Abstract
The Rotating Savings and Credit Association (ROSCA) is an enduring type of informal financial institution that can be found all over the world. Nevertheless, while the ROSCAs in Africa, Asia, and South America have been well studied, those in Europe, North America, and the Middle East have been neglected. This is especially true in the case of Ethiopian ROSCAs (equbs) in the context of Europe and Germany. The purpose of this study was to examine the ROSCAs of the Ethiopian diaspora in Germany in relation to the concept of the Black Social Solidarity Economy (BSSE). In doing so, it also sought to document and illustrate the contribution made by the Ethiopian diaspora to the Social Solidarity Economy (SSE) in Germany. The study used a qualitative study design in which data were collected through thorough semi-structured interviews with eight individual participants selected from eight different equbs in Berlin and Munich. Based on the collected data, the study thematically classi昀ed and discussed the characteristics of equbs in Germany in relation to the features of the BSSE. The results showed that equbs in Germany are excellent examples of the BSSE. While helping their members to build a new home and future in Germany, they also provided an alternative form of finance to the capitalist finance system, indicating that there may even be non-capitalist ways of doing finance in the Western world, which is identified with capitalism.