Smartphones for drugs: exchange relations in a South African gang since apartheid

ABSTRACT

This article outlines the nature of exchange relations between members of the so-called Number Gangs in South Africa. Transactions between these township-based members changed after apartheid with political and economic liberalisation. Through the case of an active gang leader in Cape Town, who was previously a career burglar, I look at the material things that move between members. I argue that transactions inside the gang do not make use of money, but are rather characterised by in-kind exchanges. These have four interdependent outcomes which structure the gang: (1) gifts that shape obligations in young recruits and experienced offenders; (2) enduring barter transactions for the collection of stolen electronics following such gifts; (3) employment in a context of joblessness; and (4) control for leaders.

KEYWORDS:

• Exchange
• the gift
• barter
• gangs
• objects
• technology

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the Editors of this journal for their insightful comments and suggestions. During my visiting fellowship at the Department of Economic Experimentation, at the Max Planck Institute of Social Anthropolology, where an earlier draft of this article was presented, the astute observations and suggestions made by Professor Biao Xiang and colleagues are also greatly appreciated. Finally, I thank Professor Hansjörg Dilger and Professor Sandra Calkins at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Freie Universität Berlin, for their enduring support and insights.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author .

Notes

1 There were other avenues to my ethnographic fieldwork (see Huigen 2020, 2021), but considering the scope of this article – concentrating on local exchange relations in gang formations – I will not discuss their methodological details.

2 Coloured people are the majority population group of the Western Cape province and are of mixed ancestry. While this racial label was constructed by colonial and apartheid administrations – as other racial classifications – most of my interlocutors in the underworld identified as Cape coloured.

3 ‘White man’s drugs’ are cocaine, rock (crack cocaine) and LSD, not commonly used in townships, but rather by wealthier South Africans. For more details on drug trading and governance in Cape Town, see Goga (2014).

4 While analysts have realised that bartering exists between organisations, there are few empirical details about how this occurs between underworld actors, especially at a local level. The data of the next section hopefully sheds more light on this.

5 The shopping list is not a piece of paper, but rather a metaphor, like the ‘jackpot,’ for currently fashionable commodities that correspond with what the end market wants. Gang leaders receive orders from kingpins for the amount and kinds of stolen electronics that they require for distribution in other African countries.

6 Depending on the size and faction of the gang, these managerial roles include titles like captains, investigators, witchdoctors, judges and generals.

7 This comparison and figurative projection are possibly made because of the illicit abalone trade being so intertwined with other Number Gangs in the Western Cape, with poaching being quite similar in practice to housebreaking: lower-ranking gang members go out to search, extract and return with sacks of the precious resource.

8 Braheem’s reasoning about why 28s cannot watch and have money is because 27s and 26s are closely aligned factions, with the 26s essentially under the wing of the 27s. Orthodox Number Gang mythology dictates that the criminal interests of 27s and 26s are with kroon (crown; money) and illicit commerce, especially the 26s. However, to survive outside prison with pervasive unemployment, 28s are forced to also enter this criminal domain, which they are not conventionally associated with in prison. They are the warriors of the Number. To find an ideological compromise, the 28s are said to build with money (maar ek sal bou met die ding), which allows them to undertake property crimes. While 26s will ‘watch a money’ (hulle kyk ’n kroon) from sunrise (sonop), 28s will build with money from sunset (sonaf). They cannot possess or ‘see’ it, but can use it. Such ideological compromises for life outside prison illustrate how myths are creatively adapted to incorporate the importance of property crime and stolen goods for all three factions. For detailed information on the politics and responsibilities of all three factions, see Steinberg (2004).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) [grant number 57299294].

Notes on contributors

Brandaan Huigen

Brandaan Huigen is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Freie Universität Berlin. Aligning to a broader interest in the material culture of inequality, his current ethnographic research explores how digital technologies relate to violent and organised crime in South Africa.