Gift, Sacrifice, and Sorcery: The Moral Economy of Alms in Senegal

Abstract In 2010, Senegal was gripped by a strange rumor known as the “death offering”: a mysterious individual driving a 4×4 was said to be distributing alms that killed all who accepted them. The story made the headlines, and several individuals accused of making deadly offerings were beaten by crowds. In this article, we show that the rumor destabilizes the everyday routines of charity and the religious solidarity that underpins them. In the context of Senegalese Islam, the rumor thus exposes the ambiguities inherent in the moral economy of alms (or sarax in Wolof). This paradigmatic case of the poisoned gift reveals a grey area between religion, magic, and sorcery. It also anxiously questions the relation between gift and sacrifice, two classic concepts in anthropology since Marcel Mauss.