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Abstract: Sakawa indexes a cyberfraud practice in Ghana allegedly linked with occult rituals. This article examines the phenomenon as an analytically relevant example of a material understanding of religion. It then offers a critical reading of a popular sakawa video series and contrasts its thematic perspectives with the reactions of some Ghanaian political leaders to the possible motivations for the practice. This critical approach is conceived as a response to the persistent myopic view of such popular genres as irrelevant to key debates around problematic Ghanaian issues and also to calls in global media studies to de-Westernize the field.
Résumé: Les rituels Sakawa indiquent une pratique de la cyber-fraude au Ghana qui serait liée à des rituels occultes. Cet article examine le phénomène comme un exemple analytique pertinent d'une interprétation matérielle de la religion. Il propose ensuite une lecture critique de la série populaire vidéo appelée Sakawa et contraste ses perspectives thématiques avec les réactions de certains dirigeants politiques ghanéens aux motivations possibles pour cette pratique. Cette approche critique est conçue comme une réponse à la perspective myope persistante que ces genres populaires ne sont pas pertinents pour les débats sur les problématiques ghanéennes, et aussi comme une réponse aux incitations des études sur les médias globaux à désoccidentaliser le domaine de recherche.
Key Words: Occult rituals; material religion; cyberfraud; popular culture; Ghanaian video
In early June 2008,1 witnessed an incident at Blue Kiosk at Nii Boi Town, Accra. A large group of people were hooting at the driver of a speeding Toyota Corolla who, I learned, was a sakawa boy. Sakawa, a Hausa term coined by youth "cyberfraudsters" from deprived communities in Accra such as Nima, Mamobi, and Lagos Town, refers to a computer-generated fraud associated with occult religious rituals believed to compel victims to accede to the perpetrators' requests.*
This article explores the sakawa phenomenon as it is portrayed in popular Ghanaian videos. It is intended as a response to recent calls in global media studies to internationalize the field (see Nyamnjoh 2011; Thussu 2009), and it also attempts to provide grounded insights into recent theorizations in the fields of religion, media, and culture (see Lynch, Mitchell 8c Strhan 2012). It examines the phenomenon from two major perspectives. First, it looks at...