Forensics of Capital

Michael Ralph

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9780226198576, 9780226198439
• eBook ISBN: 9780226198606
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Social Sciences

As one of Africa's few democracies, Senegal has long been thought of as a leader of moral, political, and economic development on the continent. We tend to assume that any such nation has achieved favorable international standing due to its own merits. In Forensics of Capital, Michael Ralph upends this kind of conventional thinking, showing how Senegal's diplomatic standing was strategically forged in the colonial and postcolonial eras at key periods of its history and is today entirely contingent on the consensus of wealthy and influential nations and international lending agencies.
           
Ralph examines Senegal's crucial and pragmatic decisions related to its development and how they garnered international favor, decisions such as its opposition to Soviet involvement in African liberation—despite itself being a socialist state—or its support for the US-led war on terror—despite its population being predominately Muslim. He shows how such actions have given Senegal an inflated political and economic position and status as a highly credit-worthy nation even as its domestic economy has faltered. Exploring these and many other aspects of Senegal's political economy and its interface with the international community, Ralph demonstrates that the international reputation of any nation—not just Senegal—is based on deep structural biases. 

INDEX

accidental death, concept of, 34–35, 61–62, 66

accounting and accountability: agriculture and, 69–74, 139–41; compensation for fatal accidents and, 61–62; conscription linked to citizenship in French colonies and, 63–65; democracy and, 85–87; double-entry bookkeeping, 40, 41, 158n86; governance and, ix, 20, 29–30, 33–34, 36–37, 39–41, 89–91, 111–12, 137–38, 139, 153n34; human sacrifice and, 60–61; individuality and, 36–37; problem of, 59–74; as surveillance technology, 40–41. See also credit/debit systems; jurisprudence

“act of God,” 35

adoption (as term), 66–67

Adorno, Theodor, 134

Aferwerki, Isaias, 82

African Americans: dealings of with Senegalese traders, 107; as visitors to West Africa, 108–9, 166n2, 169n38

African Union, 95–96

AFRICOM, 75–78, 80–81

Agamben, Giorgio, The Kingdom and the Glory, 150n8

Akon, 93, 107–8, 170nn52–53

Alain, Jean-Jacques, 24

Alexander, Amanda, “A Disciplining Method for Holding Standards Down,” 168n30

Algeria: Faidherbe in, 63; militarized insurgents in, 94–95

al-Qaeda and affiliates, viii, 95

al-Shabaab, 82

Angola, 149n3, 168–69n31

Anidjar, Gil, 150n8

Annan, Kofi, Interventions, 161n11

Antistius, 35

Arab Spring, 76, 78, 164n3

attaya. See tea-making rituals in Senegal

“Attaya” (Positive Black Soul), 126

autopsies, 35–36

baadoolo (powerless), 68–69

Baba, 121, 122

Bamba, Cheikh Amadu: French arrest of, 1–2; French dealings with, 66, 73–74; leadership of, 3, 50

Bank of England, 33

Barros, João de, 149n3

Bellay, Julien du, 21

Bemoim, Wolof king, 11, 14–15, 150n5, 150nn7–8; assassination of, 12–13, 151–52nn13–14

Benin, British invasion of, 161n11

Bénis, Marie Paul, 24

Benno Siggil, 138

Berlin Conference (1885), 58

beykat (farmer), 69–72

Bineta, 93, 127

Bin Laden, Osama, 166n6

Birla, Ritu, 162n13

Blanchot de ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Prologue
• Introduction
• ONE / Forensics of Capital
• TWO / Capacity for Governance
• THREE / Problem of Accountability
• FOUR / Diplomatic Profile
• FIVE / Forensic Profile
• SIX / Production of Capital
• Coda
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Index