Davide Casciano

• PhD Social Anthropology
• Research Associate at KU Leuven

This chapter examines prominent Nigerian internet celebrities who gained fame on Instagram by flaunting their lavish lifestyles and, paradoxically, retaining large online followings despite legal charges for money laundering and fraud. Through digital ethnography, literature review, and archival research, discussing Hushpuppi’s case will offer insi...

Access to consumption, especially to objects that are challenging to obtain, is one of the features contributing to the successful spread of Pentecostalism in West Africa. Pentecostal pastors have become central public figures, ‘consumer stars,’ whose display of wealth and luxury is key to their social legitimacy as preachers of the Prosperity Gosp...

Since the early 1990s, the Niger Delta has been the scene of armed struggles between militants and other armed groups aimed at controlling natural resource revenues in Nigeria. After nearly a decade of violence, the Presidential Amnesty Program (PAP) was successful in disarming and co-opting the militant groups. This article is based on ethnographi...

The preventive measures implemented to contain the coronavirus pandemic in Italy involve the self-confinement of the population. At the same time, I argue, an ethos of self-discipline is promoted, leading to ambiguous results. Although the pandemic may allow some people to imagine a different future, others have perceived it as the beginning of a w...