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Catechism, Commerce and Categories: Nigerian Male Migrant Traders in Harare

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Forging African Communities

Part of the book series: Global Diversities ((GLODIV))

Abstract

In many respects, Nigerian male migrants have reconfigured relationships and power relations in Harare’s downtown flea markets. I argue in this chapter that their presence in Harare’s flea market sector is contributing to the production of socialities that are not necessarily governed by nationality, ethnicity or religion, but fuse together the national and the global. Building on an extended ethnography, the chapter uses Nigerian men’s experiences in Harare to explore the means, ends and ethics of immigrant integration. I use interconnected sites of integration (church, market and residence) to interrogate the embeddedness of Nigerians into the socio-economic fabric of Harare and conclude that because of the formal and political exclusions they encounter, networks and bribes offer a way in and help in forging a certain kind of integration.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Not his real name. All names have been anonymized. Tonde runs a flea market business in the Gulf complex.

  2. 2.

    Reference to Zimbabwe’s “fast-track” land reform exercise of 2000 to 2002.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Sciences, College of Social Sciences, Theology, Humanities and Education, Africa University, Mutare, Zimbabwe

    Pedzisayi Leslie Mangezvo

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  1. Pedzisayi Leslie Mangezvo
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

    Oliver Bakewell

  2. African Centre for Migration & Society, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Loren B. Landau

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Mangezvo, P.L. (2018). Catechism, Commerce and Categories: Nigerian Male Migrant Traders in Harare. In: Bakewell, O., Landau, L. (eds) Forging African Communities. Global Diversities. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58194-5_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58194-5_7

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-58193-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-58194-5

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