Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T10:55:48.940Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Currency Devaluation and Rank: The Yoruba and Akan Experiences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2013

Akanmu G. Adebayo
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Jane Guyer has clearly demonstrated in Marginal Gains (2004) that the ranking of people historically was linked to quantitative scales of money. Guyer's study focuses on the Igbo and Ibibio, two societies in which ranking was by achievement rather than ascription. How do ranking and money interface in other African societies with strong monarchical or centralized social systems? What impact does currency instability have on rank in such societies? This paper examines these questions. Focusing on the Yoruba of Nigeria and the Akan of Ghana, it evaluates the degree to which ranking has been affected by currency devaluation and economic instability since the mid-1980s.

Type
Special Issue
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , September 2007 , pp. 87 - 109
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adebayo, A. G. 1999. “Kose-e-mani: Yoruba View of Money and the Development of Financial Institutions in Southwestern Nigeria.” In Stiansen, E. and Guyer, Jane, eds., Credit, Currencies and Culture: African Financial Institutions in Historical Perspective. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikaninstitutet.Google Scholar
Adebayo, A. G.. 1992. “Institutional Frameworks for Money Lending and Loan Repayment among the Yoruba.” Paideuma 38: 163–76.Google Scholar
Adebayo, A. G.. 1994. “Money, Credit and Banking in Precolonial Africa: The Yoruba Experience.” Anthropos 89: 1–21.Google Scholar
Adepoju, Aderanti, ed. 1993. The Impact of Structural Adjustment on the Population of Africa: The Implications for Education, Health and Employment. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Adesina, Olutayo C. 1997. “Presence and Persistence: The Underground Foreign Exchange Market in Nigeria.”Google Scholar
Agbaje, Adigun. 1997. “Devaluation Blues: Ibadan in Nigeria's Political Economy, 1986-1996.”Google Scholar
Agyeman, Dominic. 1996. Continuity and Change in Africa: The Paradox of Development. Accra: Ghana University Press.Google Scholar
Ajayi, S. Ademola. 1997. “The Prosperity Churches: A New Phenomenon in a Depressed Economic Setting.”Google Scholar
Aluko, Mobolaji E. 2001. “The Black (Parallel) Exchange Market Should Be Banned in Africa.” www.afbis.com/analysis/black_market.htm Google Scholar
Amoo, Adunade. 1996. “History of Iwo in Perspective.” Osogbo, Nigeria.Google Scholar
Asamoa, Ansa. 1996. Socio-Economic Development Strategies of Independent African Countries: The Ghanaian Experience. Accra: Ghana University Press.Google Scholar
Enwerem, Iheanyi. 1997. “The ‘Money-Magic’ Phenomenon: A Study of Ritual Killings in Contemporary Nigeria.”Google Scholar
Falola, Toyin, and Adebayo, Akanmu. 2000. Culture, Politics and Money Among the Yoruba. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction.Google Scholar
Guyer, Jane, Denzer, LaRay, and Agbaje, Adigun, eds. 2002. Money Struggles and City Life: Devaluation in Ibadan and other Urban Areas in Southern Nigeria, 1986-1996. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Guyer, Jane, Denzer, LaRay, and Agbaje, Adigun, eds. 2004. Marginal Gains: Monetary Transactions in Atlantic Africa. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Holy, Ladislav, and Stuchlik, Milan, eds. 1968. Social Stratification in Tribal Africa. Prague: Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Igoe, Jim, and Kelsell, Tim. 2004. Between a Rock and a Hard Place: African NGOs, Donors and the State. Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press.Google Scholar
Ikporuko, Chris. 1997. “Decay and Change in Nigeria's Transport Sector: Economic Crisis, the Tokunbo Phenomenon and the Transformation of the Motor Mechanic Trade in Ibadan.”Google Scholar
“Join the Army, Make a Killing.” 1998. The Economist, October 15.Google Scholar
Kendie, S. B., Gharry, N. K. T., and Guri, B. Y.. 2004. Mapping Indigenous Institutions in Southern Ghana. Center for Development Studies Occasional Papers no. 2. Cape Coast, Ghana: University of Cape Coast.Google Scholar
Kendie, Stephen, and Guri, Bernard. 2004. Traditional Institutions, Culture and Development: The Asafo Group in the Mankessim Nkwanta Traditional Area. Center for Development Studies Occasional Paper no.1. Cape Coast, Ghana: University of Cape Coast.Google Scholar
Lensink, Robert. 1996. Structural Adjustment in Sub-Saharan Africa. Harlow, U.K.: Longman.Google Scholar
Lipumba, Nguyuru. 1997. “The Liberalization of Foreign Exchange Markets and Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa.” United Nations University (UNU) World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER): Research for Action 35.Google Scholar
Lloyd, P. C. 1972. “Social Stratification among the Urban Yoruba.” Public Records Office (PRO). EY2/111.Google Scholar
McIver, R. M. 1931. Society: Its Structures and Changes. New York: R. Long & R. R. Smith.Google Scholar
Mkandawire, Thandika, and Olukoshi, Adebayo, eds. 1995. Between Liberalisation and Oppression: The Politics of Structural Adjustment in Africa. Dakar: CODESRIA.Google Scholar
Nadel, S. F. 1955. “The Concept of Social Elites.” International Social Studies Bulletin 7: 413–24Google Scholar
”Nigeria's Currency Black Market: Mission Impossible.” 2002. The Economist, August 1.Google Scholar
Nukunya, G. K. 2003. Tradition and Change in Ghana: An Introduction to Sociology. 2nd edition. Accra: University of Ghana Press.Google Scholar
Oppong, Christine. 1981. Middle Class African Marriage. London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Peil, M. 1972. The Ghanaian Factory Worker. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sahn, David, Dorosh, Paul, and Younger, Stephen. 1997. Structural Adjustment Reconsidered: Economic Policy and Poverty in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sarris, Alexander, and Shams, Hadi. 1991. Ghana under Structural Adjustment: The Impact on Agriculture and the Rural Poor. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Vaughan, Olufemi. 2000. Nigerian Chiefs: Traditional Power and Modern Politics. Rochester, N.Y.: University of Rochester Press.Google Scholar