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CYBERCRIME, POLICE WORK AND STORYTELLING IN WEST AFRICA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2016

Jan Beek
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Abstract

In West Africa, both cyber fraud and cyber policing are mainly about storytelling. Based on fieldwork in the Ghanaian police, this article explores criminal investigations of email scams; it shows how actors rely on, make use of, lose faith in and reinvent stories. Each cyber fraud case can be understood as a series of connected tales, and all involved try to change the direction of the narrative. While the first tale takes place in virtual spaces between continents, the later ones are located in Ghana and are about police work there. The actors' stories both tap into and create social imaginaries, and the involved actors thereby craft conflicting notions of order and disorder. However, not only the fraudsters' stories but also the police officers' and victims' stories are often factually inaccurate and are partly fictional. Ultimately, all actor groups struggle to create believable stories under current conditions.

Résumé

En Afrique de l’Ouest, la fraude et la police sur Internet sont affaire de contes. S’appuyant sur des travaux menés au sein de la police ghanéenne, l’article examine des enquêtes criminelles d’arnaques par e-mail ; il développe la manière dont les protagonistes s’appuient sur des histoires, en utilisent et en réinventent, et perdent confiance dans des histoires. Chaque cas de fraude sur Internet peut être interprété comme une série de contes liés les uns aux autres, et tous les intéressés essayent de modifier le sens de la narration. Tandis que le premier conte se passe dans des espaces virtuels intercontinentaux, d’autres se situent plus tard au Ghana et se rapportent au travail de police qui s’y déroule. Les histoires des protagonistes se servent d’imaginaires sociaux et en créent, et les intéressés façonnent par là-même des notions contradictoires de l’ordre et du désordre. Néanmoins, les histoires des fraudeurs, mais aussi celles des agents de police et des victimes, sont souvent factuellement inexactes et relèvent en partie de la fiction. Au bout du compte, tous les groupes de protagonistes ont du mal à créer des histoires crédibles dans les conditions actuelles.

Type
Ghanaian Cyber Crime
Information
Africa , Volume 86 , Issue 2 , May 2016 , pp. 305 - 323
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2016 

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