Contemporary transnational circulation of goods in Africa: A form of legitimation of State borders

Abstract

Trade mobilities have intensified on the continent over the second half of the twentieth century, in a context of dysfunctional state apparatuses, economic recession, and material poverty accentuated by structural adjustment plans. The trade is not all illicit and illegal; the flows are overwhelmingly of ordinary consumer goods. They attest to the continent’s inscription into globalization and the reappropriation of State borders inherited from colonialism.