Where does fortune come from? Agrarian work ethics and luck in Togo

Abstract

Through the analysis of the biographical trajectories of three Togolese men of different generations, this paper explores the changing and ambiguous relation between notions of fortune and agricultural work in south-western Togo. Comparing their different work ethics, I will discuss which factors people of different generations and different economic conditions considered legitimate in enhancing individual success and fortune, the ambiguous moral discourses that historically have imbued agricultural activities, and their relations with other forms of accumulation more or less connected with the use or abuse of occult means. I would suggest that, far from being one the opposite of the other, work ethics and notions of fortune become part of the same moral discourse that people elaborate in order to legitimize (or delegitimize) given forms of accumulation and to make sense of new and old inequalities.