Goorgoorlou, the neoliberal homo senegalensis: comics and economics in postcolonial Senegal

Abstract

ABSTRACTGoorgoorlou is the eponymous character of a serialized comic strip that emerged in Senegal, in the midst of neoliberal reforms. As with thousands of Senegalese people, Goorgoorlou lost his job because of the structural adjustment programmes (SAPs). He resorted to odd jobs and other resourceful solutions to make ends meet therefore joining an economy of rupture, based on the informal sector. The social costs of the programmes, brought upon by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank gave birth to works of fiction and art that imparted the severity of the hardship. On the ground, everyday Senegalese people had to devise novel practices to cope with their new economic environment. As a result, journalist and caricaturist Alphonse Mendy started Goorgoorlou’s adventures in a satirical newspaper. Senegalese people adopted Goorgoorlou and turned him into a national hero. This article analyses the figure of Goorgoorlou as national hero and economic archetype of the informal economy, therefore highlighting the concomitance of the emergence of this character with that of the informal economy in Senegalese society.