Articles · Vol. 21 No. 2 (2017): African Sociological Review · Pages 100-114

7 - The Social Act of Exchange in Power Relations: The study of the Phenomenon of Nichekeleko at the Weighbridges in Zambia.

  • Chidongo Phiri
    Chidongo Phiri
    Department of Anthropology and Sociology University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa
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Vol. 21 · 2017 No. 2 African Sociological Review ASR

Abstract

This article examines the widely practiced phenomenon of Nichekeleko at the Weighbridges
(WBs) in Zambia. The commonly held understanding of Nichekeleko by the Zambian people is that, it
is corruption; ranging from bribery, theft, embezzlement, gratification to favouritism.
Sociologically, the phenomenon was conceived as a social act of exchange within the context of
power relations by the actors who engage in it. Foucault’s notion of power relations and Bourdieu’s
concepts of “practice” and “fields’’ provided the theoretical framework for the study. Power was
considered as a system, and a network of relations, encompassing the whole society than a relation
between the oppressed and the oppressor. Methodologically, this study was based on mixed method
research; the large part of it involving participant- observation, interviews and administering of
questionnaires
The argument in this paper is that failure to analyse corruption from a linguistic and
philosophical perspective implied in ‘Nichekeleko’ reduces the practice to mere violation of the
law or moral rules. A much closer look at corruption from a language vantage point p us with
essential dimensions of the practice, why, and how it has persisted in Zambia

Keywords

Corruption Nichekeleko Power relations Social act of Exchange Practice

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Author Biography

  • Chidongo Phiri

    Department of Anthropology and Sociology University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa

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