Money and violence : financial self-help groups in a South African township

This ethnography is about the way in which Xhosa migrants in the townships of Cape Town, South Africa, collectively manage their money in financial self-help groups, also known as financial mutuals. This is an umbrella term for a myriad of collective financial arrangements that are mostly informal. In South Africa they are known locally as 'umgalelo', stokvel, savings, gooi-gooi, throw-throw, back-to-school, 'umasingcwabane', 'umasiphekisane' and 'umasingcedane' and include burial societies, rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCA), and accumulating savings and credit associations (ASCRA). Financial mutuals are islands of hope for Xhosa migrants surrounded by insecurity, unemployment, murder, rape and social conflict. Migrants have de-politicized their financial mutuals and created a place where they can feel secure and trusted and where money is in their control. Particularly women have created these de-politicized social spaces. Based on fieldwork in Indawo Yoxolo, the author explores the nexus of money and social interdependencies within an extremely threatening context, discussing anxiety among members of financial mutuals, the fragility of solidarity and trust, as well as the emergence of conflicts with kin, household members, and neighbours, over desperately needed money, and its consumption. [ASC Leiden abstract]

http://opc-ascl.oclc.org/PPN?PPN=301921369