Master and Mugu 219their position vis-à-vis their competitors, but the promised service—for
example, mediation between supplicants and spirits—is usually carried
out when a client consults the medium.
The magic purse in the bori ritual, the money machine from Europe,
the suitcase full of black bank notes, and the fake official documents in
transnational 419 scams are all skillful means of visual persuasion. Their
pu r pose is to persuade by present i ng v isua l ev idence. I f t here is somet h i ng
in Taussig’s theory that magic tricks are generally understood as tricks and
the clients of shamans and spirit mediums are, so to speak, their best crit-
ics, it could be speculated that Nigerians and other Africans are such good
advance-fee fraudsters because they are familiar with similar techniques
of persuasion from ritual contexts. According to this view, 419 scammers
would have developed a particular knack for such activities through their
familiarity with the practice of magic.^8
VINDICATIONS OF SCAMMINGDespite the real damage scamming does to the Nigerian economy and
the efforts to fight it by the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, it is considered a more or less petty crime in popular dis-
course. It is referred to as a “game” that favors the witty and cunning to
the disadvantage of the gullible. In his song, “I Go Chop Your Dollar,”
Nkem Owoh sings:
419 is not a crime, it’s just a game that everybody plays / I done suffer no
be small / Upon say I get sense / Poverty no good at all, no / Na im make
I join this business / 419 no be thief, it’s just a game / Everybody dey play
em / if anybody fall mugu / ha! my brother I go chop em.Chorus: National A irport na me get em / National Stadium na me build
em / President na my sister’s brother / You be the mugu, I be the master /
Oyinbo man I go chop your dollar / I go take your money and disappear /
419 is just a game, you are the loser I am the winner.The refinery na me get em / The contract, na you I go give em / But you go
pay me small money make I bring em / you be the mugu, I be the master /
na me be the master ooo!!!!