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Fishing in Troubled Waters: Disquettes and Thiofs in Dakar

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Francis B. Nyamnjoh
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Abstract

This discussion traces metaphors of consumerism, commoditized sex and sexified commodities that proliferate throughout urban Africa, signalling the intensified globalization of images of desire and opportunity, on the one hand, and chronic poverty and destitution, on the other. Focusing on sexual economies in Dakar as a case in point, the paper attempts an analysis of how, in situations of increasing scarcity and transurban articulations, language, sex, possession, loss, self-construction and self-corruption mutually shape each other. The paper seeks to represent the textures and intricacies that arise as the interdependencies among status, pleasure, appropriation, seduction and livelihood are worked out. It examines how these operations themselves elaborate a landscape of possibilities always on the verge of overflowing established sense and sentiments, yet somehow reined in, held, albeit in a highly tenuous relationship, to what is known and valued. The city makes itself urban, despite the nearly impossible economic and political conditions it faces, through a capacity to narrate these tales of fishing (as well as fishy stories), but also always trying to chase, to catch up with its capacity to proliferate words. Written against the background of the threat posed by HIV/AIDS in Africa, the paper also draws attention to the need for further scholarly research on the lethal cocktail of the twin globalization of consumerism and poverty in marginal sites of accumulation pregnant with contradictions and uncertainties such as Africa.

Résumé

La présente analyse vise à rechercher les motivations réelles du consumérisme, du marché du sexe et des relations sexuelles monnayées qui prolifèrent à travers les villes africaines, illustrant ainsi la mondialisation accrue des images de désir et d'ouverture d'une part, ainsi que la pauvreté et la déchéance chroniques d'autre part. En se basant notamment sur l'exemple des économies sexuelles de Dakar, cet exposé essaie d'analyser la manière dont la langue, le sexe, le besoin de jouissance, le chagrin, l'autodétermination et l'auto corruption interfèrent dans un contexte de pénurie grandissante et d'interconnexions urbaines. L'analyse se propose de présenter la structure et les complexités qui naissent de l'interdépendance des facteurs tels que le statut, le plaisir, l'autodétermination, la séduction et les moyens d'existence, tout en examinant la manière dont ces derniers offrent un éventail d'opportunités ayant toujours un lien avec les innombrables idées et sentiments préconçus, mais pourtant refoulés et contenus d'une certaine manière, parfois dans un contexte extrêmement difficile, au regard des normes et valeurs établis. La ville s'urbanise, en dépit de la situation politique et économique inimaginable à laquelle elle fait face, grâce à sa capacité de narrer des histoires de pêeche (y compris ces histoires louches), mais aussi de poursuivre et de rattraper son retard dans la création de mots. Le présent exposé, qui a été rédigé dans un contexte où l'Afrique est menacée par la pandémie du VIH/SIDA, pose également le problème de la nécessité de mener des recherches plus savantes sur le danger mortel que représente la mondialisation du consumérisme et de la pauvreté dans des milieux marginalisés et pleins de contradictions tels que l'Afrique.

Type
Articles
Information
Africa , Volume 75 , Issue 3 , August 2005 , pp. 295 - 324
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2005

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