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This PDF is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Licence. Further details regarding permitted usage can be found at http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Print and ebook editions of this work are available to purchase from Zed Books (www.zedbooks.co.uk). A frica Now Africa Now is published by Zed Books in association with the inter nationally respected Nordic Africa Institute. Featuring high-quality, cutting-edge research from leading academics, the series addresses the big issues confronting Africa today. Accessible but in-depth, and wide-ranging in its scope, Africa Now engages with the critical political, economic, sociological and development debates affecting the continent, shedding new light on pressing concerns. Nordic Africa Institute The Nordic Africa Institute (Nordiska Afrikainstitutet) is a centre for research, documentation and information on modern Africa. Based in Uppsala, Sweden, the Institute is dedicated to providing timely, critical and alternative research and analysis of Africa and to co-operation with African researchers. As a hub and a meeting place for a growing field of research and analysis, the Institute strives to put knowledge of African issues within reach of scholars, policy makers, politicians, media, students and the general public. The Institute is financed jointly by the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden). www.nai.uu.se Forthcoming titles Godwin Murunga, Duncan Okello and Anders Sjögren (eds), Kenya: The Struggle for a New Constitutional Order Lisa Åkesson and Maria Eriksson Baaz, Africa’s Return Migrants Thiven Reddy, South Africa: Beyond Apartheid and Liberal Democracy Anders Themner (ed.), Warlord Democrats in Africa Titles already published Fantu Cheru and Cyril Obi (eds), The Rise of China and India in Africa Ilda Lindell (ed.), Africa’s Informal Workers Iman Hashim and Dorte Thorsen, Child Migration in Africa Prosper B. Matondi, Kjell Havnevik and Atakilte Beyene (eds), Biofuels, Land Grabbing and Food Security in Africa Cyril Obi and Siri Aas Rustad (eds), Oil and Insurgency in the Niger Delta Mats Utas (ed.), African Conflicts and Informal Power Prosper B. Matondi, Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform Maria Eriksson Baaz and Maria Stern, Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War? Fantu Cheru and Renu Modi (eds), Agricultural Development and Food Security in Africa Amanda Hammar (ed.), Displacement Economies in Africa Mary Njeri Kinyanjui, Women and the Informal Economy in Urban Africa Liisa Laakso and Petri Hautaniemi (eds), Diasporas, Development and Peace­ making in the Horn of Africa About the author Margaret C. Lee is associate professor in the Department of African, African American, and Diaspora studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the author of The Political Economy of Regionalism in Southern Africa; SADCC: The Political Economy of Development in Southern Africa; and co-editor of Unfinished Business: The Land Crisis in Southern Africa and The State and Democracy in Africa. Her current research focuses on Africa’s international trade regimes and globalization from above. Africa’s world trade Informal economies and globalization from below Margaret C. Lee Zed Books london Africa’s world trade: Informal economies and globalization from below was first published in association with the Nordic Africa Institute, PO Box 1703, se-751 47 Uppsala, Sweden in 2014 by Zed Books Ltd, 7 Cynthia Street, London n1 9jf, uk www.zedbooks.co.uk www.nai.uu.se Copyright © Margaret C. Lee 2014 The right of Margaret C. Lee to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 Set in OurType Arnhem, Monotype Gill Sans Heavy by Ewan Smith Index: [email protected] Cover designed by www.roguefour.co.uk All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of Zed Books Ltd. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data available isbn 978-1-78032-351-0 hb isbn 978-1-78032-350-3 pb isbn 978-1-78032-352-7 pdf isbn 978-1-78032-353-4 epub isbn 978-1-78032-354-1 mobi Contents Acknowledgments | vi Abbreviations and acronyms | ix Introduction. 1 1 Globalization from above and globalization from below . 7 2 Chocolate City (Guangzhou) in China . 19 3 The non-hegemonic world of Africa–China trade . 60 4 Humanizing the US African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA): inside apparel and textile factories . 107 Conclusion . 137 Appendix | 146 Notes | 148 Bibliography | 153 Index | 160 Acknowledgments This book has its origins in a year-long conversation between myself and a colleague and friend, Willie J. Jennings (Duke University). The conversation began in the summer of 2009 and ended a year later when we finally agreed that an ethnographic book on trade issues in Africa would make a great contribution to the literature. When I sent the book proposal to Fantu Cheru, then Research Director at the Nordic Africa Institute (NAI) in Uppsala, Sweden, he immediately commis- sioned the prospective book as part of the Institute’s Africa Now book series. A generous grant was given in 2011 to help defray my traveling expenses. The commissioning of the book by the NAI provided invaluable inspiration to commence working on the project. I was able to begin writing the book manuscript upon receiving a gener- ous fellowship from the John H. Turner Family. As a Turner Fellow, I had a semester’s leave to work on the project. This incredible opportunity was made possible through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s (UNC-CH) premier Institute for the Arts and Humanities (IAH) Fellowship program. All the fellows met Wednesday mornings during the fall of 2011 to discuss each fellow’s project and to provide constructive criticism. I want to extend a special thanks to the other IAH fellows for encouraging me to venture into ethnographic work, and for their thought-provoking comments about Chapter 2. They include Ross Barrett, Melissa Bullard, Oswaldo Estrada, George Lensing, Ashley Lucas, Joseph Megel, Sarah Smith, Afroz Taj, and our incredible facilitator, Jane F. Thrailkill. I discovered that I needed to visit Oshikango, Namibia, the location of a Chinese trading post. With all research funds depleted, John McGowan, who at the time was the director of IAH, provided me with a travel grant. This IAH grant, and a Craver Research Grant from my departmental chair, Eunice Sahle, allowed me to make the journey. Consistent supporters of my research have been Michael Lambert, a col- league in my department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies and director of the UNC-CH Center for African Studies, and Barbara Ander- son, also a colleague in my department and associate director of the Center for African Studies. In addition to small grants to conduct my field research, in 2011 I received a generous research grant from the Center for the study. vi Acknowledgments Their support has been invaluable. In addition, the Center was an important outlet for presenting my research findings. I would like to thank the Institute for African American Research at UNC- CH for a generous research grant in the summer of 2013 that allowed me to make my second trip to China. This grant was accompanied by a research grant from the Center for Global Initiatives. The chair of my department, Eunice Sahle, provided unwavering commit- ment and support to the project. And when my research plate was empty of financial funds, she was the first to start searching for resources to fill the plate. I feel exceedingly blessed to have a chair as incredible as Eunice Sahle. I would also like to thank Travis Gore, the department’s Administrative Support Associate, for the technological assistance he provided; and Sonia Colon, the department’s Business Service Coordinator, for making me financially astute. The following people read parts, or all, of the manuscript, and provided invaluable insight: Willie Jennings (Duke University); Sharon Fluker (Harvard University); Eunice Sahle (UNC-CH); and Ronald Williams (UNC-CH). A special thanks to Roger Southall (University of the Witwatersrand), who provided an invaluable peer review of the manuscript. I am also grateful to the anonymous peer reviewer. However, I take responsibility for any errors or omissions in the book. I had the privilege of working with three excellent research assistants: Father Joseph (Uganda); Zulaika (China) and Njeri Jennings (College of Wooster). It would be impossible to acknowledge all the interviewees in China and throughout Africa who granted me interviews for this study. How- ever, without their generosity, honesty, and in some cases bravery, this book would not have been possible. The Africa Institute of South Africa (AISA) has been my academic home in South Africa since 2000 and thus an outlet for my research. A special thanks is in order to Solani Ngobeni, director of publishing, and Phindile Lukhele- Olorunju, acting CEO, for arranging seminars whenever I am in the country. Also, the Department of Trade and Industry in Pretoria has always provided me with invaluable information. Finally, Julialynne Walker arranged for me to meet the traders interviewed in Johannesburg, South Africa. The trade union officials who coordinated my research trip to Maseru, Lesotho, were incredible. I would like to extend a special thanks to Shaw Lebakae and his colleagues Elliott Ramochela, Daniel Maraisane, Simon Jona- than, and Martha Mosoang-Ocran. Others I owe a great debt to are Mabaitsi Motsamai, Tsireletso Mojela, and Justice Tsukulu. In Ghana, my friend and colleague Esther Acolaste (Duke University) arranged for me to meet traders in the market in Accra, and Florence vii Hutchful opened her home to me and also arranged for me to meet key individuals related to this study.

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