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The Transfer of Trust: Ethnicities as Economic Institutions in the Livestock Trade in West and East Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Paul Quarles van Ufford  and
Fred Zaal
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Abstract

This article explores the role of ethnic identity in the framework of the livestock trade in West and East Africa. It argues that ethnic identity was used as an instrument to build trust relationships that were vital to the development of pre-colonial livestock trade networks. With the onset of colonial rule, alternative marketing channels developed, none of which proved to be capable of providing reliable and low transaction cost services to both livestock producer and consumer. Nevertheless, the ethnic trade monopolies were threatened by the advent of formal colonial marketing institutions and the progressive ‘opening up’ of the market. This situation remained basically unchanged during the post-colonial era and with recent livestock and meat trade liberalisations. The evidence from Benin and Kenya demonstrates, however, that ethnic identity continues to determine the organisation of the livestock trade, albeit in a different way. The transfer of trust remains crucial to minimise transaction costs in a market that is characterised by a mobile commodity, long distances, and delayed payment in the absence of adequate financial institutions. In addition, it is argued that the specificity of the market environment equally facilitates the use of ethnicity for commercial purposes such as the delimitation of market niches.

Résumé

Cet article étudie le rôle de l'identité ethnique dans le cadre du commerce du bétail en Afrique occidentale et orientale. Il montre que l'identité ethnique servait d'instrument pour forger les relations de confiance qui étaient essentielles au développement de réseaux précoloniaux de commerce du bétail. Avec l'arrivée du régime colonial, d'autres circuits de commercialisation se sont développés, aucun ne s'avérant capable d'offrir, tant au producteur de bétail qu'au consommateur, des services fiables à faible coût de transaction. Pourtant, l'avènement d'institutions coloniales formelles de commercialisation et l'≪ouverture≫ progressive du marché ont menacé les monopoles commerciaux ethniques. Cette situation demeura quasiment inchangée au cours de la période post-coloniale et avec la libéralisation récente des marchés du bétail et de la viande. Les données recueillies au Bénin et au Kenya montrent, cependant, que l'identité ethnique continue de déterminer l'organisation du commerce du bétail, quoique de mani ère différente. Le transfert de confiance demeure essentiel pour minimiser les coûts de transaction dans un marché caractérisé par une marchandise mobile, des distances importantes et un paiement ralenti en l'absence d'institutions financières adaptées. De plus, l'article montre que la spécificité de l'environnement de marché facilite tout autant l'utilisation de l'ethnicité à des fins commerciales telles que la délimitation de créneaux spécialisés.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 74 , Issue 2 , May 2004 , pp. 121 - 145
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2004

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