Conspicuous Consumption in Africa

Stephen Sparks, Karen Tranberg Hansen, Nina Sylvanus, Bradley Rink, Rogers Orock, Jabulani Mnisi, Adeline Masquelier, Pamila Gupta, Claudia Gastrow, Sophie Chevalier, Joni Brenner, Ilana Wyk, Deborah Posel

Description

From early department stores in Cape Town to gendered histories of sartorial success in urban Togo, contestations over expense accounts at an apartheid state enterprise, elite wealth and political corruption in Angola and Zambia, the role of popular religion in the political intransigence of Jacob Zuma, funerals of big men in Cameroon, youth cultures of consumption in Niger and South Africa, queer consumption in Cape Town, middle-class food consumption in Durban and the consumption of luxury handcrafted beads, this collection of essays explores the ways in which conspicuous consumption is foregrounded in various African contexts and historical moments.
The essays in Conspicuous Consumption in Africa put Thorstein Veblen’s concept under robust critical scrutiny, delving into the pleasures, stresses and challenges of consuming in its religious, generational, gendered and racialised aspects, revealing conspicuous consumption as a layered set of practices, textures and relations. This volume shows how central and revealing conspicuous consumption can be to fathoming the history of Africa’s projects of modernity, and their global lineages and legacies. In its grounded, up-close case studies, it is likely to feed into current public debates on the nature and future of African societies – South African society in particular.
Acknowledgements

List of Illustrations

Chapter 1 Thinking with Veblen: Case Studies from Africa’s Past and Present - Deborah Posel and Ilana van Wyk  

Chapter 2 Changes in the Order of Things: Department Stores and the Making of Modern Cape Town – Deborah Posel

Chapter 3 Conspicuously Public: Gendered Histories of Sartorial and Social Success in Urban Togo – Nina Sylvanus

Chapter 4 Etienne Rousseau, Broedertwis and the Politics of Consumption within Afrikanerdom – Stephen Sparks

Chapter 5 Recycling Consumption: Political Power and Elite Wealth in Angola – Claudia Gastrow

Chapter 6 Chiluba’s Trunks: Consumption, Excess and the Body Politic in Zambia – Karen Tranberg Hansen

Chapter 7 Jacob Zuma’s Shamelessness: Conspicuous Consumption, Politics and Religion – Ilana van Wyk

Chapter 8 Precarious ‘Bigness’: A ‘Big Man’, his Women and his Funeral in Cameroon – Rogers Orock

Chapter 9 Young Men of Leisure? Youth, Conspicuous Consumption and the Performativity of Dress in Niger – Adeline Masquelier

Chapter 10 Booty on Fire: Looking at Izikhothane with Thorstein Veblen  – Jabulani G Mnisi

Chapter 11 Conspicuous Queer Consumption: Emulation and Honour in the Pink Map – Bradley Rink

Chapter 12 The Politics and Moral Economy of Middle-Class Consumption in South Africa – Sophie Chevalier

Chapter 13 Marigold Beads: Who Needs Diamonds?! – Joni Brenner and Pamila Gupta

Contributors

Index

Sujets

• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Cultural studies
• Anthropology
• Social
• Culture

Informations

• Publié par: WITS University Press
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781776143665
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION IN AFRICA
CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION IN AFRICA
EDITED BY DEBORAH POSEL AND ILANA VAN WYK
Published in South Africa by:
Wits University Press
1 Jan Smuts Avenue
Johannesburg 2001
www.witspress.co.za
Compilation Editors 2019
Chapters Individual contributors 2019
Published edition Wits University Press 2019
Images and figures Copyright holders
First published 2019
http://dx.doi.org.10.18772/22019053641
978-1-77614-364-1 (Paperback)
978-1-77614-365-8 (Web PDF)
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978-1-77614-466-2 (Hardback)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher, except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act, Act 98 of 1978.
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Indexer: Margaret Ramsay
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CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1 THINKING WITH VEBLEN: CASE STUDIES FROM AFRICA S PAST AND PRESENT
Deborah Posel and Ilana van Wyk
2 CHANGES IN THE ORDER OF THINGS: DEPARTMENT STORES AND THE MAKING OF MODERN CAPE TOWN
Deborah Posel
3 CONSPICUOUSLY PUBLIC: GENDERED HISTORIES OF SARTORIAL AND SOCIAL SUCCESS IN URBAN TOGO
Nina Sylvanus
4 ETIENNE ROUSSEAU, BROEDERTWIS AND THE POLITICS OF CONSUMPTION WITHIN AFRIKANERDOM
Stephen Sparks
5 RECYCLING CONSUMPTION: POLITICAL POWER AND ELITE WEALTH IN ANGOLA
Claudia Gastrow
6 CHILUBA S TRUNKS: CONSUMPTION, EXCESS AND THE BODY POLITIC IN ZAMBIA
Karen Tranberg Hansen
7 JACOB ZUMA S SHAMELESSNESS: CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION, POLITICS AND RELIGION
Ilana van Wyk
8 PRECARIOUS BIGNESS : A BIG MAN , HIS WOMEN AND HIS FUNERAL IN CAMEROON
Rogers Orock
9 YOUNG MEN OF LEISURE? YOUTH, CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION AND THE PERFORMATIVITY OF DRESS IN NIGER
Adeline Masquelier
10 BOOTY ON FIRE: LOOKING AT IZIKHOTHANE WITH THORSTEIN VEBLEN
Jabulani G Mnisi
11 CONSPICUOUS QUEER CONSUMPTION: EMULATION AND HONOUR IN THE PINK MAP
Bradley Rink
12 THE POLITICS AND MORAL ECONOMY OF MIDDLE-CLASS CONSUMPTION IN SOUTH AFRICA
Sophie Chevalier
13 MARIGOLD BEADS: WHO NEEDS DIAMONDS?!
Joni Brenner and Pamila Gupta
CONTRIBUTORS
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We gratefully acknowledge the A W Mellon Foundation s financial contribution to the two workshops at the Institute for Humanities in Africa, University of Cape Town, that have resulted in this edited collection. The contributors to this volume have participated enthusiastically and generously; we thank them for their intellectual investment in the project. We would also like to thank the reviewers of the volume and the Wits University Press team.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


Figure 1 Garlicks store, Cape Town. First appeared in The Cape Register , 26 August 1893. Courtesy University of Cape Town Libraries.
Figure 2 A wax-cloth trader arranging her stall in the Lom textile market. Photograph by Nina Sylvanus.
Figure 3 Photographic collage of Sasolburg cars by Jacques Bernard. Used with permission.
Figure 4 Etienne Rousseau with Elsie Human, wife of CJF Human, Managing Director of Federale Volksbeleggings, at the company s year-end function, 28 November 1975. Courtesy the Archive for Contemporary Affairs, University of the Free State.
Figure 5 President Frederick Chiluba, with wife Regina Chiluba in the background. Photo by Thomas Nsama/AFP/Getty Images. Courtesy Gallo Images.
Figure 6 Wiz kid dress. Photograph by Adeline Masquelier.
Figure 7 Faire le show. Photograph by Adeline Masquelier.
Figure 8 The Good Fellas designer shoes. Photograph by Mpho Sekatane. Courtesy The Good Fellas.
Figure 9 The Good Fellas buying expensive alcohol. Photograph by Mpho Sekatane. Courtesy The Good Fellas.
Figure 10 The Good Fellas posing at the Civic Centre in Kempton Park. Photograph by Siyabonga Mhlanga. Courtesy The Good Fellas.
Figure 11 Cover image of 2001 edition of the Pink Map . Courtesy A&C Maps. www.mapmyway.co.za
Figure 12 Strands of Marigold hand-loomed beads can be worn in endless combinations to glamorous effect. Photograph by Liz Whitter.
Figure 13 Marigold hand-loomed beads in five variations on the pixellated Camouflage design. Photograph by Liz Whitter.
Figure 1: Garlicks store, Cape Town. First appeared in The Cape Register , 26 August 1893. Courtesy University of Cape Town Libraries.

Figure 2: A wax-cloth trader arranging her stall in the Lom textile market. Photograph by Nina Sylvanus.

Figure 3: Photographic collage of Sasolburg cars by Jacques Bernard. Used with permission.

Figure 4: Etienne Rousseau with Elsie Human, wife of CJF Human, Managing Director of Federale Volksbeleggings, at the company s year-end function, 28 November 1975. Courtesy the Archive for Contemporary Affairs, University of the Free State.

Figure 5: President Frederick Chiluba, with wife Regina Chiluba in the background. Photo by Thomas Nsama/AFP/Getty Images. Courtesy Gallo Images.

Figure 6: Wiz kid dress. Photograph by Adeline Masquelier.

Figure 7: Faire le show. Photograph by Adeline Masquelier.

Figure 8: The Good Fellas designer shoes. Photograph by Mpho Sekatane. Courtesy The Good Fellas.

Figure 9: The Good Fellas buying expensive alcohol. Photograph by Mpho Sekatane. Courtesy The Good Fellas.

Figure 10: The Good Fellas posing at the Civic Centre in Kempton Park. Photograph by Siyabonga Mhlanga. Courtesy The Good Fellas.

Figure 11: Cover image of 2001 edition of the Pink Map . Courtesy A C Maps. www.mapmyway.co.za

Figure 12: Strands of Marigold hand-loomed beads can be worn in endless combinations to glamorous effect. Photograph by Liz Whitter.

Figure 13: Marigold hand-loomed beads in five variations on the pixellated Camouflage design. Photograph by Liz Whitter.
1 THINKING WITH VEBLEN: CASE STUDIES FROM AFRICA S PAST AND PRESENT
DEBORAH POSEL AND ILANA VAN WYK
T horstein Veblen ( 2003 [ 1899 ]) coined the phrase conspicuous consumption in his critique of nineteenth-century American society, as an indictment of the extent to which the need for personal recognition - or honour, as he put it - was vested in public displays of material acquisition. The phrase immediately caught on, infiltrating vocabularies of social commentary and popular conversation in the United States of America (USA) and beyond. In the present moment, more than a century later, it has self-evident resonance with experiences of ostentatious accumulation across the world.
There are some striking resemblances between the USA of the late nineteenth century, about which Veblen was writing, and many parts of the world today - including Africa: buoyant if uneven economic growth; rampant and loosely regulated accumulation; rapid upward mobility in the higher reaches of society coupled with abiding or deepening poverty and marginality for most; insufficient government action to manage or ameliorate the inequalities. The Africa Rising narrative informs some of these trends on the continent. From the early 2000s, a number of influential authors, publications and institutions, including The Financial Times, The Economist, the BBC and The International Monetary Fund, 1 have reported that growing access to the Internet and mobile phones (Mutiga Flood 2016 ), an increase in consumer spending and growth in entrepreneurship have marked a new epoch of rapid economic growth across the African continent (Mahajan 2009 ; Taylor 2014 ). Combined with the rise of a new middle class, there has been much optimism that this unprecedented growth would translate into increasing incomes across the continent. Critics have pointed out, however, that Africa s rise has not translated into economic democracy, and the small middle class appears more interested in its own meteoric rise and conspicuous consumption than in economic justice (Akwagyiram 2013 ; Fabricius 2015 ; Johnson 2015; Wadongo 2014 ).
As inequalities on the continent deepen, conspicuous consumption has become both the sign of such differentiation and the symbolic register within which much political, social and cultural criticism is couched (Dosekun 2015 ; Iqani 2016 ; Mbembe 2004 ; Spronk 2014 ). In global news on Africa, conspicuous consumption is often central to the ways in which controversial public figures and events are construed. Consider, for example, the ousting of former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe in 2017. Countless articles and commentaries have focused on his, and his family s, opulent lifestyle. Gucci Grace - the satirical name given to his wife - has come under particular scrutiny for her infamous international shopping trips, lavishly expensive jewellery, imported Rolls Royces as well as for the substantial sums she spends on spoiling her two party-loving adult sons (Allison 2017). The alarm over excessive conspicuous consumption in Africa also spills over into trends in popular culture. International media articles on sapeurs in West Africa (Doig 2014 ), mobile phones across Africa (Mutiga Flood 2016 ) and elaborate coffins in Ghana (Jansen 2016 ), for example, are centrally about conspicuous consumption in contexts of extreme poverty.
Under these conditions, then, boldly extravagant consumption, across gender and generation, is read as an emphatic - sometimes hyperbolic - assertion of social, economic and/or political status. Framing African conspicuous consumption in this way is not unique, of co