Postcapitalist Imaginaries of Finance: A Diverse-Economies Perspective on Equubs within the Ethiopian Diaspora in Germany

Abstract

The essay presents an exploratory study of the equub, a form of community-based finance that is well-established in the Ethiopian diaspora in Germany. Equubs render visible the financial expertise developed in the majority world and its circulation in diasporic space. As such, equubs exemplify the power of People of African Descent in Germany to organize against financial exclusion. The essay draws on the theory of diverse economies and its method of reading for difference to analyze the characteristics of the equub as a nonmarket financial institution, showing its praxis of building community economies and its linkages to the diverse economy at large. Processes of decommodification, collective governance, and ethical decision making around financial needs politicize finance, making the equub an interesting case of a postcapitalist-finance imaginary.