Conspicuous Consumption in Africa

Ilana van Wyk is a lecturer in Anthropology at Stellenbosch University and former editor-in-chief of Anthropology Southern Africa.Deborah Posel is a professor of Sociology at the University of Cape Town, based in the Institute for Humanities in Africa, of which she was the founding director.

"This fascinating, nuanced and persuasive volume combines sophisticated theoretical expositions with a high level of empirical inquiry. Taken together, the essays provide an important entry into the study of consumption in Africa, and indeed make a serious intervention into current socio-political concerns." - Robert Ross,Professor of African History Emeritus, Leiden University, the Netherlands "This volume offers a summary of the relevance of consumption as a terrain of meaningmaking to South African public debates. It will convince readers that much more is going on with consuming practices than the media sometimes solicits. In particular, it brings attention to an abiding tension in discussions around & consumption: normative expectations of societal values entailed in such phenomenon as & conspicuous consumption are set against the symbolic practices illustrated through the performative, visual presentation of status (and claims and counterclaims to it)." - Bridget Kenny,Associate Professor of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

• AcknowledgementsList of IllustrationsChapter 1 Thinking with Veblen: Case Studies from Africa’s Past and Present - Deborah Posel and Ilana van WykChapter 2 Changes in the Order of Things: Department Stores and the Making of Modern Cape Town – Deborah PoselChapter 3 Conspicuously Public: Gendered Histories of Sartorial and Social Success in Urban Togo – Nina SylvanusChapter 4 Etienne Rousseau, Broedertwis and the Politics of Consumption within Afrikanerdom – Stephen SparksChapter 5 Recycling Consumption: Political Power and Elite Wealth in Angola – Claudia GastrowChapter 6 Chiluba’s Trunks: Consumption, Excess and the Body Politic in Zambia – Karen Tranberg HansenChapter 7 Jacob Zuma’s Shamelessness: Conspicuous Consumption, Politics and Religion – Ilana van WykChapter 8 Precarious ‘Bigness’: A ‘Big Man’, his Women and his Funeral in Cameroon – Rogers OrockChapter 9 Young Men of Leisure? Youth, Conspicuous Consumption and the Performativity of Dress in Niger – Adeline MasquelierChapter 10 Booty on Fire: Looking at Izikhothane with Thorstein Veblen – Jabulani G MnisiChapter 11 Conspicuous Queer Consumption: Emulation and Honour in the Pink Map – Bradley RinkChapter 12 The Politics and Moral Economy of Middle-Class Consumption in South Africa – Sophie ChevalierChapter 13 Marigold Beads: Who Needs Diamonds?! – Joni Brenner and Pamila GuptaContributorsIndex