In the context of rapid increases in Sino-African trade over the last fifteen years,
this article examines the consequences of the proliferation of Chinese goods
in the daily life of African societies and the rise of mass consumption on the
continent. The impact of Chinese goods is frequently analyzed solely through
the lens of their cheap prices, yet these products need to be further understood
as contributing to the emergence of a new material culture. In this article, we
focus on African consumers of “made in China”, as well as the key category of
actors actively creating this new material culture – African traders themselves.
Through an analysis of these traders of Chinese products, this article argues that
their activities partially reconfigure local power relations surrounding access to
extraversion – or ‘relations with the exterior on which those who dominate the
society base their power’ (Bayart, 2000).

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Keywords

China in Africa, Chinese goods in Africa, Material culture, African traders