the relevant skill to make connection with the currents of the world-in-formation (Rietveld & Kiverstein, 2014; Nwokorie, 2020: 216). Attesting to this, Ingold wrote,
rather than thinking of ourselves only as observers, picking our way around the objects lying about on the ground of a ready-formed world, we must imagine ourselves in the first place as participants, each immersed with the whole of our being in the currents of a world-in-formation […]. (Ingold, 2011: 129)
8Ingold’s reference to “participation and emersion with the whole of our being” speaks to disabled people’s coping strategy in activity of daily living. Thus, Ingold’s materialism incorporates composition with decomposition (ability/disability) as variants of movement of opening.
9Given Ingold’s conviction in life’s capacity to continually overtake initial destinations (ibid.: 4), decomposition of a material does not indicate a regression but a form of re-composition (Nwokorie, 2020: 225). Potentially, the so-called “disabled bodies” that are assumed to have regressed are already engaged in another form of movement of opening.
10However, Ingold did not engage with assemblage analysis, preferring the concept of “meshwork” (Ingold, 2011: 64). Thus, assemblage analysis marks a point of divergence between Ingold and Deleuze and Guattari’s materialism.
11In Deleuze and Guattari (2004) all entities in the universe are in process of becoming (movement of opening) at different frequencies (Deleuze & Guattari, 2004: 10; Feely, 2016: 870). They argued that life is lived along lines, often described as “lines of becoming” (Deleuze & Guattari, 2004: 293). Within the context of disability, becoming is about escaping the forces of subjectification that blocks the flows of desire and transcend the limits of oneself (Fritsch, 2010: 7).
12Describing ontological entities as temporary becoming, Deleuze and Guattari (cited in Feely, 2020: 870) avoided questions on attributes of a material, but rather focused on entity’s capacity (Deleuze & Guattari, 2004: 377; Feely, 2020: 870). For example, materialist ontology avoids a priori notions of dis/ability and rather focuses on a body’s capacity: “what can a disabled body do”? “Under what context does discourse on disability de-territorialise and territorialise disability”? These questions speak to the complexity and ambiguity of disability.
- 1 To clarify, Deleuze and Guattari’s (2004) ontology underpins assemblage analysis.
13Assemblages consists of heterogeneous components belonging to various orders of existence often considered separate (Deleuze & Guattari, 2004: 8, 23; Feely, 2020: 179).1 These entities work together, and their unity comes from the fact that they work together to produce something (Deleuze & Guattari, 2004: 8; Feely, 2016). Despite their perceived disparate compositions, every part of an assemblage plays a role in contributing to meaning that produces something. For example, Fritsch argued that “[…] the human body is not a self-contained individual but an assemblage of organs, processes, pleasures, passions […]” (Fritsch, 2010: 7). For Nail, components of an assemblage often change and expand its connections continuously like a rhizome (Nail, 2017: 23). Moreover, assemblages are not fixed but always becoming. As the scale of each assemblage increases, component assemblage will possess emergent properties capable of both constraining (re-territorialise) and enabling (de-territorialise) its components contextually. Thus, to conceive of an assemblage is to visualise entities whose unity comes from the fact that they work together (Feely, 2016: 179). In Nigeria, disability support is composed of multiple assemblages with heterogeneous components (government agencies, local elites, corporate organisations, discourses on disability, philanthropists, disability legislation) working together to dis/empower disabled people.
14Assemblage analysis shall mobilize our discussions on the interactions that emerge in the context of disability support. The following review on previous research on assemblage analysis, focuses on two papers which closely align with the argumentation of this article.
15Fritsch’s “intimate assemblages” analysed the social, and political implications of relational ethics of intercorporality in attendance care service (Fritsch, 2010). The author argued that the independent living model is incapable of emancipating disabled people despite their push for autonomy in employment of attendants. Fritsch explained that disabled persons and their attendants often experience a connection and leaking of their identities during attendant care (ibid.: 3). Thus, the independent living model cannot emancipate disabled people given the mutual vulnerabilities associated with moments of intimate attendant care (ibid.: 11). These vulnerabilities undermine capitalist labour relations that underwrite the independent living model, namely, enlightenment values of individualism, and employer-employee relationship (ibid.: 5). Conclusively, Fritsch argued for a new relational ontology of becoming.
16Although Fritsch’s work represents a genuine search for improved attendant care, the independent living model empowers disabled people with choices of care preferences. Moreover, the historical oppression of disabled people through institutionalisation (Charlton, 2000) justifies the independent living model.
17Finally, Feely’s experimental new materialist method (Feely, 2016) examined the theme of sexual surveillance of young adults with intellectual disability in a day centre. Adapting the Deleuzian assemblage analysis, Feely accounted for various techniques adopted to re-territorialize and de-territorialise the sexuality of clients of the day centre. Adopting a three-stage methodology, Feely, i) identified the components of sexual surveillance, ii) mapped out the flows of substances belonging to multiple orders of existence, and finally, iii) explored the regulatory processes of re-territorialization and de-territorialization. Feely concluded that social problems are produced by human and non-human, discursive, and material forces (Feely, 2016: 190).
18However, the narrative data which informed the study were collected mainly from staff of the day centre with minimal input from service users. Second, although the author robustly concluded that “analyzing how a problematic social assemblage works in the present can also allow us to think about ways to alter the assemblage and to make it work differently” (ibid.), Feely did not suggest better ways of improving services at a day centre.
19Channels of disability support are culturally situated but more streamlined in the Global North than in the Southern hemisphere (World Health Organization, 2011: 143). Approaches to disability support in the Southern hemisphere developed from practices that were “transported” from the West (Ingstad & Whyte, 2007). Specialised forms of disability support in many countries in the Global South are almost non-operational (Barnes & Sheldon, 2010).
20A review of recent literature indicates that a consistent definition of “disability support” does not exist, although WHO takes the concept of “disability support” seriously (World Health Organization, 2011: 135-65). In the World Health Report, disability “support” and “assistance” occurred interchangeably to cover a range of interventions such as “care,” “support services,” or “personal assistance,” etc. (ibid.: 139). Overall, this definition overlaps with assistance in activities of daily living for persons in residential care.
21Moreover, the definition aligns with recognised practices from specific parts of the world with hegemonic models of disability (Araneda-Urrutia & Infante, 2020: 40). The definition overlooks the fact that such hegemonic models do not exist in many parts of the Global South. For this paper, we have adopted “disability support” to cover a range of ad hoc interventions, including donations of food items, money, and mobility aids, occasionally provided by the state, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), and private individuals to disabled persons living within the community. As we explain later, ad hoc disability support interventions in Nigeria are currently sustained by the informal sector of the economy.
22Disability remains a matter of socio-economic concern in Nigeria given its negative multiplier effects (Elwan, 1999; Groce et al., 2011; A. I. Ofuani, 2011). Abang attributes most disabilities in Nigeria to failure of social policy, high cost of medication, late diagnoses and late treatment (Abang, 1988).
23Cultural perceptions of disability differ among Nigeria’s ethnic nationalities (Renne, 2013; Ajuwon, 2018). Among the Igbos of Southeast Nigeria, deep-seated negative cultural assumptions about disability persist (Abang, 1988; Ajuwon, 2018; Eskay, Eskay & Uma, 2012; Olaogun, Nyante & Ajediran, 2009). The Igbo context is not as straightforward as Ajuwon reported (2018: 135) because certain cultural perceptions still exclude successful disabled people, especially “during ritual ceremonies involving libation where physical wholeness is emphasised” (Interview, 17/02/2016). However, aetiology of disability plays a pivotal role in Igbo context because the local culture places higher value on people with non-congenital disability.
24Focussing on Northern Nigeria, Renne (2013) explored discourses of quality of life. According to Renne’s findings disability does not elicit negative responses in Islamic Northern Nigeria where disability is accepted as God’s will (Ajuwon, 2018: 135). However, gender disparity exists for quality-of-life for men and women with a disability (Renne, 2013: 45).
25Although Nigeria has ratified all the protocols of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disability (UNCRPD), disability remains a deregulated problem space in the region. Lang and Upah (2008: 17) believe that there is an underlying ideological belief that disability issues should be addressed through “charity ethos,” an approach the authors argued that disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) have embraced (ibid.).
26It is inaccurate to claim that disabled persons have embraced the “charity ethos.” Rather, the authors overlooked the socio-economic situation structuring the experience of disability in the region. First, charity ethos provides short-term relief for many disabled people. Second, a charity ethos is often the only option for many disabled people who regard the UNCRPD as meaningless jargon. Although the UNCRPD is not a one-size-fit-all solution to economic and social marginalisation of disabled people (Lang, 2009: 281; Meekosha, 2011: 678), describing the legislation as meaningless attests to the level of mistrust between disabled people and policymakers.
27However, there is no indication that the urgency of daily survival out-weighs the key issue of human rights, as Meekosha argued (2011: 670). To accept that line of thinking is to classify disabled people as a single category (Lang & Upah, 2008; Lang, 2009). We raised the question of charity ethos vs human rights approach with a study participant, who was a member of a Disabled Peoples Organisation (DPO). The DPO official responded that “charity ethos is a local way of giving and receiving.” However, the official emphasised that disabled people would never trade their human rights for charity ethos.
28Early missionaries initiated an institutionalised effort to support disabled people. Sudan United Mission initiated the first effort to support people living with visual impairment in North Central Nigeria (Obiakor & Offor, 2011; Ajuwon, 2018). Similar efforts by other Christian missions were ongoing at various locations in Eastern and Western Nigeria simultaneously. In 1936, Dr. T. D. F. Money established an educational rehabilitation centre by the Oji River to support patients of Hansen’s disease, visual impairment, the deaf and mute (Muir & Carter, 1940). Then in the 1920s, the Methodist Church led the initiative to rehabilitate Hansen disease patients in Uzoakoli, Southeast Nigeria (Okeke & Nwankwo, 2017). This seems to indicate that historically, disability support has been outsourced to private initiatives. It was not until the 1940s, during World War 2, that the colonial administration established a state-run centre in Lagos for wounded soldiers of the British Empire (Ajuwon, 2018).
29The end of Nigeria-Biafra civil war in 1970 accelerated government interest in disability support. Garuba reported that the Military regime established new rehabilitation centres for the resettlement of war-ravaged victims of the civil war (Garuba, 2003). Ajuwon wrote that these rehabilitation centres focused on the “war-ravaged South-Eastern region of the country” (Ajuwon, 2018: 141). Ajuwon’s claim seems inaccurate because missionaries and philanthropists from Europe and North America consistently played a greater role in post-war rehabilitation of civil-war victims in the serially marginalised Southeast Nigeria.
30The first Nigeria government policy commitment on disability issues came through the 1977 National Policy for Education (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1977). The National Policy for Education (NPE) made salient declarations in support of school-going young people living with a disability through i) access to free education for youths with disability, ii) free tuition, and iii) provision of learning aids (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2004: 32). However, DPOs and policy makers interpret the NPE differently. The DPO argue that tuition-free education and bursaries automatically apply to every disabled school-going person. However, policy makers reported that eligibility criteria, mainly assessment by a medical practitioner, applies. However, the process of determining eligibility of applicants was not transparent. Moreover, implementation of the NPE policy has been lopsided because it differed among the 36 Nigerian states due to unequal financial resources. Although the NPE addressed the needs of disabled people of school-going age, it represents a watershed moment in the discourse of disability legislation in the region.
31In 1993, the then military government introduced Nigerians with Disability Decree 1993 (NWDD). The disability decree contains all the elements of disability legislation (A. I. Ofuani, 2011: 651), but the policy was never implemented. We argue that the NWDD 1993 occupies no space in the discourse of disability legislation in Nigeria.
32After many years of agitation for disability legislation, an incumbent president vying for re-election gazetted “Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) 2018” in February 2019. In August 2020, the federal government inaugurated a “Disability Commission” to oversee the implementation of the disability legislation (The Guardian, 2020). However, the new legislation has not altered the daily experiences of disabled people. Rather, ad hoc practices of disability support remain the current means of supporting disabled people in the region.
- 2 Real names of study participants and actual locations have been deliberately changed to protect ide (...)
33Between 2014 and 2017, the first author conducted an ethnographic study of disability support in Okohia and its environs in Southeast Nigeria. The research consisted of three field trips of four-months duration each.2
- 3 Women and men attend disability support events but that doesn’t eliminate the traditional gendered (...)
- 4 The notion of formal/semi-formal interview speaks of the form and format of the interview than clas (...)
34The research participants for the three parts of the fieldwork comprised 28 persons who identified as disabled: 23 males and 5 females, and 12 non-disabled persons (which consists of 11 males and one female). Policy makers and NGOs represented non-disabled study participants. The challenges of gender imbalance in recruitment of study participants in ethnography has been addressed in Warren and Hackney (2000).3 Thirty-eight semi-formal interviews and observations involving 10 men and four women with a disability were conducted, followed by 14 informal interviews and observations of 13 men and one woman with a disability, and 19 semi-structured interviews.4 We conducted a total of 71 interviews including hundreds of hours of observation. Many participants were interviewed multiple times.
35Initially, the first author adopted snowball sampling technique (Baltar & Brunet, 2012) by relying on a network of local DPOs to recommend their colleagues as study participants. This technique did not often work as planned because some study participants recommended by their friends did not meet one of our eligibility criteria for participating in the research. This eligibility criteria requires the study participant to show sustained interest in the study. Thus, the first author decided to adopt purposive sampling method (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2007).
36Navigating from the disability worlds (Devlieger, Van Hove & Renders, 2006) of the study of participants to the unfolding everyday experiences of disability (Albrecht, Devlieger & Van Hove, 2008), the researcher held conversations with study participants in their homes, shops, and at disability support events. Over the course of months, the author gained participants’ confidence (Emerson, 1995; Kawulich, 2005) sharing in their life stories.
37Driven by the theoretical lens of assemblages and becoming (Deleuze & Guattari, 2004; Ingold, 2011), we identified and mapped out the entities that constitute disability support, and how they interact to structure the experience of disability. Also identified was the nature of evolving relationships at disability support events, and how those relationships might be framed in terms of becoming. Our data source consists of coded interiors of interactions and relationships at the scene of disability support, NGO outreaches, and information from policymakers. By uncovering the coded insides of disability support in Okohia, we interrogated ableist notions of normative boundaries (Goodley & Runswick-Cole, 2015). We also gathered data on the processes by which disability directs the behaviour of local actors at the scene of disability support.
38We sorted out the collection of research data on processes, discourses, and practices of disability support into themes. Instead of viewing disability support as activities of “concerned” stakeholders working to elevate the quality of life of disabled people, we chose to explore the scene of disability support as an assemblage of competing forces in their lines of becoming (Deleuze & Guattari, 2004: 215; Ingold, 2011: 14). Relying on materialist ontology, we focused on contextual social interactions of human and non-human entities to, i) map out how assemblages of disability support was structuring experience of disability support, and ii) explicate in what dimensions disability support mobilizes transformations.
39The self-funded doctoral research of the first author did not go through any procedure because the University of Leuven does not impose ethical clearance on research that is conducted without external funding. Rather, Dr O. V. Nwokorie took specific steps to adhere to ethical guidelines of anthropological research as outlined in American Anthropological Association ethics guidelines for field research on the use of human subjects as reported in the edited work of Robben and Slukka (2012). The guidelines provide for issues of full disclosure (in terms of competing interests), informed consent and protection of the identity of study participants. These were all observed during the conduct of the research. Accompanied with a letter of introduction from the University of Leuven, and consent form, the first author took specific steps to adhere to ethical guidelines on research with vulnerable human subjects and protection of study participants’ identity (Sluka & Robben, 2012). The consent form proved to be an obstacle during the fieldwork because study participants viewed it with suspicion. As a compromise, the consent form was verbally explained and agreed upon by participants.
40We now turn attention to data analysis.
41The onset of the dry season marks the peak of disability support events coinciding with Christmas celebrations when Igbos world-wide reconnect with their homeland (Fabiyi, 2017; Nwokorie, 2020). Disability support events also intersect with the approach of general election seasons, opening ceremony of newly built mansions, investiture of new chieftaincy titles, NGO outreaches, birthday celebrations of wealthy people, and the annual December 3 celebration of “International day of Disabled People.” To unpack the coded insides of assemblages of disability support we turn to the following ethnographic examples.
42As a wealthy politician, Okike launched his political career through his disability NGO. Many beneficiaries of his largesse speak highly of him as a reference point in philanthropy. Ejike, a beneficiary described one of Okike’s disability support events:
- 5 Naira-dollar exchange rate in 2016.
We chartered a bus to the director’s white house mansion. They gave everyone a t-shirt with photo of the director. One of the commissioners in government encouraged us and said, “you people should not worry because of your condition because disabled people can also be important in society. Paralympians are an example of how disabled people can be important, popular and respected by society.” Then the director donated 1 million naira ($2,749.15).5 He also empowered delegates with one electric generator, a grounding machine, a sewing machine, a wheelchair and one walking stick. After that we made a vote of thanks. (Interview, 16/12/2016)
43To analyse disability support as an assemblage of heterogeneous entities is to account for all discursive and material forces present in that vignette, and how they affect one another. For example, the means to transportation to such events was central to understanding how disabled people navigate long distances. Local disability groups composed of different populations of disability charter buses as a group. This means of mobility is one of the primary facilitators of disability events.
44Distribution of t-shirts, a material entity, carries material significance for the image of the benefactor embossed on it. The t-shirt mobilizes the celebrant’s popularity beyond the confines of the benefactor’s location. As the beneficiaries wore the souvenir in their respective domain, so they disperse along with it, their benefactor’s philanthropy. In local parlance, those wearing the t-shirts are transformed into praise singers (otimkpu) who amplify the celebrant’s philanthropy. As the giver’s influence circulates, so does public opinion of him as omepụrụ onye uwa (helper of the poor). As a piece of material entity, the ability of the t-shirt to affect other entities in the process of becoming is infinite (Feely, 2020: 178; Fritsch, 2010: 5; Ingold, 2011: 131). Through the t-shirt, Okike and disabled people form a relational assemblage (Fritsch, 2010) indicating that Okike needs disabled people as disabled people need his material donation.
45Although the meeting took place with a view to elevating the quality-of-life of disabled people, an aspect of the discursive force tends to re-territorialise the space of disability by admitting only those disabled people who are training as Paralympians (Peers, 2009; Purdue & Howe, 2012). Thus, to de-territorialise and claim back that space of importance, the disabled person must train as Paralympians to participate in Paralympics and attempt to win a medal to be celebrated as an “exceptional” disabled person. Although the commissioner’s comment might seem innocuous to his audience, the commissioner was rehearsing the government policy of encouraging disabled people to train as Paralympians. Thus, disability imaginaries (Campbell, 2011) form part of the heterogenous forces composing assemblage of disability support.
46The one million naira (money) which was shared immediately, is a reminder of the economic needs facing many disabled persons, from paying house rent, to paying for children’s school fees, and medical needs.
47Other material entities such as the electric generator, grounding machine, a sewing machine, a wheelchair, and walking stick, equally play important economic roles.
48Assemblages of disability support analysed within this vignette are contextual and their capacity for rhizomatic connection with other entities is self-evident (Feely, 2020). Within the Deleuzian ontology, each of the materials are active materials in their ongoing process of becoming, growth and development as they combine with other material forces (Ingold, 2011: 150). Each of the materials analysed in this vignette has the capacity to affect other materials infinitely. Take the electric generator which produces electric energy in terms of lighting a house, energising electrical appliances, pumping water from borehole, charging mobile phones in continuous combination of output. This concurs with Feely’s claim that “any list of an entity’s capacities to affect and be affected will necessarily be ongoing as its capacities will change in different contexts” (Feely, 2020: 178).
49Given the contextual nature of an entity’s ability to affect and be affected by other entities in other contexts, we are going to analyse how assemblages of disability support can shift and combine with other entities in another context, as we extend the current case study, to include additional entities.
50The proprietor of Okike Foundation caused a stir when he shifted one of his birthday celebrations from Okohia to the Nation’s capital. He extended the invitation to executive members of DPOs in each of the municipal councils nation-wide, also paying for their lodging and transportation expenses. The circumstance of the birthday event was a hot topic when the first author arrived for another round of fieldwork. He decided to follow up the story. Abel, a wheelchair user volunteered his perspective on the birthday celebration:
Videos and photos of disabled people in Okohia do not generate enough funding for Okike because disabled people in Okohia dress decently. Foreign donors viewing the video of disabled persons in Okohia would think that disabled persons in Nigeria are all comfortable. It was better for Okike to include disabled persons from other parts of Nigeria. You know that many of them shuffle on the bare floor without a wheelchair. Their situation attracts more sympathy and cash from foreign donors viewing the video. (Interview, 06/12/2016)
51This vignette invites new elements in the assemblages of disability support, namely, material entities – videos, cameras – embodied forces, and foreign donors form part of an interaction. The embodied lived experience of disability (Grech, 2011) (for example, shuffling on the floor) combine with video camera and other material entities (tv-viewers abroad) to generate funding which furthers the work of Okike foundation. Within this analysis, disability support was made possible with interaction of all entities within the assemblage.
52Disability support serves as a site for de-territorialisation (Deleuze & Guattari, 2004) of disability space for a specific purpose. Local NGOs rely on DPOs to boost their credibility during outreach work because they (DPOs) popularise the work of disability NGOs. This form of disability support is a contextual de-teritorialising event (Feely, 2020: 20), because it results in suspension of disablism (Campbell, 2011).
53A typical NGO outreach programme climaxes when disabled people mount the rostrum to receive their material gifts and then present their vote of thanks. This form of appreciation requires that disabled people first appreciate the NGO proprietor through, for example, singing or dancing. During the “performance,” the proprietor joins them on stage, dancing and singing with them with video camera rolling. At that moment of shared space, the proprietor and the “performing guests” are entwined within a single space. As disabled people and the NGO proprietor perform together, their identities coalesce in that interaction (Fritsch, 2010), creating the image of a compassionate NGO.
54However, the photos and videos from the “performance” serve as “recorded proof” of the NGO proprietor’s “genuine” contact with disabled persons “under their care.” For the NGO, the photos and videos are important material resources for subsequent fundraising to convince donors that the NGO was in direct contact with disabled people. It would be impossible to imagine an assemblage that composes the event without accounting for how various materials elements – video recordings, cameras, photos, the podium, bodies – interact to transform the experience and discourses of disability support.
55This concluding part offers a glimpse of flows of becoming in the world-in-formation (Fox & Alldred, 2020: 7; Ingold, 2011: 4). It aims to broaden understanding of ongoing transformation of human actors in their process of becoming (Ingold, 2011; Feely, 2020: 178).
56During the fieldwork, we received a report that members of the local DPO were not on speaking terms with government officials in the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development (MWASD). The DPO accused government officials of pilfering food donations belonging to them (DPO). The MWASD is the first point of contact between DPOs and organisers of disability support because they also supervise the activities of DPOs. When disability support events yield material provisions, the welfare officers occasionally secure the donations in their office on return, until a later date. There had been tense relationships between the local DPO and welfare officers for a while but both parties managed it well until a popular politician donated huge sums to the DPO. Then, the welfare officers demanded to preside over the sharing of the money, to which the DPO declined.
57The secretary of the DPO reported that welfare officers did not play any role in the application that yielded the money. Rather the local DPO applied for and received a cheque of 500,000.00 naira ($1000) from the politician. He continued, “the welfare officer told us to bring out the money but we refused […]. The social welfare officers have been short-changing us. Sometimes, they buy provisions in our name and share among themselves, yet they earn salary.” (Interview, 10/12/2016).
58To verify this account, the researcher decided to visit welfare officials in Okohia. Although the assistant welfare officer who addressed the issue was a wheelchair user, he was critical of the DPO, describing them as “confrontational and misguided.” He further added that, “the way the disability support money was shared created a lot of problems. Also, the government does not seem to pay any attention to the plight of disabled persons because they are often aggressive and often feel cheated.” (Interview, 12/12/2016).
59The perception that disabled people are “confrontational” and “aggressive” is a conventional narrative peddled mostly by non-disabled people to give form to disability oppression (Charlton, 2000). However, when a disabled person appropriated the language of ableism on fellow disabled persons, the researcher was forced to search for deeper meaning. We observed that there was a disconnect between disabled people in government employment and unemployed DPO members. On many other occasions during the fieldwork, we observed government-employed disabled persons taking a contrary stance on disability issues against their DPO peers who are often not in government employment.
60Deleuze and Guattari’s (2004) and Ingold’s (2011) further support our analysis on forces at play in the vignette under review, namely, how actors are experiencing processes of change in the world-in-formation (Fox & Alldred, 2020: 7). According to Feely (2020: 177), all entities, including bodies, are in process of becoming at different rates. Ingold also demonstrated that every material is engaged in ongoing processes of growth, change and development (Ingold, 2011: 150). Thus, we argue that actors in the vignette are engaged in practices of becoming. Their different positions in different contexts are an example of ongoing materials in different states that enables change in different contexts (Feely, 2020: 178).
61Among employed disabled persons, there is a sense that economic security of employment advances their process of becoming, including how they move and think about disability. The economic security that comes with a regular salary means that many disabled persons in regular employment identify less with the organised network of DPOs. From the perspective of Deleuze and Guattari, the becoming of actors as they interact with one another is context-dependent, an ongoing process at non-uniform speed, and always altering according to individual circumstance at a given time (Feely, 2016, 2020).
62As part of materials in their flows of becoming (Fox & Alldred, 2020), the welfare officials fluctuated as they flowed and mixed with disability support materials (Ingold, 2010, 2011, 2012). Thus, material entities – food donation, and money – became central figures that instigated conflicts among the actors. Thus, material donations transformed relationships resulting in suspension of disability imaginary (Campbell, 2011; Shuttleworth & Meekosha, 2012; Gammeltoft, 2014). Consequently, the assemblage of disability support identified in this part – material provision (money), bodies, cultural milieu – work together to affect not only the experience of disability but discourses on disability.
63The entities that constitute assemblages of disability support in the region are dynamic and situated. Each of these entities work together to affect, the timing of disability support event. Despite disability imaginaries, disabled people and their benefactors intermingle during disability support. The assemblages emerging from this intersection form part of the ambiguity of disability (Block et al., 2015).
64Our research findings reveal something useful about the pressures some disabled persons face to access support, thus justifying the need for more effective approaches to disability support. Given the instrumental role of disability support, the scene of disability support becomes a “recruiting ground” of local elites. The transactional nature of the relationship means that disabled people empower local actors and popularise their stories against the background of internalised oppression (Freire, 1993) and economic pressure (Eide & Ingstad, 2011).
65Consequently, to conceptualise of disability support as a disinterested pre-occupation of a philanthropist aiming to elevate the quality-of-life of disabled people is a dominant narrative that has not been critically re-examined until now. Despite a preponderance of disability NGOs, the majority of them operate without guidelines while yielding returns to their proprietors.
66The following implications emerge from the study. One, the use of videos and cameras to record disability support events indicates an ongoing form of exchanges, and indeed exploitation of disabled people’s social capital (Bourdieu, 2002). Two, there is a sense that Nigerian policy makers have failed to create a self-sustaining system of disability support that precludes the vanity of self-glorification among local elites. Instead of building strong institutions, Nigeria rewards so-called “strong” men and women (Clement Ofuani, 2012). Provision of support for disabled persons is a lifelong endeavour, yet such supports are circumscribed by the disposition of local elites to coincide with their birthdays. Three, the current accountability-driven approach to social policy contradicts the ad hoc approach of a country which is already a signatory to UNCRPD (United Nations, 2006).
67Building on Deleuze and Guattari (2004) and Ingold (2011), we have developed a nuanced analysis of assemblages of disability support. Within the Global South, disability is often theorised as a space of cultural exchanges. It is thus more productive to (re)conceptualise disability support as an assemblage of disparate entities in their flows of becoming (Fox & Alldred, 2020). Our theoretical lens (Deleuze & Guattari, 2004; Ingold, 2011) attests to transformation of material forces in a world-in-formation (Ingold, 2011: 28, 63). Ingold reflects that life is a continuum that opens space for all kinds of possibilities. Building on Deleuze and Guattari (2004) and Ingold (2011) disability becomes a form of becoming as follows, “it is of the essence of life that it does not begin here or end there or connect a point of origin with a final destination, but rather that it keeps on going… Life, in short is a movement of opening, not a closure.” (Ingold, 2011: 4).
68This Ingoldian imagery does not accept a view of life as a closure or shutting down of possibilities. For Deleuze and Guattari, the focus should not be on the bridge but on the river and its ongoing flows of becoming (Deleuze & Guattari, 2004: 215).
69We concur with Feely that any approach adapted to address a social problem will determine the kind of recommendation to be proposed (Feely, 2016). Disability scholarship has matured for theoretical realignments in both the minority and majority worlds as follows: first, disability researchers need to continue to highlight disability as a mobile category that disrupts normative boundaries (Barnartt, 2010: 1-3). Second, the potential of framing disability as a theoretical space focusing less on deficits has been missing in disability scholarship (Titchkosky, 2009). Such a theoretical space shall enable scholars to theorise the human condition in general without much emphasis on deficits. Perhaps, there are other potentials for re-thinking disability, as for example, a human condition that is productive and socio-culturally functional.
70The assemblage approach paints a broad picture inviting us to understand that social problems are caused by heterogeneous factors (Feely, 2016: 190). While we have argued that the assemblage analysis of disability support broadens the perception on the internal forces at play at the scene of disability support, this is by no means the only approach to investigating this kind of work. The result of the study is not a totalizing theory but a dynamic approach to investigating the complexity of disability. This paper addressed a single project, and the approach adopted in this paper is not one-size-fit-all. This study has only explicated aspects of discourses and experiences of disability in Southeast Nigeria. Consequently, the findings of this research cannot be generalised beyond the specific contexts and local conditions of those who participated in the research.
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