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- Convenor:
-
Guive Khan-Mohammad
(University of Geneva/University of Edinburgh)
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- Format:
- Panels
- Location:
- KH209
- Start time:
- 29 June, 2017 at
Time zone: Europe/Zurich
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
This panel proposes to explore the emergence of new itineraries of trading accumulation and the increasingly role of transnational African traders in the extraversion process of Africa, through ethnographic contributions.
Long Abstract:
This panel aims to renew the study of African traders, in the light of their increasingly role in the extraversion process of African contemporary societies. The concept of extraversion (Bayart, 2000) allows to consider the insertion of the African societies as dependant partners in the world economy not only as a constraint - imposed by forces from the outside - but also as a mode d'action - shaped by Africans themselves to obtain benefits. In this pattern, African traders have historically played a major role, as commercial links between global and national economies. Nevertheless, as a consequence of successive liberalization's waves ; of economic openness of South-Asian countries ; of African economic and demographic growth since the beginning of the 21st century, the role of African traders in the extraversion process has been amplified. In decrypting the new trading routes of these entrepreneurs ; in insisting on the emergence of new itineraries of transnational accumulation and their influence in the reconfiguration of the preexisting trade hierarchies ; in closely observing the trading strategies of the African transnational traders, as well as their relationship with the State and its - « formal » and « informal » - efforts to regulate their activities ; and in exploring the social effect of their imports as vector of a new material modernity, we intend to offer an update on profiles and practices of African entrepreneurs, and new perspectives on how they participate to shape the extraversion of the African continent, in its historical, strategic and symbolic dimensions.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
This study focuses on the configuration of the commercial route between Cape Verde and other countries created and maintained by the so-called Rabidantes, street vendors from Cape Verde who operate at the borders between countries through an intense circulation of commodities.
Paper long abstract:
The Creole word Rabidante means to 'sidestep', to 'free one's self of trouble', and is used to indicate someone who is skilled at convincing others. This word is used to address people who trade in the Cape Verde markets (mostly in the Sucupira market) located in the country's capital, Praia city. The Rabidantes are mostly women traders with keen negotiating skills.The Rabidantes are regarded as agents who are active in the process of global circulation of commodities, resulting in the circulation of products among many frontiers. They travel among countries such as the United States, Portugal, France and Brazil to purchase goods. In addition to selling on the archipelago's islands, they 'export' to nearby African countries such as São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal and Guinea-Bissau. Thus they secure a place in the global economy, either as producers or consumers.
The aim of this presentation is to discuss that in buying and selling, the Rabidantes mediate products and their consumers and play a double role of buyers and sellers (consumers and traders). In this game, they mobilize and add value to what they buy and sell, thus interpreting the cultural values and desires of different worlds and capitalizing on such values and desires.
Paper short abstract:
This paper aims at grasping the profil of the Congolese transnational traders, the (in)visibility of the women among them and the impact of the flows of the goods imported on the local culture of consumption.
Paper long abstract:
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo to flow markets with kits of a new material modernity depends upon agency of trading businessmen/businesswomen who are to conquer, let us say to explore commercial places and cities as far away as Guangzhou and Dubai from which they can purchase goods of any sorts for retailing at home. This paper will analyze agency of Congolese transnational traders, those who are in move from two Congolese cities, Lubumbashi and Bukavu. These two cities contrast due to their political economy. Lubumbashi is a mining city, being far from conflict-torn milieu as is the case of Bukavu. The "tradescape" within these two cities gives importance to those businessmen/businesswomen who move and contrary to the saying, "a rolling stone gathers no moss" they are able to get benefits and they proceed to trading accumulation as they master "the way of doing things" (de Certeau) by "moving and making goods move"(Tarrius, 2001). They move themselves and they are able to purchase items there and to retail them here. In analyzing transnational traders' agency, this text explores three purposes: first, to understand the itineraries of these traders and the range of merchandises they bring back home; second the visibility or invisibility of women amidst the category of transnational traders and third the social and cultural impact of those flows of items imported on the local consumption culture. Data come from readings but mainly from field research with life stories and semi-structured interviews conducted in Lubumbashi and Bukavu.
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines the world of transnational trader women in Kinshasa, DRC. Dependent on the logics of the contemporary gift-economy, trade in the DRC, offers insights into the moral implications for women who, like men, rely on their social networks to ensure the success of their business.
Paper long abstract:
Increased state-level agreements between Congo and China have facilitated the possibility of mobility for both Chinese and aspiring Congolese entrepreneurs. Unlike other African countries, women in Congo have only recently begun to participate in transnational trading activities. Trader women, known as femmes commerçantes, are not only an important part of a changing economic landscape, but are also representative of changing gender dynamics in Kinshasa.
Without any support from Congo's banks, traders must search for ways to finance their trips and navigate complex bureaucracy relating unpredictable, and expensive custom tariffs. Just as men rely on their social networks to ensure the success of their business activities, trader women too must forge relationships with people in positions of power. While both men and women conducting business abroad are seen as worldly, this proposed research examines whether, for women, this new status comes at a cost: the cost of their personal reputation as "virtuous women."
How to do Congolese at home regard this emerging class of women? Do women's trading activities alter household structures? This paper considers the gendered politics of trade and explores some of the moral implications for transnational trader women who, like men, are engaged in a dynamic search for opportunities and contacts that can sustain their business, and thus their livelihoods.
Paper short abstract:
The emergence of flexible logistics systems has been crucial to Guangzhou's rise as a trading hub for Africans.
Paper long abstract:
Nigerians established less-than-container load shipping services from Guangzhou to Africa in the late 1990s, thereby laying the foundation for the city's subsequent emergence as a trading hub for Africans. Guangzhou now hosts logistics brokers from all parts of Africa. In an increasingly competitive market, playing with asymmetries between modes of calculation has become a way of securing profit in the logistics industry. The materiality of the container, which is defined by exact qualifications and measurements, creates opportunities for revaluing its interior space. Through act of squeezing goods as they are loaded, logistics agents disrupt the relationship between the container's measurements and the shipment volumes sold for less-than-container freight. However, such unstable relations between containers and goods render shipments vulnerable to customs inspections. Logistics agents manage this risk by acquiring information about inspection schedules from Chinese port officials. Moreover, African traders alter the attributes of the container space through earmarking ‒ attaching fragments of the space within a container to specific sets of social relations, which in turn defines appropriate usage. The earmarking of space provides a tool for traders to manage their capital in volatile economic environments. The analysis draws upon data collected through sixteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in Guangzhou, South China, and West African cities between 2009 and 2016.