ABSTRACT
This chapter particular attention to the intent of terms and sayings in Wolof dealing with debt and its whole universe. It explains the sociohistorical context in which micro-credit and debt-mainly women's debt-emerge in Senegal. It also discusses the ways in which people speak about debt. It also shows that, in the everyday life of the trade system that is linked to the local economy, microcredit can be useful, although it may not really be indispensible. The chapter shows a few thumbnail biographies of women and men will enable us to draw up a hierarchy of types of debt. The impression one gets is microcredit has become part of the 'debt economy' analysed by Lazzarato, a system that eventually leads the debtor into alienation. In the current reign of neoliberalism, finance cannot really be expected to adapt to the logic of giving-unless of course the gift itself contains a debt that often rimes with force, whether patent or latent.
