Congo-Paris: Transnational Traders on the Margins of the Law

by Janet MacGaffey, Remy Bazenguissa-Ganga

Congo-Paris
Transnational Traders on the Margins of the Law
Janet MacGaffey and Rémy Bazenguissa-Ganga

Globalization as practiced by Congolese traders who operate a thriving second economy linking Central Africa and Europe.

Congo-Paris investigates the transnational trade between Central Africa and Europe by focusing on the lives of individual traders from Kinshasa and Brazzaville who operate across national frontiers and often outside the law. Challenging the boundaries of traditional anthropology, Janet MacGaffey and Rémy Bazenguissa-Ganga follow complex international networks to examine the ways in which the African second economy has been extended transnationally and globally on the margins of the law. Who are these traders? What strategies do they have, not only to survive but to shine? What kinds of networks do they rely on? What implications does their trade have for the study of globalization? The personal networks of ethnicity, kinship, religion, and friendship constructed by the traders fashion a world of their own. From Johannesburg to Cairo and from Dakar to Nairobi as well as in Paris, the Congolese traders are renowned and envied. This lively book shows that it is not just the multinationals who benefit from jets and mobile phones.

Janet MacGaffey, Professor of Anthropology at Bucknell University, is author of Entrepreneurs and Parasites and coauthor of The Real Economy of Zaire.

Rémy Bazenguissa-Ganga teaches at the Centre d'Études Africaines, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, and is author of Les Voies du politique au Essai de sociologie historique.

African Issues―Alex de Waal and Stephen Ellis, editors
Published in association with the International African Institute, London

Contents
Traders, Trade Networks, and Research Methods
Resisting Exclusion and Reacting to Disorder
Commodities, Commercialization, and the Structuring of Identity
Contesting The Defiant Search for Success
The Organization of the The Importance of Personal Ties
To Surve and Two Oppositional Cultures
The Wider Context

Genres: France

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Zak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un sujet sur lequel je ne connaissais rien et qui est bien plus intéressant que je ne pensais. Le livre est assez court (environ 170 pages) mais couvre de nombreux sujets notamment l'organisation des traders et de leurs réseaux, comment les contextes politiques (délivrances de visa, changement de régime, ouverture de frontières etc) influaient sur l'immigration et ces commerces, les relations vis à vis de la loi, la formation de communautés structurées autour de ces activités (grossistes, vente au détail, bar clandestins etc) ainsi que certaines analyses de ces traders en tant qu'individu.
En résumé une analyse micro et macro d'un phénomène assez peu connu (même si loin d'être secret): un commerce plus ou moins informel qui s’est développé en Europe (le livre parle surtout de la France et un peu de la Belgique) par des immigrés africains (le livre parle surtout de Congolais et de Zaïrois), ses impacts et ses influences.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating in-depth ethnographic study of Congolese diaspora groups in France. This is much more deserving of a 3.4 rating. You can safely ignore some of these clowns who rated this two stars and below.

[louisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Would have to reread to star on quality of scholarship, but for content a clear 5 for me. Still think frequently about this book's subject 5 years after reading it.