"We Are Now the Same": Chinese Wholesalers and the Politics of Trade Hierarchies in Tanzania. (June 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sheridan, Derek
• Is Part Of: China quarterly. Number 250(2022)
• Page Start: 376
• Page End: 396
• Publication Date: 2022-06
• Subjects: migration -- trade -- racialization -- moral economy -- Africa–China -- Tanzania; 移民 -- 贸易 -- 种族化 -- 道德经济 -- 中国-非洲关系 -- 坦桑尼亚; China -- History -- Periodicals; China -- Periodicals; 951
• DOI: 10.1017/S0305741022000443
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0305-7410

Abstract

Abstract: Many accounts of Chinese migration in Africa compare China to "the West." However, lived historical experiences, social hierarchies and moral mappings of the division of labour have mediated how different peoples in different contexts have received, interacted with and given meaning to Chinese migrants. In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Tanzanians talk about so-called Chinese " wamachinga " (petty traders) who have complicated long-standing ideas about "African" and "non-African" roles in the economy, and who have both opened and closed opportunities for different African traders. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the key Tanzanian wholesale market of Kariakoo, I examine how the entry of Chinese goods and traders has been associated with shifting local economic hierarchies. I argue that debates over the presence of Chinese traders are less about "China" than about the politics of which roles belong to whom in a hierarchical division of labour.