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Women smuggling and the men who help them: gender, corruption and illicit networks in Senegal*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2012

Cynthia Howson
Cynthia Howson*
Affiliation:
Department of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, University of Washington, Tacoma, WA 98402-3100, United States of America
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper investigates gendered patterns of corruption and access to illicit networks among female cross-border traders near the Senegambian border. Despite a discourse of generosity and solidarity, access to corrupt networks is mediated by class and gender, furthering social differentiation, especially insofar as it depends on geographic and socio-economic affinity with customs officers, state representatives and well-connected transporters. Issues of organisational culture, occupational identity and interpersonal negotiations of power represent important sources of corruption that require an understanding of the actual dynamics of public administration. While smuggling depends on contesting legal and social boundaries, the most successful traders (and transporters) strive to fulfil ideal gender roles as closely as possible. Ironically, trading on poverty and feminine vulnerability only works for relatively affluent women.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 3 , September 2012 , pp. 421 - 445
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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Footnotes

*

I am grateful to the editor and two anonymous referees as well as Carlos Oya, Kate Meagher, Lynn Thomas and Pierre Ly for helpful comments on earlier drafts. Further thanks are due to my research assistant, Ousmane Ndao. Remaining errors and omissions are my own.

References

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Indicateur, Kaolack city, 23.3.2008.

Officer, Customs field office, Kaolack Region, 18.3.2008.

Omar, Ministry of Customs, Dakar, 10.4.2008.

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