This paper examines Lola Shoneyin’s Mayowa and the Masquerades through the lens of Cultural Studies, exploring how the text negotiates the intersection of modernity and tradition within the context of Nigerian childhood. The story presents a young boy’s transformative encounter with Yoruba culture, using the masquerade festival as a metaphor for cultural continuity and identity formation. Drawing on Cultural Studies perspectives that view culture as dynamic, contested, and lived, this paper argues that Mayowa and the Masquerades redefines the relationship between the modern child and indigenous traditions, presenting the child as a symbolic bridge through which cultural transmission and renewal occur. The analysis underscores how storytelling functions not only as entertainment but also as a site of cultural education, resistance to cultural erosion, and affirmation of communal identity in a rapidly globalising world.