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Women and the Arts of Smuggling

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Margaret Niger-Thomas
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Abstract:

This article focuses on the activities of women smugglers in Cameroon in the 1990s, the period during which the national currency was devalued. Despite the generally negative connotations of smuggling, it argues that this unorthodox form of trade has had certain positive effects on the lives of individual female entrepreneurs, if not on Cameroonian society in general. Usually marginalized economically, women in Cameroon—including, in many cases, former prostitutes—are able through smuggling to support themselves and their children, make up the deficit in the household budget, and attain a respected status in society. Through their contacts with beach worker assistants and government officials, they also have contributed, for better or worse, to the blurring of lines in Cameroon between the formal and informal economy.

Résumé:

Résumé:

Cet article examine les activités des femmes contrebandières au Cameroun dans les années 1990, c'est à dire la période de dévaluation de la monnaie nationale. Malgré les connotations généralement négatives associées à la contrebande, nous suggérons que cette forme de commerce peu orthodoxe eût certains effets positifs sur la vie des femmes entrepreneurs individuels, voire même sur la société camerounaise en général. Traditionnellement marginalisées d'un point de vue économique, les femmes au Cameroun—dont dans bien des cas d'anciennes prostituées—sont ainsi capables, grâce à la contrebande, de subvenir à leurs besoins et à ceux de leurs enfants, de combler les déficits dans le budget du ménage, et d'obtenir un statut respectable dans la société. Grâce à leurs contacts avec les assistants de plage et les responsables officiels du gouvernement, elles ont également contribué, pour le meilleur ou pour le pire, à l'effacement des limites entre économie officielle et souterraine au Cameroun.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 44 , Issue 2: Ways of Seeing: Beyond the New Nativism: A Special Issue , September 2001 , pp. 43 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2001

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