抄録
本研究は、カメルーンの商売民として有名な「バミレケ」が活発に行っている金融システム「トンチン(頼母子講、講、無尽)」を、貨幣に着目して考察し、ひとびとがなぜトンチンを行うのかを明らかにしたものである。バミレケは、露天商から大企業家まで、銀行がたちならぶ都市においてもトンチンを積極的に行っており、トンチンは彼らの経済的成功の要因のひとつとされている。しかしトンチンには、資金創出以外にも大きな役割がある。バミレケは都市で同郷会を組織しているが、そこではトンチン参加が義務付けられている。トンチン参加を強いることは、トンチンに支払うためにカネを稼ぐことを強いることである。つまりカネを稼ぐという「個人的行為」を、トンチンにリンクすることにより「集団的行為」へと変化させている。ではなぜトンチンが集団的行為であり、相互扶助だと考えられるのであろうか。それは、トンチンが贈与交換だからである。みなのカネをまとめて、一人の人に与えるトンチンは、贈与であるからこそ、「助け合い」であり「善きもの」と言われるのである。そして重要なのは、そこに持ち寄られ、「贈与」される貨幣も善となることである。個人的で利己的な貨幣は、集団的資源としての貨幣へと意味を変える。平等化の圧力が強く、資本蓄積が難しいとされるカメルーンにおいて、バミレケはトンチンを介すことでカネを稼ぐことを正当化し、資本蓄積の場を獲得する。これが、人びとがトンチンを好む理由であると考える。またこれまで貨幣は、ひとびとの連帯を破壊するものと考えられる傾向にあったが、バミレケの事例で、トンチンによって貨幣が人と人をつなぐ道具として用いられていることを明らかにできた。
This paper examines a system of rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs) in terms of the polysemantic nature of money. The system is called a tontine (or cotisation) in Francophone Cameroon. Tontines appear in a variety of formes, but the basic pattern is that members of a group make monetary contributions at fixed intervals (once a week, once a month, etc.) and take turns receiving the total amount collected or a portion of it. Tontines are the most popular savings and loan method in Cameroon, especially among the Bamileke who are known as the "commercial people of Cameroon". The Bamileke ethnic group originated in the West Province of Cameroon, where the people are divided into over a hundred small chiefdoms that are stratified to a high degree. Even now the unity of a chiefdom is sometimes stronger than that of the Bamileke as a whole. Since the beginning of the 20th century many of the Bamileke have migranted and settled in big cities and plantation areas throughout the country. It is in the places where they have settled that their "Bamileke" identity is the strongest, and the capital Yaounde is one such place. It was primarily Yaounde that I carried out my fieldwork, but I also investigated a chiefdom in the Bamileke region. The Bamileke are numerous in the main cities of Cameroon in spite of being relatively recent arrivals there. They make up at least 30% of the population of Yaounde, and they are the majority in Douala, the largest city of Cameroon. Thus, we can say that they comprise an important part of Cameroonian urban economy and society. Some Bamileke entrepreneurs use banks, but they also continue to use tontines. Why is it that they like to use tontines, whether or not they are wealthy, and even when there are banks nearby? There is a serious negative reason: the instability of the formal banking system. But there are positive reasons as well. Many urban Bamileke organize tontines with people who came originally from the same chiefidom. It is said that in a big city like Yaounde all Bamileke chiefdoms have their own associations (I call them Home-Village Associations or HVAs). Subscription is voluntary, but many Bamileke belong to them. Meetings are usually once a week, on Saturday or Sunday afternoon. The purpose of the HVAs is the mutual assistance of members. That is, tontines are not the main activity. For members, insurance (in the case of death of an HVA member or of a rlative of a member, a fixed amount of money is paid according to a rule) and participation in funeral sevices (members participate in the funeral services for deceased members of the same HVA) are the main activities of HVAs. But it is important to note that tontines are indispensable to HVAs. In many HVAs, to participate in a tontine is an obligation. This is because "no one would take coming to a meeting seriously if there were no tontine." Although people do not gather because of the tontine, they will not gather without it. The structure of tontines provides stability: you cannot stop once you start and you are obliged to pay your portion of the tontine. In any case, the tontine payment must somehow be made, because the money of a tontine never dies. However, the gathering of money and people is not the only raison de'etre of tontines. They also compel people to earn money. Generally, earning and saving money is viewed as an individulistic act. But the HVAs force Bamileke to earn money, by making them participate in tontines. The command "participate in the tontine!" is equivalent to "earn money (for the tontine)!" Conversely, we could say that tontines enable the legitimate accumulation of capital. In other words, those who participate in them can justify their "selfish" act of earning money by seeming to earn for the collective. Althogh Bamileke are sometimes criticized for depositing money into banks, they are never criticized for participating in tontines. Tontines are a social "good" that transform the earning of money into a "good" act as well. As many people say, "Bamileke work for tontines." But why do Bamileke then have such a high opinion of tontines? The reason may be that they associate tontines not with saving and lending but with giving. If the payment amounts are equal for all members, when one cycle of the tontines has been completed, then everyone will have contributed the same total amount of money. No one would have profited or lost relative to the others. But if we only consider the movement of money at a single meeting, there does not appear to be any reciprocal exchange. Members earn money on behalf of other people: they give it all to a single recipient, or, occasionally, a few recipients. In a word, this is "giving". When it is their turn to receive the money, the recipients are thankful, and sometimes they feel indebted to the other members even though they each receive money in turns. In actuality the money received from a tontine is a gift from no one. In Cameroon impediments are thrown in the way of prominently successful people. The Bamileke society of Cameroon is no exception. That is, althogh Bamileke don't neccessary view money as something dangerous, they know that the accumulation of money is seen as something negative both inside and outside Bamileke society. The Bamileke, however, have tontines as a method of legitimizing the accumulation of wealth. Tontines transform money from an object of jealousy to a resorce for mutual aid.
