Fakes: Crisis in conceptions of value in neoliberal togo

Abstract

Togolese subjects, the paper argues, have come to experience the contemporary moment as a crisis in conceptions of value congealed around the notion of fake. As commodities have become increasingly volati e as stable material forms in postcolonial Togo (and elsewhere), the paper suggests that disjunctures between what the law recognizes as fake and what consumers think of as fake are increasingly exposed. By using the "fakeness" of African wax-prints as a tool to investigate the constantly shifting field in which the social and legal construction of authenticity and counterfeit take place, the paper shows how Togolese citizen-consumers and traders conduct themselves in re ation to "grey" goods as they redefine the practical taxonomies of everyday life.