Wrecking: the moral economies of cargo salvage on the Northern Corridor

Abstract

ABSTRACT Along East Africa’s most trafficked commodity corridor, road accidents sometimes make cargo available for salvaging. This paper draws on genealogies of shipwreck salvage – ‘wrecking’ – to explore how roadside salvagers distinguish their activities from theft and make them legitimate. In contrast with classic theories of property which ask how unowned things become property, I ask the opposite: how do owned things become unowned – available to claim? Central to the legitimacy of salvage, I argue, is the idea of contingency: it was an unexpected event that made goods available for taking. But contingency is approached in contradictory ways by different salvagers: crash cargo can be interpreted as an accidental ‘find,’ to be freely taken, or conversely as a ‘risky opportunity’ from which savvy entrepreneurs can profit.