From the gift of affection to the commodity of the occult: Bodies, persons and witchcraft in Africa.

Considering kinship/gender as the prime mode of production of persons, I see these as the embodiment of social relations that can be also put in circulation in morally and emotionally invested objects that transfer the properties of persons to others. These objects are concretions of society and history, vessels of relations and social memory. Social relations are necessarily contradictory. The difficulties and failures to build a sociality may explain ho in many parts of Sub!Saharan "frica witchcraft is understood as the ever!present #dark side of kinship$ and conviviality. This is structural anomie is perceived to be increasingly manifesting in post!colonial "frica, undergoing ne forms of social stress. In the supposedly globali%ing orld, capital is said to become the universally dominant form of social relation. "frica is seen as one of several regions in the #&lobal South$ here capitalist penetration encounters communal, person!centred socialities. The characteristic informal net orks of social interaction and exchange that permeate all structures inform an #economy of affection$. In such a system, #the production of persons$ as embodied social relations has not yielded to an economy based on #the production of things$ as socially detached objects of ealth. The determinant role of commodities and money as the vessels of social relations in capitalism comes precisely from its invisibili%ing alienation from production and producers' labour and persons. Instead of the alienation in commodity fetishism, in person!centred communal systems most forms of transactions (interactions, communications, exchanges, etc.) outside *and many times inside+ of market spheres of exchange may be morally charged and emotionally invested. This might be particularly true of those "frican societies also formally characteri%ed as #gift economies$. *These are systems of #delayed!return$ of value as produced by the labour of persons+. They make possible the deliberate e,uation of persons (or parts of persons) ith their labour, as it is transferred to objects that circulate as gifts. These are given in expectation of forming enduring personal bonds. -bjects are not alienated from subjects. .ealth is the visible accumulation of social relations. Social capital is based there on the accumulation of persons (as labourers) through many morally ambivalent forms of social reproduction and recruitment *of dependants and clients+ (polygamy and child fostering, con,uest and arfare, servitude and enslavement, etc.) managed by different hierarchical and asymmetrical distributions of po er (gender, age, ethnic and even class stratifications) and correspondent allocation of resources (land, ater, game, technologies). In the current social landscape of economic and political disorder here "frican societies are captured by the neoliberal capitalism of globali%ation, the informal, interpersonal economies of affection that have provided enduring social security also incorporate #occult$ and #shado $ economies. /aily life is permeated by gender, transgenerational, racial, ethnic, religious, economic conflicts, violence and arfare,

political corruption, migrant labour, unemployment, displaced and refugee populations, urbani%ation that rescales and stretches local ties over their capacity to reciprocate, disease (prominently 0I1!"I/S), the sex trade, drug, arm ( eapons) and human trafficking, etc. 2ut everyday life also sees a perceived surge in itchcraft accusations circulated by resentful gossip and rumours about illicitly obtained success and ill!obtained material ealth. "ncestors, spirits, and the /evil of the missionaries are said to transfer po er (in the form of money, commodities and influence) to the malicious living through tributes and sacrifices (cannibalism, killings and murders) of person!charged objects and bodily substances (blood, fat) and parts (organs, members, etc.). 3ersonal and community violence is also enacted in sorcery attacks and reacted by anti! itchcraft legislation and atrocious itch hunts that "frican political institutions and organi%ations have not failed to take seriously, as no one doubts its reality and ordinariness. If the tensions expressed in itchcraft accusations during pre!colonial times ere the dark side of kinship as a traditional and long enduring mode of producing sociality, recent manifestations of itchcraft in social exchanges are the embodiment of a historical consciousness. .itchcraft is the social memory of colonialism, neo! colonialism, "partheid, #underdevelopment$, neoliberalism, and other forms of "frican #modernity$ that hit "frican bodies and ruin "frican socialities. 4et if itchcraft accusations are the product of oppression, despair, and ine,uality under conditions of globali%ation, it must be remembered that itchcraft does entail practices of healing and conflict resolution, social reparation and redistribution. 0o ever distorted, the "frican economies of affection still transfer *communal+ solidarity, hope and security from person to person.