Informal Trade, Cross Border Networks and Contraband of Asian Textiles from Brazzaville to Kinshasa

Abstract

A river port organizes trafficking between two border cities, Brazzaville and Kinshasa, situated on either side of the Congo River in Central Africa. In a span of some 10 years, it has become a notorious center of trafficking in which a vast system of small-scale contraband—known to all, but both visible and hidden—has been organized for the import of Asian printed textiles to Kinshasa via Brazzaville. Through an analysis of fraudulent practices in a river port supervised by various state services supposedly responsible for enforcing the law, this paper looks at how the actors working or circulating in the border post establish together the rules for the illegal passage of goods.