The phenomenon of sakawa (internet fraud) is in dramatic increase in Ghana as majority of the youth are engaged in it. In view of what goes into the practice and its repercussions, sakawa has witnessed serious backlash from society and religious bodies in the country. At Nalerigu (a Muslim community in North-Eastern Ghana) the phenomenon is very common, and it is characterized by the integration of occultic practices and internet-based fraud whilst posing a moral dilemma question of its rightness or wrongness. This study analyses the subjective moral interpretation using Nalerigu community as a case study. The article is approached qualitatively based on interviews and framed by the “moral anthropology” theory. The results shows that although internet fraud is transforming the material wellbeing of the young people, some community leaders and members have reproved its practice on grounds that it has negative effects on the moral foundations of the youth. This paper argues that the morality of sakawa is one of ambiguity, with the perpetrators approving and others reproving it. It therefore calls for the study of the morality of sakawa through the lens of a “moral anthropology” in order to account for the distinctive moral interpretations of the practice by one’s research subjects and other people.

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Keywords

sakawa; Internet fraud; Moral anthropology; Ambiguity; Nalerigu; Ghana