{"id":1393,"date":"2015-12-22T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-22T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/?p=1393"},"modified":"2016-10-27T14:18:35","modified_gmt":"2016-10-27T13:18:35","slug":"a-gift-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2015\/12\/22\/a-gift-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"A Gift-Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christmas is a time when we exchange gifts in many countries \u2013<\/strong> not the most important aspect of Christmas, though related to its authentic meaning.<\/a> This reminds me of a story I heard. An American manager participated in a Corporate Social Responsibility program aimed at capacity-building in Africa. On a visit to a small village, and trying to adapt to local customs he brought a kit of company products for the Chief. He then shared pictures of this\u00a0enjoyable time in a Facebook report of the trip. And that\u2019s when trouble began.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s Legal Department saw the pictures: they thought someone could interpret them as an attempt to bribe the Chief. The manager almost got fired. I should say that the company is in the Fast Consumer Goods sector, and the kit was worth quite a bit.<\/p>\n

\"Indigenous<\/a>
Indigenous handicrafts are a very nice gift<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gifts have different meanings. Institutionalized gift exchange serves as an alternative to markets and hierarchies<\/strong> in some contexts. A gift-economy<\/strong> is a collective allocation of goods based on need and abundance. This traditional exchange mechanism co-exists with the market in some African societies.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I learned about dama<\/em> \u2013 the gift economy system that works in Mali<\/strong> \u2013 in an article by Beverly Bell posted at Yes! Magazine<\/a><\/em>. In essence, \u201cthe person who receives a gift will probably pass it on to someone else. Another person altogether, down the line, will give back to the original giver. Dama<\/em>\u00a0involves return, but from within a broadly defined community to which the gift has moved on.\u201d*<\/p>\n

According to Bell, dama<\/em> serves several purposes:<\/strong><\/p>\n