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This article explores relations between ways of experiencing socio-economic disorder, strategies on how to deal with it, and monetary classifications that symbolize these ways and strategies. It assumes that we can learn something from the fact that the concept of pesa makech ('bitter money') has been replaced with the much more diffuse notion of pesa marach ('bad money') in Western Kenya during the last twenty-five years. This shift in how 'negative forms' of money are discursively marked indexes a change in the way in which the people of Kaleko, a small market centre in Western Kenya, conceptualize the disorder of their surroundings. Instead of interpreting disorder as an effect of events taking place inside their sphere of influence, residents of Kaleko now predominantly situate the cause of disorder in actions of external actors that are perceived as uncontrollable: the 'economy', money itself, politicians, members of other ethnic groups and untrust-worthy Luo. This necessarily changes the ways in which disorder is tackled: while pesa makech 's bitterness could be resolved by 'sorting out' ( rieyo ) the homestead's disorder, nowadays people employ other ways that aim at resolving disorder: upscaling rieyo 's potential to the Kenyan nation; 'struggling' ( chandre ) through disorder; and relativizing rieyo 's applicability. Resume: Cet article explore les liens entre les modes d'experience du desordre socioeconomique, les strategies pour y faire face, et les classifications monetaires qui symbolisent ces modes et strategies. Il suppose que l'on peut apprendre quelque chose du fait que le concept de pesa makech (« argent amere ») a ete remplace par la notion bien plus diffuse de pesa marach (« mauvais argent ») dans l'Ouest du Kenya au cours des vingt-cinq dernieres annees. Ce changement dans la maniere d'utiliser des « formes negatives » d'argent comme marqueurs discursifs indique un changement dans la maniere dont les habitants de Kaleko, une petite ville de marche de l'Ouest du Kenya, conceptualisent le desordre de leur environnement. Au lieu d'interpreter le desordre comme l'effet d'evenements survenant au sein de leur sphere d'influence, les residents de Kaleko situent aujourd'hui principalement la cause du desordre dans l'action de facteurs exterieurs percus comme incontrolables : l'« economie », l'argent lui-meme, les politiciens, les membres d'autres groupes ethniques et les Luo, peu dignes de confiance. Ceci change necessairement la facon de faire face au desordre : la ou il etait possible de resoudre l'amertume du pesa makech en « rangeant » ( rieyo ) le desordre du foyer, on emploie aujourd'hui autres moyens de resoudre le desordre : appliquer le potentiel du rieyo a l'echelle de la nation kenyane ; « se debattre » ( chandre ) a travers le desordre ; et relativiser l'applicabilite du rieyo .

The practice of pawning children, whose labour served as interest paid on loans, was common in precolonial and early colonial Ekiti Yoruba society. Known as iwofa, these children would work for the lender until their kinsmen had repaid the debts they had incurred. British colonial officials came to view this practice as a form of slavery and eventually outlawed it. This paper considers the life history of one older man who worked as an iwofa in a small Ekiti Yoruba town, focusing on his memories of child-pawning and how this practice has been interpreted by his children. The paper then examines the process whereby people's changed thinking about the moral bases of pawning parallels contemporary reassessments of the practice of child-fostering by young parents, some of whom claim that it is 'like slavery'. How subsequent generations of townspeople remember slavery, child-pawning and, more recently, child-fostering, have implications for reproduction, since what it means to have the number of children who can be 'raised well' may contribute to social and economic pressures to limit family size. This study of memories of pawning and child-fostering, which support reduced fertility, underscores the ways that distinctive historical experiences have had different consequences for how reproduction is perceived and practised. RESUME La pratique de la mise en gage d'enfants, dont le travail servait de versement d'interets sur des sommes pretees, etait courante dans la societe Ekiti Yoruba precoloniale et du debut de l'epoque coloniale. Connus sous le nom de iwofa, ces enfants travaillaient pour le preteur jusqu'a ce que leur famille ait rembourse les dettes encourues. Les fonctionnaires coloniaux britanniques, considerant cette pratique comme une forme d'esclavage, finirent par l'interdire. Cet article s'interesse a la vie d'un homme age qui a travaille comme iwofa dans une petite ville Ekiti Yoruba, et plus particulierement aux souvenirs de cette pratique et a la maniere dont ses enfants l'ont interpretee. L'article fait ensuite un parallele entre le changement d'opinion populaire concernant le fondement moral de la mise en gage et la remise en question contemporaine de la pratique du placement d'enfants par de jeunes parents, que certains assimilent a de l'esclavage. La maniere dont les generations suivantes de citadins se souviennent de l'esclavage, de la mise en gage d'enfants et, plus recemment, du placement d'enfants, a des implications en matiere de reproduction, puisque ce que signifie le fait d'avoir le nombre d'enfants qu'il est possible de > peut contribuer aux pressions sociales et economiques de limiter la taille de la famille. Cette etude des souvenirs concernant les pratiques de mise en gage et de placement d'enfants, qui soutiennent une fecondite reduite, souligne la maniere dont des experiences historiques particulieres ont eu des consequences differentes sur le mode de perception et de pratique de la reproduction. ********** A fotele ko je ki a pe iwofa li eru What ever has been said before, a pawn is not to be called a slave [from a letter by D. Williams, 24 November 1879, cited in Peel 2000: 61] Baba-isinku ko fi omo re sofa The person in charge of the funeral does not make his own child a pawn [Yoruba proverb, cited in Delano 1966: 9] The practice of 'pawning' (1) children, whose labour served as interest paid on loans, was common in precolonial and early colonial Ekiti Yoruba (2) society (Oguntuyi 1979; cf. Falola and Lovejoy 1994; Oroge 1985; Peel 2000). Known as iwofa, these children would work for the lender until their kinsmen had repaid the debts they had incurred. British colonial officials came to view this practice as a form of slavery and eventually outlawed it (Lovejoy 1983; Miers and Roberts 1988). Because of this association with slavery, memories of the pawning of children have been muted as a less than respectable practice (see Barber 1991: 189; O'Hear 1994: 219; cf. …