Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-fqc5m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T16:37:59.173Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

REHABILITATING THE HOARD: THE SOCIAL DYNAMICS OF UNBANKING IN AFRICA AND BEYOND

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 October 2014

Abstract

If a thriving capitalist economy relies on the innumerable small deposits of savings that local people place in banks, then ‘unbanking’ represents a threat to just such an economy. And yet, across the globe, billions remain outside the formal banking sector, thereby reducing the ability of formal banks to set these savings in motion. This unbanking has been the subject of many reports and studies by economists, corporations and non-profit organizations, but unbanking never seems to diminish. Indeed, by all accounts, it continues to thrive. In order to offer an alternative explanation for this phenomenon, the author revives an important, age-old distinction between hoarding and saving, while also providing an anthropological survey of alternative modes of saving in Africa. In so doing, the author argues that the critics of unbanking may be ignoring the ways in which banking and unbanking are tied up with subject formation.

Résumé

Dès lors qu'une économie capitaliste florissante est tributaire de l'argent que déposent dans les banques d'innombrables petits épargnants locaux, la « non-bancarisation » représente une menace pour cette économie. Et pourtant, il existe dans le monde des milliards de personnes qui restent en dehors du secteur bancaire formel, réduisant par là-même la capacité des banques formelles à mobiliser cette épargne. Malgré les nombreux rapports et études produits par les économistes, les entreprises et les organisations à but non lucratif au sujet de la non-bancarisation, ce phénomène semble ne jamais décroître. Tout porte à croire même qu'il continue de se développer. Afin d'offrir une autre explication de ce phénomène, l'auteur reprend une très ancienne et importante distinction entre la thésaurisation et l’épargne, tout en offrant une étude anthropologique des différents modes d’épargne en Afrique. Ce faisant, l'auteur suggère que la critique de la non-bancarisation ignore peut-être les manières dont la bancarisation et la non-bancarisation sont liées à la formation du sujet.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aizenman, J. and Lee, J. (2008) ‘Financial versus monetary mercantilism: long-run view of large international reserves hoarding’, World Economy 31 (5): 593611.Google Scholar
Akin, D. and Robbins, J. (eds) (1999) Money and Modernity: state and local currencies in Melanesia. Pittsburgh PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Alighieri, D. (1982) The Inferno. Translated by Ciardi, J.. New York NY: New American Library.Google Scholar
American Indian Lawyer Training Program (1988) Indian Tribes as Sovereign Governments. Oakland CA: AIRI Press.Google Scholar
Ardener, S. (1964) ‘The comparative study of rotating credit associations’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 94 (2): 202–29.Google Scholar
Ardener, S. (2010) ‘Microcredit, money transfers, women, and the Cameroon diaspora’, Afrika Focus 23 (2): 1124.Google Scholar
Ardener, S. and Burman, S. (1995) Money-Go-Rounds: the importance of rotating savings and credit associations for women. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Bagehot, W. (1910) Lombard Street, a Description of the Money Market. London: Smith, Elder & Co.Google Scholar
Bähre, E. (2007) Money and Violence: financial self-help groups in a South African township. Boston MA: Brill.Google Scholar
Bähre, E. (2011) ‘Liberation and redistribution: social grants, commercial insurance, and religious riches in South Africa’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 53 (2): 371–92.Google Scholar
Chaia, A., Dalal, A. et al. (2009) ‘Half the world is unbanked’. Financial Access Initiative Framing Note, October. New York NY: Financial Access Initiative, New York University.Google Scholar
Comaroff, J. and Comaroff, J. L. (1990) ‘Goodly beasts, beastly goods: cattle and commodities in a South African context’, American Ethnologist 17 (2): 195216.Google Scholar
Davies, G. (1997) A History of Money: from ancient times to the present day. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.Google Scholar
De Soto, H. (2000) The Mystery of Capital: why capitalism triumphs in the west and fails everywhere else. New York NY: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Derrida, J. (1978) Writing and Difference. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Elyachar, J. (2002) ‘Empowerment money: the World Bank, non-governmental organizations, and the value of culture in Egypt’, Public Culture 14 (3): 493513.Google Scholar
Ferguson, J. (1990) The Anti-Politics Machine: ‘development’, depoliticization, and bureaucratic power in Lesotho. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ferguson, J. (2013) ‘Declarations of dependence: labour, personhood, and welfare in southern Africa’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 19: 223–42.Google Scholar
Foster, R. (1995) ‘Inalienable possessions’, American Ethnologist 22 (3): 628–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frost, R. O. and Steketee, G. (2010) Stuff: hoarding and the meaning of things. New York NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.Google Scholar
Fullarton, J. (1844) On the Regulation of Currencies; being an examination of the principles on which it is proposed to restrict, within certain fixed limits the future issues on credit of the Bank of England, and the other banking establishments throughout the country. London: John Murray.Google Scholar
Gaonkar, D. P. and Povinelli, E. (2003) ‘Technologies of public forms: circulation, transfiguration, recognition’, Public Culture 15 (3): 385–97.Google Scholar
Geertz, C. (1962) ‘The rotating credit association: a “middle rung” in development’, Economic Development and Cultural Change 10 (3): 241–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godelier, M. (1999) The Enigma of the Gift. Translated by Scott, N.. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Graeber, D. (1996) ‘Beads and money: notes toward a theory of wealth and power’, American Ethnologist 23 (1): 424.Google Scholar
Gregory, C. (1997) Savage Money: the anthropology and politics of commodity exchange. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Gudeman, S. and Rivera, A. (1990) Conversations in Colombia: the domestic economy in life and text. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Guyer, J. I. (ed.) (1995) Money Matters: instability, values, and social payments in the modern history of West African communities. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Guyer, J. I. (2004) Marginal Gains: monetary transactions in Atlantic Africa. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Guyer, J. I. (2007) ‘Prophecy and the near future’, American Ethnologist 34 (3): 409–21.Google Scholar
Guyer, J. I., Denzer, L. and Agbaje, A. (eds) (2002) Money Struggles and City Life: devaluation in Ibadan and other urban centers in southern Nigeria, 1986–1996. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Hann, C. and Hart, K. (2009) Market and Society: the great transformation today. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
James, D. (2012) ‘Money-Go-Round: economies of wealth, aspiration and indebtedness’, Africa 82 (1): 2040.Google Scholar
Keynes, J. M. (1971) The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes. Volume 6: A treatise on money; II: The applied theory of money. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Lepowsky, M. et al. (1995) ‘Book review forum’, Pacific Studies 18 (1): 103–43.Google Scholar
Marx, K. (1981) Capital: a critique of political economy: Volume I. Translated by Fowkes, B.. New York NY: Penguin.Google Scholar
Mill, J. S. (2004 [1848]) Principles of Political Economy. Amherst NY: Prometheus Books.Google Scholar
Mosko, M. (2000) ‘Inalienable ethnography: keeping-while-giving and the Trobriand case’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 6 (3): 377–96.Google Scholar
Parmentier, R. (1994) Signs in Society: studies in semiotic anthropology. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Peebles, G. (2004) ‘The crown capitulates: conflations of national currency and global capital in the Swedish currency crisis’ in Garsten, C. and Lindh de Montoya, M. (eds), Market Matters: exploring cultural processes in the global marketplace. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Peebles, G. (2008) ‘Inverting the panopticon: money and the nationalization of the future’, Public Culture 20 (2): 233–65.Google Scholar
Saussure, F. (1966) Course in General Linguistics. New York NY: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Schwittay, A. (2011) ‘The financial inclusion assemblage: subjects, technics, rationalities’, Critique of Anthropology 31 (4): 381401.Google Scholar
Shipton, P. (1995) ‘How Gambians save: culture and economic strategy at an ethnic crossroads’ in Guyer, J. I. (ed.), Money Matters: instability, values, and social payments in the modern history of West African communities. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Shipton, P. (2010) Credit Between Cultures: farmers, financiers and misunderstanding in Africa. New Haven CT: Yale University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shirras, G. F. (1920) Indian Finance and Banking. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Stiansen, E. and Guyer, J. I. (eds) (1999) Credit, Currencies and Culture. Stockholm: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.Google Scholar
Taussig, M. (1999) Defacement: public secrecy and the labor of the negative. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Thomas, N. (1993) ‘Review of “Inalienable Possessions: the paradox of keeping-while-giving,” by Annette Weiner’, Anthropological Quarterly 66 (3): 162–3.Google Scholar
Valeri, V. (1994) ‘Review of “Inalienable Possessions: the paradox of keeping-while-giving,” by Annette Weiner’, American Anthropologist 96 (2): 446–8.Google Scholar
Weiner, A. (1992) Inalienable Possessions: the paradox of keeping-while-giving. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, H. (1993) ‘Review of “Inalienable Possessions: the paradox of keeping-while-giving,” by Annette Weiner’, Man 28 (4): 852.Google Scholar
Wicksell, K. (1965) Interest and Prices: a study of the causes regulating the value of money. Translated by Kahn, R. F.. New York NY: A. Kelley.Google Scholar