This is a very good book that is relevant far beyond Nigeria. Corruption is used here broadly to include all activities that are a scam, following popular use of the word in Nigeria. It introduces the reader in this way to a universe of corruption that feels like a prison. Nigerian political culture is as much ‘a culture against corruption’ as ‘a culture of corruption’. This is well known throughout Africa: everybody condemns corruption but corrupt practices persist unabated. The book offers a comprehensive coverage of practices, some of which are well known from our e-mail inboxes. The first chapter is indeed on e-mail advance fee scams. Following chapters cover: favouritism as everyday corruption; scams associated with the developing world; the role of corruption in politics; witchcraft, religion and corruption; vigilantism and anti-corruption aspirations, including a discussion of Biafran separatism. Daniel Jordan Smith has had a long-time engagement with Nigeria, starting from 1986 when he went there working for a US NGO on a health project in Imo state. From 1995 onwards he did research as a social scientist in Nigeria. He is also married to a lady from Nigeria. He can therefore write as an insider. For example, he makes very good use of conversations at the tennis club in Owerri to which he belongs. Yet, unlike many adherents of reflexive anthropology, he does not portray himself as a significant actor, except to a small extent in NGO scams. Understanding Nigerians has prevalence above increasing his self-importance as the man in the know.

The section on the Anambra crisis in the chapter on politics and corruption is particularly important. It concerns a conflict between a godfather and a governor elected through rigging; godfathers are often referred to in Nigerian politics as the people in control who may not even have political office. This row spun out of control and landed on the desk of President Obasanjo. Obasanjo's response is printed verbatim as an appendix. In his letter Obasanjo writes that in the affair ‘fair play even among robbers became a factor’, and the affair needs to be condemned for failure ‘to do justice among the robbers’ (pp. 133–4). Even a president who had been elected on a reformist agenda accepted thus the culture of corruption as a given in which to work.

A second revealing insight in the book is how brittle social relations become because of these practices. This is especially obvious in the chapter on anti-witchcraft drives against rich people. The tennis club in Owerri was preparing a special presentation for ‘one of Owerri's wealthiest and widely known nouveaux riches’. He was, however, in the meantime targeted by an angry mob: ‘his businesses, cars and fancy modern house were torched. Larry disappeared from Owerri, no doubt in fear of his life. As a result of the riots, he went from being a highly sought after guest to being a suspected ritual murderer accused of using child kidnapping and cannibalism to magically manufacture his outrageous prosperity’ (p. 146).

The major theoretical merit of this book may be that it tries to avoid the common functionalist interpretation claiming a rationality that is often imputed from the outside, although this could have been made more explicit if the author opted for more academic confrontation. He mentions that the Comaroffs as well as Fisiy and Geschiere argued ‘that the proliferation of witchcraft in postcolonial Africa is directly related to the penetration of neo-liberalism as well as the articulation of the local and the global’ (p. 143). The striking fact in this book is that such interpretations play no role when observing, for example, witch-cleaning movements against rich people. They figure merely in interpretations by outsiders. Similar arguments crop up when morality is introduced. For the author, it is the decay of kinship-mediated patron–client distribution mechanisms that leads to the present situation. I am not so sure, and would have liked to see more evidence. Typical for the behaviour that is documented is the desire to outwit or fool the other, but that may be as typical for kinship and patron–client relations as shared solidarity. The magnitude of these phenomena has of course increased enormously because of control over an independent state and its oil wealth. However, these are minor remarks. Daniel Jordan Smith has written a book that enlightens and entertains: a great achievement.