Abstract
There are many tales of money magic in present-day South Africa. For instance, a snake emerges from an ATM, is borne away in a car and disgorges money; seductive, perilous wealth-giving spirits lie in wait for the unwary; vendors of wealth-giving magic market their wares on social media; heaps of money materialise and transmute into snakes; and rats that bring wealth are purchased. Nowadays, with South Africa’s ever-intensifying economic crisis, such tales are born of desperation. They are also generated by consumer capitalism that has become a driving force in South African society today, which fosters an insatiable craving for money and prestigious commodities. Such stories are tantalising, with their images of extraordinary affluence and unbridled consumerism. Yet they are also disturbing, imbued with a sense of fear and potential peril. They depict sinister supernatural forces and presences and describe money that vanishes as swiftly and unaccountably as it materialised and the dangers that lie in wait for those that possessed it. Such accounts are suggestive of the near-mystical aura surrounding wealth and the dangerous desires that it arouses in South Africa and other countries where free-market capitalist imperatives hold sway. They also highlight the ephemeral, mutable and transient nature of money, and the risks that may accompany it. Such narratives are suggestive of the way aspects of economics may be transferred into present-day oral narratives, becoming steeped in mystery and magic.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Money, Magic, Narratives
