In Search of Tunga: Prosperity, Almighty God, and Lives in Motion in a Malian Provincial Town

This volume on Muslim life focuses on young male migrants of rural origin who move to build better lives in Bougouni, a provincial town in southwest Mali. Describing themselves as “simply Muslims” and “adventurers,” these migrants aim to be both prosperous and good Muslims. Drawing upon eighteen months of fieldwork (2008-2010), author André Chappatte explores their sense of prosperity and piety as they embark on tunga (adventure), a customary search for money and more in a tradition that dates back to the colonial period. The Malian savanna, this former buffer-zone between ancient Mande kingdoms and thereafter remote area of French Sudan, is increasingly becoming central in today’s Sahel contexts of desiccation and insecurity.

André Chappatte is an assistant professor of anthropology at the Global Studies Institute, University of Geneva. He has conducted more than four years of fieldwork between southern Mali, Ivory Coast, and eastern Guinea. His multiple lines of research (e.g. Muslim life; ethics; nightlife; Chinese products) take as their starting point the moral becoming of human experience in West African societies. His analysis is influenced by social thought, human geography, and phenomenological writing. In charge of the Swiss National Fund research project “The contemporary expansion of corporate Islam in rural West Africa” (https://cecirwa.hypotheses.org/), he is also writing a second monograph called Odienné when Darkness Falls. Urban Places, Night Life and Sensual Politics during the Ivorian Reconciliation Process.
 

Book Presentation by André Chappatte (Université de Genève)

Discussant: Benedikt Pontzen

Chair: Ulrike Freitag (ZMO)

The event will be held hybrid.
You can register via the following link.