I wrote this for Chimurenga Chronic a while ago: Since the 1970s, the importation of second-hand clothing has been banned in Nigeria. People give different reasons for the policy. An official of Nigerian Customs told me the practice was banned because they are dirty clothes picked from the streets of Europe, something unfit for Nigerians… Read More »
From a WSJ review of Stealth of Nations: The Global Rise of the Informal Economy: Mr. Neuwirth introduces us to a woman named Jandira who for a decade has peddled coffee and homemade cakes to the unlicensed vendors at São Paulo’s early-morning wholesale market for pirated movies. Her street-corner business, she proudly tells him, has enabled… Read More »
As donations, pieces of clothing bear imprints of the aspirations of their donors, and as purchased commodities, they are invested with the desires of their consumers. This article describes a particular configuration of the international trade in secondhand clothing. The trade links Western homes with West Africans families in an intricate web; its history also… Read More »
Off to Basel tomorrow for an African Borderlands Research Network conference. As part of a panel on a comparative study of cross-border trade networks in Africa, I will be presenting a paper titled “Benin-Nigeria secondhand clothing cross-border trade in historical perspective”. The abstract: Today, Benin Republic is the main supplier of secondhand clothing to Nigeria,… Read More »
1. On the Islamic origins of the World Trade Centre architecture 2. What percentage of salary increase would satisfy Indian lawmakers? (This is not a tip for Nigerian lawmakers.) 3. On the importance of field research for development economics (Almost there, economists, almost there.) 4. What about the foreskin? (On male circumcision.) 5. A Beninese… Read More »
Just learnt of him through NPR’s A Blog Supreme. A short bio: Loueke was born in Benin, studied music in the Ivory Coast as a teenager, did further jazz-specific training in Paris for five years and finally ended up with a Berklee scholarship. In Boston, he met his trio: Swedish bassist Massimo Biolcati, who has… Read More »
In a group interview in September, 18 disgruntled truck drivers in Cotonou, Benin, vented their frustrations to two Trade Hub consultants: driving freely from Cotonou to Ouagadougou was impossible without harassment, they said. They sometimes spend three days at borders where customs officials hold up paper work when they refuse to pay bribes; meanwhile, their… Read More »
A news story on crossing from Benin to Nigeria, through the Seme border: “At every half kilometre, you encounter checkpoints manned by all sorts of agencies. This is a real problem to the sub-region,” he said. “On a bad day, from the Seme border down to Lagos, you meet over 70 checkpoints and they all… Read More »
After 10 months in West Africa (Nigeria, Bénin, Togo), I am back in Germany. I did not have much time for blogging during the 10 months cos I was moving around a lot, cos I did not have very reliable internet connection, and cos my work did not allow me to spend so much time… Read More »
This is an article I first read on Nigeria Village Square, but later found out that it was originally from ocnus.net. I thought to post it here for comments. I am not an expert on CFA, but I am trying to learn as much as possible about it. So I’m waiting for your comments! The… Read More »