[p2p-research] Mali's Gift Economy — YES! Magazine

[Ryan Lanham]

I'd just point out that Mali is a poster child for corruption in
Africa...often ranked as one of a very few most corrupt nations on earth.
I'd strongly suspect the "gifts" are often a rationalization for corrupt
processes.

The Peace Corps has been there a long time but sends very few people because
the corruption is so difficult to overcome and the social groups (tribes)
that make up the nation are highly separated and very devisive...I don't
know about dama, but I've known Peace Corps folks who love and work hard in
other jobs in Africa who have told me Mali is a version of hell on
earth...poor treatment of women (e.g. a leader in female "circumcision"),
very corrupt processes, serious intergroup (tribal) violence, etc.

There are many means and modes of collective action and sharing in Africa
including local insurance schemes against AIDS in Kenya, etc. that are very
understudied.  Maybe dama is part of those ranks.  Association with Mali
certainly suggests it should get more scrutiny before it is moved into the
"ideal" column, in my opinion.

Ryan


On Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 11:10 PM, Paul D. Fernhout <
pdfernhout at kurtz-fernhout.com> wrote:

> Michel mentioned a video related to Mali's gift economy in April, but here
> is a recent article on it and an excerpt:
>  "Mali's Gift Economy "
>  http://www.yesmagazine.org/economies/malis-gift-economy
> """
>  In one study in Bamako, each person gave an average of 1.5 gifts per day.
> Another study found that gifts account for 18% of total expenditures among
> Malian villagers, comprising the largest single category. Presents are
> passed along everywhere: a small household decoration, change to buy a
> school notebook. When a family’s harvest of millet or peanuts is ready, they
> pass on a portion to the homes around them. If a household is hosting
> guests, neighbors will typically send over food. ... Lines of giving are
> complex and often circuitous.
>  “You never know how it will come back. But you have to give because you
> can’t let the cord break with you,” explains IEP backbone Maria Diarra. She
> tells of helping a man in the community some years back. Now the man’s
> sister brings Maria’s family gifts of charcoal and food, gives them rides,
> and visits whenever she comes to Kati.
>  “Maybe the link gets broken in a larger community," says Coumba. "But when
> you are in a community where everyone believes that, it really does work.”
> ...
>  Western academics are often tempted, as one of them noted, to delineate “a
> radical break between premodern and modern cultures, with the gift reserved
> for the premodern, while we must deal through the market and the state.”  We
> are to believe that, as capitalism developed and exchange systems spread,
> markets supplanted morals and gifting was destroyed.
>  Certainly the messages many of us got from childhood to accumulate riches
> and spend them on ourselves, strive to make that theory real. And yet, in
> the most consumptive nation on earth, gifts are given frequently,
> spontaneously, and without thought of reciprocity. One gift advocate offers
> this analysis: “We just don’t have the right glasses on to see the gifting
> happening all around us. We see it as exchange manqué or only a defensive
> position of those who aren’t capable of exchange.”
>  In fact, people in the U.S. give infinite forms of services and goods to
> family and friends, neighbors, and strangers without calculation of return.
> We give where there is no emotional tie, no reciprocity, and often (in the
> case of a donation to a community organization, for example) not even a
> thanks from the ultimate recipient. We give anonymously; think of those
> multi-million dollar donations from unnamed individuals reported from time
> to time in the newspaper. We push strangers’ cars, give their batteries a
> jump in a parking lot, shovel snow from elderly neighbors’ walks, leave tips
> for waitresses we’ll never see again. We even donate organs. In 2005, people
> in the U.S. gave $260.28 billion to non-profits and charities, and 61.2
> million volunteered, with each person giving a median of 52 hours per year.
> ...
>  dama is under threat by the neoliberal marketplace that is converting much
> of the gifting sphere to exchange relationships, monetizing the economy, and
> placing a dollar value on many forms of worth. West Africans’ challenge
> today is to keep dama thriving despite the expansion of markets,
> advertising, and cash transactions. A canary in the proverbial coal mine,
> dama is an indicator of how well cultural traditions can hold up under
> conditions of globalization.
>  What is certain is that dama will survive in at least a subterranean way,
> as do other gifting and solidarity economies throughout the world. Also
> certain is that dama and other non-market economies will remain strong and
> viable only if organized movements vigorously defend them. ...
> """
>
> --Paul Fernhout
> http://www.pdfernhout.net/
>
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