Why is the president of Malawi angry? Towards an ethnography of corruption

摘要

This paper revisits African ‘corruption’. Perennial issues about how to define, measure and manage ‘corruption’ have, up until now, been controlled within the Western neo‐colonialist prerogative. The paper illustrates the power of the Western gaze on African ‘corruption’ by considering the most popular measure of African ‘corruption’ and exposing hitherto undetected symbioses between it and the pre‐requisite requirements of corporations doing international business in Africa. Using post‐colonial theory, the paper mounts an epistemic challenge to the Western appropriation of African ‘corruption’ in much the same way that black scholars have mounted epistemic confrontations against the external construction of Africa. An alternative epistemic is presented. It is based on an ethnographic perspective that problematises ‘corruption’ and remembers culture.View full textDownload full textKeywordscorruption measurement, Corruption Perceptions Index, Africa, ethnographyRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14759551003769292