Hedging the Future
Hedging the Future
The post-Cold War dispensation in Togo – state pullback, the privatization of common property, class consolidation, NGO-ization, the dramatic spread of charismatic Christianity – has remade social and political fields, and ushered in new sovereignties, biopolitical regimes, and temporalities. It has also spawned a near-universal desire for exile. This chapter explores the new moment through the immensely popular practice of Togolese applying for, and attempting to game, the US green card lottery. Examining the ins and outs of visa lottery logic, the paper also positions “lotto visa” within a larger field of state-sponsored lotteries, Ponzi schemes, micro-finance initiatives, and gifts to God that have swept the cultural field over the past ten years – and that attempt to hedge the present against an unknown future.
Keywords: visa lottery, sovereingnty, migration, biopolitics, Ponzi schemes, visas
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