tontine

Both part of a tontine, for financial and moral support, Mâ Brêh and Sabine believe in the might derived from fellowship, even more so as part of unprotected communities.

She also hears from Sabine and the other hairdressers about their own tontine and its central role in their professional and domestic lives.

People have booked their tables here months in advance, entering via some kind of lottery or elaborate tontine, and here you are with this verified stranger quietly picking at your food.

Although most people will know them from the works of Agatha Christie or Robert Louis Stevenson, tontines were once real.

Works by Agatha Christie, Robert Louis Stevenson and P. G. Wodehouse all featured tontine members plotting to kill one another in hope of a big payoff.