Master and Mugu 217Apparently, this trick also exploits local conceptions about the techni-
cal prowess of Europeans and the supposed ease with which they earn
money in Europe. The fact that the money machine comes from Europe
is an integral part of the scam. Therefore, in this case, the tricksters ex-
ploit local conceptions of the difference between Africa and Europe in
exactly the same way as the authors of 419 emails do—but in the opposite
direction, so to speak. Things that are impossible at home appear entirely
feasible in exotic, far-off places.^7
Tahir’s money machine is a secular version of an old story involving
the magical generation of riches. Sacks full of money and false-bottomed
boxes were also featured in stories told by my two friends from Kano,
whom the alhaji had approached, not entirely by coincidence, with the
request for help with “money laundering.” As spirit mediums, Lawan and
Husseini were in contact with spiritual beings, which, according to local
beliefs, could grant not only health and protection to their supplicants but
also power and wealth. A basic precondition for seeking the intervention
of the spirits is the presentation of sacrificial offerings (see chapter 1). The
spirit mediums conduct these sacrifices on behalf of their clients, who ei-
ther have to provide a sacrificial animal themselves or pay for it in advance.
In most cases, they are not even present when the sacrifice is made. In any
case, only the blood of the sacrificial animal is intended for the spirits; the
meat may be claimed by the mediums. Therefore supplicants, spirits, and
mediums all benefit from the transaction.
Given that an advance in the form of the sacrifice is built in to the local
belief system, it is easy to see how the spirit medium format provides an
ideal platform for fraudsters. Lawan and Husseini have occasionally also
been asked for assistance by persons who had been taken in by fraudsters
masquerading as spirit mediums. The payments made for the supposed
sacrificial animals in these cases were horrific—after all, the expected
return was nothing less than sacks full of money with the help of the spir-
its—and can, therefore, be understood as the equivalent of the fictitious
customs-processing charges, bribes, taxes, and levies that arise in all forms
of fraud. And as in the case of the “secular” variants—in which receipts,
faxes with official or seemingly official letterheads, and eventually tours
of run-down oil refineries act as proof and, hence, bait, in these “sacred”
forms of fraud—the tempting evidence takes the form of sacks full of