Paper short abstract:

This present project has the particularity to be interested on Turkey, a country absent from the colonial enterprise and little known as a land of industrial productions – compared to China, the United States, etc. – and female entrepreneurship under construction on the fringes of the mechanisms str

Paper long abstract:

During a virtual immersion on Facebook in 2022, we observed young Muslim activists inviting their followers to visit online shopping sites for their clothing needs from Turkey. These industrial products, considered cheap and good quality, have expanded the range of consumables for Muslims accustomed to the clothing tradition of Arab-Muslim countries. This communication focuses on the circulation of products and the economic market under construction between Ivory Coast and Turkey, an Eurasian country whose international policy – known as Opening up to Africa – has opened this destination to Africa since the end of the 1990s. Initially led by socio-economic entrepreneurs, these exchanges have taken on the appearance of Soft Power in which marketing strategies for the products of Turkish industries are deployed. Scientific productions on the migratory experiences of Africans towards Arab-Muslim countries (Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, etc.) are quite instructive on the circulation of knowledge and goods at the heart of this north-south and south-south cooperation.

This present project has the particularity to be interested on Turkey, a country absent from the colonial enterprise and little known as a land of industrial productions – compared to China, the United States, etc. – and female entrepreneurship under construction on the fringes of the mechanisms structuring international trade. It studies these women both as actors (through their migratory trajectories, fields of activities, etc.) and objects (subjects of analysis on the changes observed in the sphere of entrepreneurship, especially in the circulation of ideas and know-how of sub-Saharan women).