CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION IN AFRICA

240pp., b/w & colour illus., paperback, Johannesburg, 2019

"This fascinating, nuanced and persuasive volume combines sophisticated theoretical expositions with a high level of empirical inquiry. Taken together, the essays provide an important entry into the study of consumption in Africa, and indeed make a serious intervention into current socio-political concerns." Robert Ross, Professor of African History Emeritus, Leiden University

"This volume offers a summary of the relevance of consumption as a terrain of meaning-making to South African public debates. It will convince readers that much more is going on with consuming practices than the media sometimes solicits. In particular, it brings attention to an abiding tension in discussions around ‘consumption’: normative expectations of societal values entailed in such phenomenon as ‘conspicuous consumption’ are set against the symbolic practices illustrated through the performative, visual presentation of status (and claims and counterclaims to it)." Bridget Kenny, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand

Contributions include:
"Changes in the Order of Things: department stores and the making of modern Cape Town" by Deborah Posel
"Jacob Zuma's Shamelessness: conspicuous consumption, politics and religion" by Hana van Wyk
"Conspicuous Queer Consumption: emulation and honour in the pink map" by Bradley Rink
"Recycling Consumption: political power and elite wealth in Angola" by Claudia Gastrow
"Chiluba's Trunks: consumption, excess and the body politics in Zambia" by Karen Tranberg Hansen.

Deborah Posel is Professor of Sociology at the University of Cape Town. She is the founding director of the Institute for Humanities in Africa, where she is based. She is the author of The Making of Apartheid, 1948-1961 and co-editor of Commissioning the Past.
Hana van Wyk is a lecturer in Anthropology at Stellenbosch University. She is the author of A Church of Strangers.