The China Monitor - The Centre for Chinese Studies

The China Monitor
April 2011
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yarn and then weave the cotton yarn into cloth, which is followed by bleaching,
dyeing, and printing. The clothes factories in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl
River Delta buy the cloth and apply various fashion designs on it and produce a
large quantity of clothes and pants. These clothes stocks are then sold through the
agencies at the wholesale markets, like Guangda. The retailers from all over China
and western African countries come to the wholesale markets and purchase bulks
of clothes of various designs. The Africans who have their own stores in
Guangzhou will then divide the bulks of clothes into even smaller shares to sell to
short-term African traders, as in the case of Sanyuanli market. The traders then
ship the goods they bought by air/sea back home, where they sell the goods in
their family-run stores or to other African local retailers.
It is risky for a trader to purchase large quantities of clothes within a short period,
because he may have no buyers at all when fashions in Africa change. Compared
to electronics and mobile phones, the clothing business is much more fickle in
terms of style. The fashion in the Sanyuanli clothing market changes on weekly
basis and sometimes even more quickly. One can simply record the different
arrangement of clothes on display on the shop fronts to understand the changing
fashions of distant Sub-Saharan markets. The clothes sold from China and the
African local fashion trends have a mutual influence on each other. A Nigerian
trader said, “I ask my brothers in Nigeria to tell me what design is popular there.
But sometimes when every trader sells certain kinds of clothes from here, it will
form a trend in Nigeria.” African shop owners in this sense are better positioned
that their Chinese competitors not only because they share a common language
with their African clients, but also because they can better understand fashion
trends back home.
It is also an art for the smart entrepreneurs to transport their resources and goods
between China and Africa. International money transfer service is operated often
by logistics companies rather than the Chinese underground banks. The logistics
firms transport money, goods, samples, and sometimes gifts for mostly African
clients. Since they are handling large sums of cash and goods and crossing the
national borders, every logistics company has to be trustworthy and they spread
networks in the area of flight and freight. They have branches in Guangzhou, Yiwu,
Hong Kong, Lagos international airport, Abidjan, Beira, Cape Town, Lome, and
many other major African ports. The containers and boxes of goods are transported
through several employees who connect to the local cargo business. Small items
such as money envelope and product samples are usually handled by many flight
attendants that these firms employ. The flight attendants are ideal for this profitable
part-time job because of their frequent international travel agenda and their free
luggage allowance. Branch employees at destination pick up the items at Chinese
airports and then sent to the clients who are supposed to receive the money.
“Family members and relatives
are often crucial human
resources to handle the goods
the traders send back to Africa.”
Family members and relatives are often crucial human resources to handle the
goods the traders send back to Africa. The main responsibilities for their family
members are to store and distribute goods in the communities. Part of the profit
margin is used to pay the relatives and expenses such as shop rent, which is easily
manageable because the living expense in West Africa is comparatively low. Many
African traders in China have shops in their home countries where they support a
network of relatives through the trade.
The African traders are street-smart petty entrepreneurs, who utilize relatively small
amounts of capital, human networks, and wisdom in dealing with local politics to
make a fortune. Better opportunities to make money are available to these Africans
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