What's love got to do with it? The intimate relationships of Dakarois girls

Abstract

This article investigates the role that love and money play in the intimate relationships of unmarried girls in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. Love carries multiple meanings for these girls. It is related to feelings and ideas about exclusivity and reciprocity. Moreover, it is also an expression of individuality and modernity in relation to parents and relatives. The high expectations that girls have of love are related to the reliability of friendship and the importance of marriage. Ideally, love is incompatible with material interests in intimate relationships, but in reality both love and money are part of girls’ actual relationships. This article attempts to shed light on the discrepancies and ambiguities around love and money in these girls' relationships.