Bonjour chère amie mademoiselle ou madame, Je suis nouveau sur le site et j’aimerais bien me faire de nouveau amis...

 

Valentina Peri collected the texts brought together in this manual from romance scammers in Côte d'Ivoire, known as brouteurs.

Le Brouteur Galant delicately reveals their strategies and procedures. Through its pages, the reader is transported into a narrative with undeniable performative power, where romantic communication proves to be both a trap and a source of addiction.

Le Brouteur Galant is the heir to the tradition of Secrétaires galants, letter-writing manuals for love letters dating back to the 18th century, which inspire both the title and structure of this publication. It traces the different stages of the scam process: from introductory texts to the discovery of the scammer's fake profile, and concludes with the Mini Dictionnaire du Broutage in the Nouchi language.

A hybrid object between a work tool, a manifesto of Ivorian sagacité, and a tribute to contemporary romance mediated by technology, Le Brouteur Galant defies all classification and stands as a living testimony to a vibrant social and economic phenomenon in West Africa

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Cover Illustration by Originialbigwig Artist