Caroline Shenaz Hossein
Caroline Shenaz Hossein’s latest book sheds light on the activism of the Black women who act as ‘Banker Ladies’ in their communities, creating systems of mutual aid, co-operation, and collectivity. The book highlights how Black women counter business exclusion and racial capitalism by redefining the banking cooperative sector to be inclusive of informal institutions that are democratic, equitable, and socially profitable.
Black and racialized women all over the world engage in the solidarity economy through a specific form of it known as mutual aid financing as a way to reject tiered forms of neoliberal development. Formally referred to as rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs), these institutions which are purposefully informal support their livelihoods and social needs. “Banker Ladies” – a term coined by Black diaspora women – voluntarily organize ROSCAs for self-sufficiency and are intentional in their politicized economic co-operation to counter business exclusion. Black women redefine the banking co-operative sector to be inclusive of informal institutions that are democratic, focused on group consensus, and which build an activist form of economic co-operation that is intent on making social profitability the norm. But the work they do involves risk as it refuses to accept dependency and commercial business norms.
Banker Ladies are the vanguards, the keepers and saviours of mutual aid and economic co-operation. Their innovations improve the world in which we live by making us rethink the theories we use and how to make research applied to bring social justice change. What is most impressive is that they do not compete for attention about how they make finance inclusive; instead, they quietly and pragmatically do the work. Members collect monies in their locales through camaraderie, friendship, and trust networks, often in low- and middle-income communities where outsiders imagine such endeavours are not feasible. Banker Ladies are doing what they saw done by generations of women who preceded them. They help others join ancestral systems of mutual aid, co-operation, and collectivity.
Western institutions pride themselves on spending money to help foreign women economically, yet remain blind to business exclusion occurring in their own backyards. Stories and pictures of how professionalized microfinance banks help African women dominate the discussion; however, the ways in which diasporic Black women (those born, raised, and living outside of Africa) organize mutual aid receive little to no attention. This book is unapologetically biased toward a group of women who have been purposely sidelined and put down for what they do. Diasporic Black women have contributed substantially to ROSCAs, but in the Global North recognition of their efforts to address inequality is conspicuously missing. To educate ourselves about their contributions to politics and economics, it is imperative to listen to the voices of hundreds of Black women in charge of financial services for their communities. Contrary to what mainstream disciplines teach, this new book The Banker Ladies makes the case of why we need informal institutions in our economic world.
Informal forms of co-operative economies and mutual aid are a well-established part of our world. People use co-ops, some of which operate informally and under the radar. When they are being threatened, or their survival depends on it, people will group together. So much of our world has become ideological, with our economy dominated by commercial interest, rather than focused on people. Engage in travel, and one finds out quite quickly that most people are concerned with communing, provisioning, and figuring out how to make business mindful of social life – and not the other way around.
Banker Ladies with whom I interacted with for more than a decade made two things resoundingly clear to me: first, keeping business focused on the collective is key; and, second, one’s status does not come from what you derive materially in this life, but how you engage with others in society. My point is this: the ROSCAs used by the African diaspora are a form of deliberate, politicized economic co-operation that refuses corporate values and it makes moves to reach out to those who experience deep forms of marginalization, inequality and exclusion. Politicized economic co-operation occurs when an historically excluded group of people decide to join together co-operatively to mitigate the negative impact of discrimination and racial capitalism. By creating a co-operative on purpose, a conscientious economic development process can take hold. In pursuing their work, Banker Ladies prioritize provisioning, financial inclusion, and reaching out to those who are excluded. Yet in spite of all this labour the Banker Ladies are never remunerated for this community-driven work.
The Black social economy draws on Black feminist theorizing of lived experience. It examines how women choose love, rage and politicized co-operation to push against interlocking oppressions. Mainstream understanding of the social economy generally privileges formal institutions, assuming there exists an ability to “interact” with the state and the private sector. The Black social economy, as a body of work, is not in full accord with this mainstream thinking. There are many reasons why people do not “interact” with formal sectors. The Black social economy makes room for people, especially those who are marginalized and who choose to engage in informal institutions, and who deserve to be recognized for these activities. Informal institutions such as ROSCAs are purposefully detached from state and private sectors. It is work that has always been done by people who have been shunted aside. The community-driven work they carry out is courageous and multi-faceted.
Informal mutual aid is valuable because the state and private corporations have been harmful to many groups for far too long, countering any inclination to collaborate with them. Black feminist standpoint theory makes it clear that oppressed groups have something to say in knowledge making. In five Caribbean countries as well as in Ghana and Ethiopia, Banker Ladies are revered for preserving the African legacy of self-help, collectivity, and mutual aid. Banker Ladies in the south can boast and promote ROSCAs. By contrast, Black women in the diaspora cannot do so without fear of reprisal where authorities can confiscate these monies due to profiling and biased legal mechanisms.
The Banker Ladies I met with especially those living in North America and Europe are vilified and called names for their mutual aid banking co-operatives. They fear police confiscating their monies, which is the main reason that they hide what they do. Systemic racism and alienation of financial goods explains why Banker Ladies consciously decide to co-opt resources and collectively organize in the solidarity economy. This form of economic co-operative, operated on its own terms, counters the processes of racial capitalism and extraction of the social and economic value of certain groups, thus promoting equitable economies for all.
Purchase Banker Ladies: Vanguards of Solidarity Economics and Community-Based Banks here.
Watch a short video about the book here.
Caroline Shenaz Hossein is Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) of Africana Development & Feminist Political Economy and Associate Professor of Political Economy & Global Development and member of the Royal Society of Canada’s new college. Hossein is founder of the Diverse Solidarity Economies (DISE) Collective. Her research navigates solidarity economies–a movement started in the Global South–which prioritizes social profitability over financial gain. Her forthcoming books are ‘Africana Feminist Economics’ by Cambridge University Press and an open-access book on DIY Community Finance. Prior to becoming an academic, she worked for 16 years in a number of global organizations in economic development. Follow The DISE Collective at www.Africanaeconomics.com