Ute Röschenthaler

Green tea in the Sahel: The social history of an itinerant consumer good

Since the liberalisation of the market in the 1990s, the amount of green tea imported from China to the Sahel has dramatically increased. This article traces some of the stages in the development of green tea from its introduction in the early nineteenth century by Moorish traders from Morocco to a mass consumer good in the Sahel and the adjoint Savannah regions. Having started as a beverage with medicinal and vitalising properties, it was adopted by the aristocratic urban elite in Sahelian trading towns, and much later via the pastoralists by the general population, while spreading out further south. The gradual democratisation of green tea is related to the changing norms of tea consumption, of family authority, and to different stages in the packaging, naming and presentation of tea, together with sugar. Green tea has become the most popular drink in cities such as Bamako, where it remains strongly associated with its Moorish introduction.

China–Africa media interactions: media and popular culture between business and state intervention

Following the exponential growth in China–Africa relationships over the past few years, African and Chinese media industries have developed new ties and increased their reciprocal relationships. For instance, Chinese state media corporations such as Xinhua News and China Central Television (CCTV) have significantly invested in developing their African chapters, private companies such as StarTimes acquired a leading role in the continent-wide satellite television market, and Chinese telecommunication firms such as Huawei and ZTE have transformed the African continent into their testing ground for new products and marketing strategies, to be later exported elsewhere around the world. These developments have confirmed emerging trends in the multipolarization of media transnational flows, which scholarship grounded on cultural imperialism theories had often overlooked (but see Larkin 1997; McNeely and Soysal 1989; Shohat and Stam 2003; Sreberny 1991). A growing number of studies addressed the increasing China–Africa media interactions over the past few years. Some of these studies made an attempt at interpreting the consequences of these interactions on the African mediascape, often connecting them to the wider debate about the transformations of Chinese soft power strategies (cf. Banda 2009; Gagliardone 2013; Gagliardone, Stremlau, and Nkrumah 2012; Harber 2013; Li and Rønning 2013; Rønning 2014; Wu 2012; Xin 2009; Zhang, Wasserman, and Mano 2016; see also Kurlantzick 2007; Li 2009). Others investigated African audiences’ reception of Chinese media and popular culture, and analysed African media coverage of Chinarelated news and African visual representations of China (cf. Gorfinkel, Joffe, and van Staden 2014; Joseph 1999; Simbao 2012; Stern 2009; Wasserman 2012, 2013; Wekesa 2013). A relatively smaller number of studies explored also the activity of African media entrepreneurs in China and questioned the representation of Africa and of Africarelated news in Chinese media (cf. Castillo 2016; Ferry 2012; Saavedra 2009; Shen 2009; Strauss 2009; Zheng 2010; Zheng 2014). Within this landscape, scholars have tended to prioritize methodological and theoretical approaches grounded in political economy and international relations, aimed at understanding the macro-implications of growing China–Africa media connections. Against the background of this still limited but rapidly expanding literature, this special issue proposes

Good quality or low price? Competition between Cameroonian and Chinese traders

In the past couple of decades, the variety of affordable trade goods in African markets as well as the number of both African and Chinese traders who import such goods from China have grown gradually. Through interviews with travelling traders and observations made in Cameroonian markets, this article examines the trajectories of Cameroonian traders who travel to China, and other Asian countries; it also studies their experiences of rivalry with Chinese traders in Cameroon whom they accuse of unfair competition. This article argues that different categories of Cameroonian traders experience this competition with a different intensity and that travelling traders who are not yet fully established in the local market feel mostly challenged by the competition with Chinese traders. To improve their situation, all traders argue that the Cameroonian government ought to intensify its efforts in regulating trade and reducing customs fees and taxes.

The China Challenge: Cameroonians Between Discontent and Popular Admiration

Cameroon’s relationship with China has been studied from the perspective of the cooperation between the two countries and the development projects that resulted from this collaboration. This chapter examines the interaction between Chinese and Cameroonian traders and businesspeople, the organisation of their trade, and the strategies that the different traders develop to make a living. It evaluates the experiences of Cameroonians with the Chinese presence in their country and the advantages and disadvantages that the growing number of Chinese projects and migrants entails for Cameroonians. Based on field research in Cameroon and in China, this chapter argues that the cooperation with China and the high competition in the domain of trade provides short-term benefits and opportunities for Cameroonians but might entail insurmountable challenges for consumers and businesspeople in the long run.

The Chinese presence in the Malian mediascape

ABSTRACT Mali is known for its proliferating independent media scene, especially its numerous newspapers and radio stations. Less well known is the growing role China plays in Mali’s media. China contributed to Mali’s radio equipment and broadcast soon after the country’s independence in 1960. Its influence on the Malian mediascape has increased again since the mid-2000s when China began to invest in media infrastructure, the training of journalists and cultural exchange. Journalists have participated in training courses in China, wrote about their experiences in their newspapers, and have hereby enhanced China’s image in Mali. Other newspaper reports, however, contrast their authors’ views on China’s rhetoric of brotherly cooperation with daily experience, and evaluate critically Chinese activities in the country. This article analyses the growing Chinese involvement in Mali’s media from the point of view of Malian journalists. It explores the ways in which newspaper reports and radio broadcasts represent the two countries and cooperation between them. We argue that, despite a widespread appreciation of China’s infrastructure projects and affordable consumer goods available to Mali’s population, there is also much suspicion that ranges from uncomfortable feelings to outright criticism of the grand ‘win–win’ narrative.

Introduction: United in Dress: Negotiating Gender and Hierarchy with Festival Uniforms

Through the intricate interplay of quality, form and decoration, cloth accomplishes far more than protecting the body.1 In many African societies, cloth is a store of wealth, a means of exchange, a bridewealth payment (Picton 1995; Steiner 1985), and, when transformed into clothing, a vehicle of complex messages that relate to individual beauty and rank as well as the social tensions that exist in interpersonal relations when it is decorated with proverbs and symbols (Beck 2001; Domowitz 1992). Cloth is a complex medium that is used to both construct and contest social and individual identities (Allman 2004; Hendrickson 1996) and to bring out one’s true self (Miller 2005); to mobilize politically and for camouflage and carnivalesque disguise. This themed part issue explores examples of particular types of uniforms, how people use decorated cloth, and the projects for which they use it when they wear dress with the same decoration for specific, often recurrent, events. Such decorated uniforms made from industrially produced fabrics have been observed at naming ceremonies, funerals, chiefs’ installation festivities and weddings, at political and religious events, concerts, commemoration ceremonies and festivals at least since the early twentieth century. Participants at these events wear uniforms of decorated wax, fancy cloth or T-shirts, some of which also have printed photographs, brands and/or logos on them. Depending on the context, some of these uniforms resemble each other quite closely, while others allow for individual differences. With their uniforms, the participants visualize a sense of belonging to a community that reflects different degrees of association, ranging from casual gatherings at these events to more rooted and longer-term affiliations. Uniforms reduce visible differences in a group (Allman 2004; Joseph 1986). They also create difference with non-members, such as other social and professional associations and groups that wear a particular ethnic or national dress (Eicher 1995; Hendrickson 1996), regardless of whether the uniforms comprise hand-made fabrics, individually tailored dresses, or industrially produced apparel. Uniforms emphasize sameness and consolidate group membership