Money and social interaction in Simmel’s Philosophy of Money and Audu Wazirin Ɗanduna’s ballad Tsakanin Ɗanadam da Kuɗi

The paper juxtaposes the Simmel’s Philosophy of Money with Audu Wazirin Ɗanduna’s ballad and emphasizes a point of convergence between them. It shows that the import of Wazirin Ɗanduna’s popular ballad, Tsakanin Ɗan’ adam da Kuɗi, is akin to Simmel’s schematic-philosophical analysis of the nature or character of money in modern society and how it affects human interactions or, generally, social life. The paper demonstrates that both Simmel and Wazirin Danduna see money in a modern society as an object facilitating our understanding of social life. Simmel and Wazirin Ɗanduna describe money as being characterized by reification, growing individual freedom, a blasé attitude and impersonal relationships. They envisage money as a means fast becoming an end, which informs the greed and heightened craving for money characteristic of human society today. The paper also argues that poetry as a creative work enables us to appreciate the complexity and dynamics of human society and, therefore, the contributions of poets should not be ignored by social scientists for simply not conforming to empirical rituals.