Congo-Paris

Congo-ParisTransnational Traders on the Margins of the LawJanet MacGaffey and RA(c)my 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 RA(c)my 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.

RA(c)my Bazenguissa-Ganga teaches at the Centre d'Atudes Africaines, Acole des Hautes Atudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, and is author of Les Voies du politique au Congo: Essai de sociologie historique.

African Issues -- Alex de Waal and Stephen Ellis, editorsPublished in association with the International African Institute, London

ContentsTraders, Trade Networks, and Research MethodsResisting Exclusion and Reacting to DisorderCommodities, Commercialization, and the Structuring of IdentityContesting Boundaries: The Defiant Search for SuccessThe Organization of the Trade: The Importance of Personal TiesTo Surve and Shine: Two Oppositional CulturesConclusion: The Wider Context