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Consumption in Africa Anthropological Approaches

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Hans Peter Hahn (ed.)

Institut für Afrikastudien

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The study of consumption, including such aspects as social differentiation, communication and the change of needs, has become a major fi eld of study within material culture research. This volume unites a number of ethnographic case studies documenting a wide range of local practices with regard to consumer goods. Although based on the acquisition of globally circulating goods, consumption in Africa is appropriated and, thus, becomes part of the local material culture.

The contributions of this volume are the outcome of a workshop held at the African Studies Centre at Bayreuth University. Each chapter deals with the social dynamics engendered by new modes of consumption in specifi c areas (Côte d’Ivoire, Zambia, Tanzania, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Niger).

Cover photos: Bicycle owner and vendor of locally brewed beer in Kollo (Dép. de Tiébélé) on the way to the market, woman selling millet on the market of Zabré (both Burkina Faso)

9 *ukdist#,-mxbx*

ISBN 978-3-8258-0725-2, ISSN 0938-7285

Consumption in Africa Anthropological

Approaches edited by

Hans Peter Hahn

Content

Preface............................................................................................... 7 Consumption, Identities and Agency in Africa – Introduction Hans Peter Hahn (Frankfurt a. Main) ............................................... 9 Negotiating Dress Practices in Northern Côte d’Ivoire: Social Belonging, Social Becoming and Generational Dynamics Kerstin Bauer (Basel)....................................................................... 43 Filling up the Wardrobe: Decision Making, Clothing Purchases, and Dress Valuation in Lusaka, Zambia Karen Tranberg Hansen (Chicago) ................................................. 79 Ostentation as Lifestyle? Conspicuous Consumption, Identity and Home Culture in Northern Nigeria Editha Platte (Frankfurt a. M.) ........................................................ 97 ‘Ni Fesheni tu’ – Just Fashion. Consumption of Beads and Beadwork in Tanzania Ulf Vierke (Bayreuth) ..................................................................... 119 Caravaneers, Shopkeepers and Consumers – the Appropriation of Goods among the Kel Ewey Tuareg in Niger Gerd Spittler (Bayreuth) ................................................................ 147 How Many Things Does Man Need? Material Possessions and Consumption in Three West African Villages (Hausa, Kasena and Tuareg) Compared to German Students Hans Peter Hahn, Gerd Spittler & Markus Verne (Frankfurt a. M. / Bayreuth)........................................................................................ 173 Abstracts ....................................................................................... 201

Caravaneers, Shopkeepers and Consumers – the Appropriation of Goods

among the Kel Ewey Tuareg in Niger

Gerd Spittler (Bayreuth)

Introduction1 The once popular dichotomy of subsistence societies, which produce only for themselves and are able to make everything they need, and market societies, in which all goods circulate through the market, has long ago been shown by anthropologists to be false. There is no soci-ety which produces everything itself, and conversely there is no soci-ety which regulates everything through the market. Even societies with a mainly subsistence economy have external economic rela-tions. In this context, scholars have often referred to the central role of professional traders. Another form of external economic relation has received less attention, the trading expedition. I will first describe the current state of anthropological theory on this topic (I), and then present a case study of such an expedition, the caravan system of the Kel Ewey Tuareg, which still exists today (II). In section III, I will analyse the local appropriation of goods procured by the caravaneers in relation to the role of women in Timia. Thirty years ago the first shops were opened in Timia, and they have continued to increase in number ever since. In section IV, I examine the new relationship between shopkeepers and consumers. In the concluding section (V), I compare this new consumer behaviour with the appropriation of goods under the caravan system.

I. The Expedition in Anthropological Theory When we think of long-distance trade, we first of all think of profes-sional traders, i.e. people who control the purchase, transport and

1 I am grateful to Hans Peter Hahn, Marko Scholze and Markus Verne for their criticisms of earlier versions of this article.

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sale of goods in order to gain a profit. It is mainly this form of long-distance trade which has been studied in the anthropological and historical literature. Here I will concentrate on another form of long-distance trade, in which local needs and the procurement of goods are not separate phenomena concerning different groups of people, but are united within one group. As end consumers, the households themselves organize the procurement of goods from far off places. In anthropological literature, this form of long-distance trade is referred to as an expedition or trading expedition2. The starting point is an economy which is chiefly organized as a subsistence economy, but which procures some goods from outside. In connection with his theory of the “independent domestic economy”, Bücher early on pointed out that some goods are obtained from outside. He cited the example of trade journeys in the Pacific Ocean (Bücher [1901] 1912:108).

Bücher did not pay much attention to the institutional form of this long-distance trade. For the classic description of a long-distance trade system we must turn to Malinowski's book “Argonauts of the Western Pacific” (1922). The Kula trade is organized in the form of an expedition.3 This is an expedition across the ocean, in which boats are specially equipped and a number of different islands are called at. An expedition includes a large number of participants, under a single leadership. In his Kula studies, Malinowski focuses on the ceremo-nial exchange of bracelets and necklaces, but also mentions a “sub-sidiary exchange of ordinary goods” (Malinowski [1935] 1965:361, 395). Yams, betel nuts and coconuts are exchanged for each other or for craft products. Later, Malinowski revised his opinion and came to the conclusion that what he here refers to as subsidiary exchange is actually a main object of the Kula expedition: in the kula the most important economic fact is that the non-utilitarian exchange of valu-ables provides the driving force and the ceremonial framework for

2 Trading expedition is the more precise term, since it permits a distinction between this type of expedition and scientific or military expeditions. When I speak of expe-ditions in this article, I always mean trading expeditions. 3 Malinowski uses the term frequently, e.g. (1922:136ff).

Caravaneers, Shopkeepers and Consumers 149

an extremely important system of utilitarian trade (Malinowski [1935] 1965:456).

Malinowski repeatedly mentioned the Kula Ring as an example of intertribal trading, but he did not make any systematic economic analysis of this kind of expedition. This was done by Richard Thurnwald, who was then referred to by later authors (Thurnwald 1932:145-149). Expeditions are collective enterprises with many participants under a single leadership. They can be conducted ac-cording to various principles, including the hunting principle, on the basis of the exchange of gifts or as a collective trade journey. Cara-van trading is an example of such collective trade journeys. The ex-peditions described by Thurnwald cover long distances and last for weeks or months. Different societies have different social and eco-nomic structures and not all are equally predestined to this form of trad-ing. It is most likely to be found among hunting and herding nomads.

In “The Great Transformation” ([1944] 1957b) and in “Trade and Markets in Early Empires” (1957a), Karl Polanyi took up Thurn-wald's ideas. Borrowing directly from him, Polanyi writes:

External trade is, originally, more in the nature of adventure, ex-ploration, hunting, piracy and war than barter. It may as little imply peace as two-sidedeness, and even when it implies both it is usually organized on the principle of reciprocity, not on that of barter (Po-lanyi 1957b:59).

In “The Development of Indigenous Trade and Markets in West Africa” (1971), Claude Meillassoux took up the notion of the expedi-tion again in his discussion of long-distance trade (p. 68f.). In an evolutionary line, the trading expedition constitutes one of the first forms of long-distance trade. Only later came the development of “trade”, in which exchange value is more important than use value, and later still “commerce”, in which goods are exchanged for money. The expeditions are carried out not by professional traders but by peasants whose interest is in the immediate use value of the goods. They try to exchange as advantageously as they can, but their aim is not to make a profit. This is true even if they are obliged to make another exchange before obtaining the desired goods. Meillassoux

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mentions briefly the conditions and limitations of these expeditions: since they are carried out by peasants, they are subject to the condi-tions of the agricultural cycle and seasonally limited.

We can summarize the features of trading expeditions, as de-scribed by Bücher, Malinowski, Thurnwald, Polanyi and Meillas-soux, as follows:

− Expeditions complement the local subsistence economy but do

not replace it. The subsistence economy (domestic economy) con-tinues to be the economic basis.

− The purpose of the expedition is to procure goods for immediate use.

− The goods are obtained from places that are far away in (ethni-cally) foreign territory.

− The enterprise takes a long time (weeks, months).

− The organizational form is the expedition with many participants under a single leadership.

All authors assume that in an evolutionary framework the expedi-tion precedes long-distance trade by professional traders. Such expe-ditions are unknown to us today. We do not go and bring goods from far away places because they are always brought to us. Consumers thus have only indirect control. We choose from among those goods which have been produced far away and brought to us here.

There are a few interesting exceptions in this respect. European business travellers or tourists who go to Asia, Africa or America often bring gifts or souvenirs home with them. Their journey really has some other purpose. They bring some local products with them as a side effect, but this is not of existential importance for them. It is extremely rare for anyone to travel such a long distance in order to buy consumer goods for his own household use. We tend to hear of this only through the gossip columns of the newspapers: wealthy women who fly to Rome to buy shoes, or to Paris to update their wardrobe with the latest fashions. This is a form of luxury consump-

Caravaneers, Shopkeepers and Consumers 151

tion which few can afford. It is possible only for those with enough time and money, and would be unthinkable without modern means of transport such as a fast train or an aeroplane. The goods which are bought are of a high quality and are correspondingly expensive. They are not mass produced but unique and exquisite specimens, bearing the name of their maker. The client often has a personal relationship with the maker, such as in the case of clothes which are specially designed in accordance with the customer's wishes.

The procurement of goods among the Kel Ewey Tuareg, whom we shall be looking at more closely, is similar to these luxury shop-ping trips in several ways:

− People travel a long way, up to 1,000 km, in order to obtain

goods.

− People look for high quality and enter into personal relations with the manufacturers, whose name is a guarantee of quality.

− The products are made by hand in a complicated work process and are more expensive than machine-made products.

Despite these similarities, there are also some obvious differences:

− The Kel Ewey are not wealthy but – at least according to our cri-teria – extremely poor.4

− The Kel Ewey do not board a plane or a high-speed train but ride camels to reach their destination 1,000 km away.

− These are not individual shopping trips but collective journeys, i.e. “archaic” expeditions, as we know them from the anthropo-logical literature. These Kel Ewey expeditions take the form of caravans which look back on a centuries-old tradition. Yet they are not part of the past but still take place today.5

4 The emphasis here is on “our criteria”. Our joint article in this volume (Hahn, Spittler, Verne) shows that the Kel Timia are wealthy in comparison with the Hausa and Kasena villages. 5 Another form of procuring goods from far-away places, which used to be wide-spread among the Tuareg, is the raid (Spittler 1984). It would be well worth analys-

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II. The Caravans of the Kel Ewey Tuareg6 The Kel Ewey Tuareg have lived for centuries in the Aïr, a mountain range situated in the south central Sahara, in the state of Niger. My investigations were concentrated in particular on the Kel Timia (about 6000 individuals), who live around the Timia oasis and repre-sent in typical form the traditions of the Kel Ewey and their eco-nomic system.

Right from precolonial times, the Kel Ewey have always obtained most of their foodstuffs and other commodities from outside, and this is still true today. Dates, wheat, fruits and vegetables are the main crops grown in the gardens in the oasis, while camels and goats sup-ply milk, cheese and meat. But the most important staple, which is eaten two or three times a day, is millet. This has to be brought from far away. The Kel Ewey spend even more money on tea and sugar which come from very far away: the tea from China, the sugar from Europe.

Clothing and shoes are also not procured locally; in the case of hand-crafted products they are made in Hausaland, while machine-made fabrics and shoes come from neighbouring African countries or from Europe and Asia (Spittler 2002; forthcoming). Some household goods are made by local craftsmen, such as wooden spoons or mor-tars and pestles, and the same applies to leather articles (cushions, saddles, saddlebags) and metal products such as knives, sickles, etc. These goods are made to order and in earlier times they were paid for by exchange of millet, salt, clothing, etc. However, most household articles are also obtained from Hausaland: cooking pots of clay (tin) or metal (egher), wooden bowls (akos, takarwas) used for eating,

ing the effects of this on consumer goods, but we cannot do this here for reasons of space. 6 I have been carrying out research among the Kel Ewey since the 1980s with the support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), first on my own and then within the framework of two Bayreuth collaborative research centres financed by the DFG: “Identity in Africa” (SFB 214) and “Local Action in Africa in the Context of Global Influences” (SFB/FK 560). In addition to a number of articles, I have pub-lished the following books on the Kel Ewey: Spittler (1989a; 1989b; 1993; 1998).

Caravaneers, Shopkeepers and Consumers 153

calabashes (talkas) that are used for eating and drinking, teapots (from China, Czechoslovakia or Hungary), tea glasses (from France).

How do the Kel Ewey obtain these goods? Until recently Timia had no market, no shop and no traders. It was not possible to buy either millet or cloth in Timia. Each household had to procure what-ever it needed itself. This was achieved by means of a trading expe-dition organized as a caravan, characterized by the following fea-tures:7

− It enters foreign territory.

− It concentrates on specific goals which are fixed in advance. Many difficulties have to be overcome before the goal can be achieved.

− After achieving the goal, the expedition returns home.

− The expedition is carried out in a group.

− The expedition is equipped in a way which makes it almost com-pletely self-supporting (transport, tools, food, overnight needs, etc.).

The Kel Ewey undertake two related expeditions each year. One of these lasts about a month and passes through the desert to Bilma, an oasis 600 km away (Spittler 1990). The expeditionary character of this enterprise is immediately obvious. The aim of the caravan is to buy salt and dates in Bilma (taferde). It crosses the desert under ex-tremely harsh conditions and has to take with it everything it needs to survive for a month: food, wood for cooking, the entire fodder for the camels, etc.

7 In my publications on 19th century explorers (Spittler 1987; 1996), I make a dis-tinction between expedition and caravan. In this article, following the linguistic usage of economic anthropology, I see the caravan as a form of expedition.

154 Gerd Spittler

Fig. 14: Kel Ewey Caravan Routes and Pasture Areas

Caravaneers, Shopkeepers and Consumers 155

Fig. 15: Kel Ewey Salt Caravan from Bilma to Aïr (Spittler 1980)

After returning, men and camels rest for a few weeks and then set off on the expedition to Hausaland. This lasts about six months. The aim of this expedition is: 1. to reach the seasonal pasture grounds for the camels in the south, and 2. to purchase a year's supply of the sta-ple, millet, and of consumer goods such as cloth, shoes, household equipment, etc. These goods, bought with the proceeds from the sale of the salt and dates from Bilma, are not bought in one place, but in a number of different places within an area half the size of Germany.

Some things are only available at certain places, or the quality is better there, or the goods are cheaper. The Kel Ewey travel hundreds of kilometres in order to obtain one particular article. The most southerly points reached during this expedition are Kano and Kura, both in Nigeria. They are approximately 1,000 km from the starting point in Timia.

The economy of the caravan trade displays several features which distinguish it from other consumer purchases: 1. a long time frame, 2. the possession of a large sum of money at a particular time,

156 Gerd Spittler

3. collective purchases, 4. integration with the grazing cycle of the camels.

The caravaneers of the Kel Ewey stay in Hausaland for four to six months. They thus have sufficient time to effect their sales and their purchases. They sell the salt slowly in small amounts in rural markets and obtain better prices in this way than they would if they sold the salt and the dates to a single trader in one place. They buy the millet likewise in small amounts directly from the farmers, immediately after the harvest, and thus pay less than buyers in the towns. They have time to go to Kano, Kura, Zinder and Tessaoua, and smaller markets, in order to purchase the best commodities at favourable prices.

When the caravaneers have sold their salt and their dates, they have a sum of money at their disposition which allows them to buy the entire annual needs of a household at one time (although it takes them two months to buy all the millet they need). This distinguishes them from wage-dependent households where the daily or monthly wage determines when purchases are made. Because they buy large amounts, they can take advantage of discount prices just like traders. The goods acquired by the Kel Timia are therefore good value for money, but cost a great deal of time and physical effort. The cara-vaneers spend a long time on each purchase, inspecting the quality and aesthetic appearance of the goods carefully. They compare dif-ferent offers and frequently do not buy because they are not satisfied with the goods.

It should not be thought that this inspection means that the cara-vaneers decide on one out of a large range of goods. The caravaneers know exactly what they are looking for. They do not wander through a market gathering information about the variety of products avail-able; they are looking for a particular item, such as a wooden bowl, a clay pot or a pair of sandals. Unlike the Hausa, who stroll leisurely around a market, they walk quickly and purposefully, without look-ing to right or left. But once they have reached the right place, they spend a long time there, inspecting the goods on display.

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Between the ages of 10 and 60, the Kel Ewey men spend about six months of each year in Hausaland. In this respect they can be compared with migrant labourers who spend a large part of their active life away from home, but who do not lose contact with their families. Such migrant labourers are frequently the first to bring home new consumer goods, which then start spreading among the rest of the population. This is not the case among the Kel Ewey. One of the reasons for this is that there is only a superficial resemblance to migrant labourers. In reality the situation of the Kel Ewey is very different.

The Kel Ewey do not arrive empty-handed in their host country, as labourers do, but as independent “entrepreneurs”. They put their own camels out to pasture there, they sell their own products, they are completely equipped with everything they need. Therefore they need very little contact with the local people, are not dependent on them, and can live as they please. The herders who tend the camels live isolated in the bush, far from the towns. This is quite different from the situation of a migrant labourer who is exposed to frequent contacts with the local people and occupies a subordinate position among them. It therefore stands to reason that he should recognize their superiority as a group and use them as a reference group in the matter of adopting new consumer goods. Since the Kel Ewey are completely equipped for their expedition, they are not dependent on others for food and lodging, and do not feel any temptation or pres-sure to adopt the norms of the local people.

The structure of the expedition creates a greater detachment from the products offered in the markets and shops than is the case with migrant labourers. The Kel Ewey herders who look after the camels in Hausaland see no more of these products than the people in Timia. The situation is different for the amadellil, the businessman in each household group. He is responsible for selling the salt and dates, and for purchasing millet, cloth and other items. This involves not only going to the local markets but also spending time in large towns such as Tessaoua and Zinder, or even in the metropolis of Kano. He is not on a shopping spree but knows exactly what he wants to buy.

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The goods which the Kel Timia buy in the south can be divided into three categories: 1. millet, 2. industrially manufactured products, 3. hand-made products. Millet, the staple food, has the highest prior-ity, because the whole of a family's annual requirements of this commodity have to be bought. The purpose of the caravans to the south is frequently described as “the search for millet” (agamay n-enale). The millet is bought directly from the farmers immediately after being harvested and is stored there. The other goods are bought only after this has been accomplished. The factory-made fabrics come from Nigeria, North Africa, Europe and Asia. The caravaneers buy them from different traders in the markets and in shops in the big towns (Kano, Tessaoua, Zinder). Because they buy as a group they are usually granted a discount. But normally there is no personal relationship between customers and traders. The Kel Ewey are only marginal customers in the case of factory-made fabrics. They there-fore have no influence on their manufacture. The fabrics they look for can easily disappear from the market from one year to the next.

Fig. 16: Kel Ewey Caravaneers with Hausa Trader in Kura (Spittler 1997).

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This is different in the case of hand-made products that are spe-cially made for the Tuareg, or even for the Kel Timia. The most valuable object bought by the Kel Ewey in the south is the alassho cloth that is hand-woven and hand-dyed in Kura (south of Kano). This finds everyday use as a head covering for women and has to be replaced once a year. On festive occasions it is also made up into veils for Tuareg men, blouses for women and tobes for men. De-pending on the rate of exchange, a simple shawl costs between 10 and 50 euros, and bigger garments many times this amount. The caravaneers stay in Kura for several days as the guests of a trader – or, to be more exact, a putting out entrepreneur – in order to inspect the quality of the cloth and to negotiate the price as a group.

Sandals are much cheaper (2 to 5 euros), yet here, too, the Kel Timia spend much time and go to a great deal of trouble to find high quality, inexpensive sandals. In almost every Hausa town there are sandal-makers who make the widespread balka type. Almost all the Kel Timia go to Balarabe, a sandal-maker in Zinder who produces sandals for both men and women. Over the last fifty years the women of Timia have preferred his sandals to all others and Balarabe therefore considers them as his most important customers, producing mainly for them. The sandals have to be ordered and paid for in ad-vance. But here, too, the goods are carefully inspected and any criti-cisms are openly expressed. If the sandals prove to be unsatisfactory when worn in Timia, a complaint is made in the following year and Balarabe will be extra careful when making the new ones. The dif-ferences in quality and appearance between different types of sandals are barely perceptible to an outsider, but are fundamental in the eyes of the Kel Timia.8

8 The women of Timia are convinced that Balarabe's sandals are better quality and more beautiful than other sandals. I have shown various models to students in Bayreuth and they were often unable to detect any difference.

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III. Local appropriation of goods and the role of women In our society it is usually the women who do the shopping, but in the Kel Ewey caravan system the goods are bought exclusively by men. However, once they arrive back in Timia, most of the goods pass into the possession or at least the control of the women. It is the women who decide whether they will accept new goods or not.

The Kel Ewey have matrilocal residence. When a young couple marries, a tent is erected for them close to the bride's mother. Thus it is the men and not the women who move away on marriage. When he re turns from a caravan, a man unloads the millet and the other goods he has brought in front of his mother-in-law's storehouse, and from this moment on no longer has any rights over the goods. He does not even have the right to enter the storehouse. As Moslems, the Kel Ewey generally practise the Islamic law of succession according to the Maliki school. But there remain some matrilinear rules. In the law of succession there is the rule of abatol. This says that property can be inherited only by daughters and cannot be sold. All children, including sons, are life beneficiaries of the property. In particular this includes date palms, but also a certain number of camels and goats. Men are completely excluded from other abatol items, such as women's clothing, and silver and agate jewellery.

The structure of the family is an obstacle to the acceptance of new goods in several respects. In many other societies, emigration is an important factor for the acceptance of foreign cultural elements. The emigrants, who occasionally return home to visit their relatives, adopt the new culture and take parts of it home with them. The Kel Ewey of Timia are different – we could almost say from all other rural communities in Africa – in that there was migration, but no emigration among them until recently. There is no known case of a definitive emigration between 1920 and 1980.9 One of the main rea-sons for this is the structure of the family. First, we must remember

9 After Kawsan’s rebellion of 1916-18, the whole population of the Aïr was evacu-ated to Agadez by the French colonial powers. The people of Timia then returned to Timia with a very few exceptions. After temporary emigration following hostile raids in 1920, most of the people of Timia returned (Spitter 1989b, ch. 2).

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that with matrilocal residence, the man moves to the wife's residence and not the other way round. Anyone who emigrates will not find a wife, at least not a Kel Ewey wife. There is no doubt that this is an important obstacle to emigration, unlike in other societies where the wife follows the husband wherever he goes. A man who does not find a Kel Ewey wife could marry another woman. But there are good reasons why the Kel Ewey prefer a wife from their own people. Especially in poorer households, the husband profits from the abatol and his wife's goat herd. If he decides to leave his wife and emigrate to Hausaland, he loses not only the benefits of the abatol and the goats, but also the bride-price camel and its offspring, and, above all, his children by this wife.

The structure of the family helps to bring about stable needs not only by discouraging emigration. Because women, until recently, did not leave Timia and its goat pasture grounds, they knew very little of the world outside the Aïr. They had never seen women dressed dif-ferently, or new consumer goods. They were therefore the tradition keepers, even more than the men.10

Until recently the women were not familiar with money and were therefore not interested in prices. This lack of interest in the price is striking in the case of the shawl or alassho, which cost 80 German marks at the beginning of the 1980s.

Anyone with any economic sense would tell the Tuareg that they were too poor to be able to afford this item. I once asked a woman what such a shawl costs, and she said she didn't know. She told me, that she was not even interested in knowing; her husband was the one

10 In pre-colonial times the structure of the family among the Kel Ewey was less closed and therefore more open to Hausa cultural influences. In pre-colonial times many Kel Ewey men married Hausa slave girls (tewahey), in order to avoid the disadvantages – as the men saw them – of the matrilinear and matrilocal system. At that time many elements of Hausa culture were more widespread among the Kel Ewey than today, such as Hausa food customs but above all the Hausa language. While Kel Ewey women today speak no Hausa, there are some old women who can still speak Hausa. They learned it either because there was a Hausa slave girl in the household or because their mother was a Hausa slave (Spittler 1998, ch. 4).

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Fig. 17: Woman with alassho Shawl (Spittler 2003).

who brought it home. The men, on the other hand, who have always used money for their commercial transactions in other societies, are price-conscious in respect of their own consumer goods. The fact that they have switched from the valuable alassho veil to a less beau- tiful muslin material (ashash) is just as much a result of their price calculations as the substitution of cotton clothing by more robust but less comfortable clothing made of man-made fibres.

The women are more conservative, but over long time periods changes in consumer habits can be observed among them as well. Agate jewellery has been widely used by them for centuries, but tazerked, a head ornament specifically for brides, and elkurshi, a brace-let, both made of agate, were introduced at the end of the 19th century.

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Fig. 18: Bride Ornament (Spittler 2006).

Tea drinking became established among men at the beginning of the 20th century, and among women from the middle of the century onwards. As far as fabrics are concerned, only the handwoven alassho was able to retain its supremacy. Machine-woven cotton fabrics were used for all other garments from the middle of the 20 th century onwards, although they were still dyed indigo. About twenty years ago, the cheap multi-coloured cotton fabrics known as attanfa, as worn by most women in West Africa, started becoming increas-ingly popular.11 Traditional household utensils, such as calabashes and articles made of clay or wood, have gradually been replaced by metal and plastic goods over the past twenty years.

11 The reasons why women wear attanfa today merit a special explanation. I have treated this topic in my article “Explorations in African Vitality” (Spittler 2004:457-458). The change of clothing among the Kel Ewey during the last 200 years is treated in my article “Foreign Cloth and Kel Ewey Identity” (forthcoming).

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Introducing innovations was difficult because the individual de-sire to be different from others never played an important role in the purchase of goods. All the women thought that Balarabe's sandals were better than other sandals, and they all preferred jelegloki fabrics to other indigo fabrics. If a woman did not wear them or did not pos-sess Balarabe sandals, this was only because she, or rather her hus-band, could not afford them and they were forced to choose some-thing cheaper instead. Thus it was not at all easy for innovations to become established because finding a niche through individual varia-tions in taste was not possible. New things either pleased everyone or no one.

Nevertheless there were and are innovations. The first step is taken by a caravaneer who brings home something new for his mother, sister or wife. It first has to prove itself in his own house-hold. There are many examples of goods which have not been ac-cepted. The women do not directly criticize the item (such as a new fabric or a new cooking pot), but show their opinion of it by not us-ing it. If the item becomes established in one household, however, a more or less lengthy process begins which ends either with its being introduced in all households (e.g. the Balarabe sandals) or not at all. The result depends not only on the degree to which people are con-vinced by the item itself, but also on the prestige of the household in which it was first introduced. A whole range of new goods (including Balarabe sandals and new types of fabric) were introduced through the household of Alhaji Moussa (1921 – 2005), for example.

Sometimes it is not a ready-made product that is introduced, but a raw material which only becomes a product by means of local ap-propriation. At the end of the 19th century, Alhaji Kel Ewey brought agate beads with him from Mecca and gave them to his nieces. These women combined them with other stones to create bracelets (el kur-shi) for everyday use and a bridal head ornament (tazender, see Fig. 18). These adornments came into general use in the whole of Timia, although there are only a few specimens of the head ornament in the families, all of which originate from the four nieces of Alhaji Kel Ewey. They are lent out to every bride in Timia and today (together

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with the bracelets) form part of a specific identity through which the Kel Timia distinguish themselves from other Tuareg.

IV. Shopkeepers and consumers in Timia The caravans and the appropriation of goods associated with them, as described in the preceding sections, still exist today. But today, unlike in earlier times, they no longer have a supply monopoly but share this with an increasing number of traders and shopkeepers in Timia. Goods were always traded on a small scale in Timia. Wealthy caravaneers, such as Alhaji Moussa, bought more goods in Hausaland than they needed for their own household, such as tea and sugar, sandals and alassho cloth. They did not display these goods in a shop but hid them in their storehouse. No one knew that they had something to sell unless they enquired. For various reasons, however, this remained a sideline and did not lead to the development of pro-fessional traders and shopkeepers: − No one in Timia had large amounts of cash that were continu-

ously available for shopping. − As a rule, those people in Timia who did not take part in the cara-

vans because they had some other occupation (gardeners, crafts-men, marabouts) nevertheless possessed camels which they en-trusted to relations or friends on the caravans, in order to obtain their own supplies. Even if they did not possess any camels, they could give money to a caravaneer. He then bought sandals or shawls or other goods for them at the same price he bought them for himself. By means of this system, known as albada (commis-sion, order), those who stayed behind in Timia were able to buy goods from Hausland at no extra cost through the agency of a relative, neighbour or friend.

− It was not possible for a caravaneer to maintain a permanent mo-nopoly on certain goods and exclude the others. Alhaji Moussa had to learn this the hard way after discovering the Balarabe san-dals. At first he tried to monopolize this trade for himself, but

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pressure from the other caravaneers forced him to reveal his source.

− Anyone in Timia who does not hide his property but displays it openly is subjected to great pressure from relations and neighbours to share it, since he obviously owns more than he needs.

A number of social and economic changes were therefore necessary before traders and shopkeepers could become established:

1. There had to be large amounts of cash regularly available. This condition was fulfilled as from the 1980s, when a large number of labourers were employed in a German development project in Timia and paid in cash at the end of each month. Since that time the coop-erative in Timia has run a lorry to take vegetables and fruit grown by the gardeners to Agadez and Arlit and this gives the gardeners a regular cash income. On the return journey, the lorry can then trans-port goods needed by the shopkeepers. The traders buy their goods only in these two towns. As a rule, they do not go there themselves, but give their order to the lorry driver.

2. Since the end of the 1990s, after the end of the Tuareg rebel-lion, increasing numbers of tourists have come to Timia. They are not so much interested in the goods for sale in the shops as in tradi-tional handmade products (silver jewellery and leather goods). But the young men who work in the tourist business12 are good customers in the shops, and in some cases own shops themselves. They are also interested in new products.

3. While in earlier times women never left the oasis of Timia ex-cept to take their goats to the pasture grounds, in the last twenty years or so an increasing number of women have got to know towns such as Agadez, Arlit and even the capital, Niamey, or Algerian towns such as Djanet. In some cases these are schoolgirls and stu-dents, and in other cases women who, unlike in earlier times, accom-pany their husbands who go to work in these towns. All these women become familiar with new products which did not figure among the

12 They are known as chasse touristes, tourist hunters.

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traditional range of products of the caravaneers. They cultivate indi-vidual tastes which distinguish them from other women, especially those of the older generation. When they visit Timia, they bring their new tastes with them and influence the other women.

4. In the last ten years there have been women in Timia who have come from outside, in some cases from other ethnic groups. They are teachers or wives of foreigners working in Timia and are a living example of foreign dress customs.

5. For about twenty years several NGOs have regularly distrib-uted clothing in Timia. At least as far as children are concerned, new dress customs have been adopted, although it is not yet clear whether these changes are permanent.

When I began my research in the mid-1970s, there was not a sin-gle shop in Timia, but now, at the beginning of the new millennium, there are over twenty. All of them belong to natives of Timia. Some of these are professional traders who have no other occupation and who open their shop at fixed times. But for the majority their shop is

Fig. 19: Professional shopkeepers like this trader in Timia stock a wide range of goods. (Spittler 2002)

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a sideline or seasonal. Within the last years there have been great fluctuations. Each year some shops close down and others start up. The economic conditions for running a business are obviously not widely known. Most of the traders are men, but there are also some women.

There are no shop windows but the items are carefully arranged inside the shop so that customers can clearly see what is there. Some things are placed on shelves, some are hung on the wall (clothing), and some things stand on the ground (such as sacks of rice, local vegetables or cooking oil). The shops are open at fixed times and for long periods (often from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.), which means that poten-tial customers are sure of being able to buy what they need at any time of day. As a rule, goods are paid for in cash, but sometimes they are exchanged for other goods or bought on credit.

The traders are not professionalized to such a degree that they have no time for anything but their stock and their customers. For most of the time there are friends sitting inside or in front of the shop. Chairs are often put out especially for this purpose. Each shop is also a place of communication for people who do not want to buy anything. Because of this it it is difficult for women to enter the shop. The customers are usually children sent by their mothers, or older people. A girl or young woman needs a certain amount of courage to enter the shop under the eyes of the young men.

What is new about these shops as compared with the caravan trade? In what ways has consumption changed, or, to put it more accurately, emerged? For all those who are willing and able to enter a shop, there is a comprehensive range of goods permanently on display which in principle they can buy if they wish and if they have enough money. When people enter a shop, they always know before-hand exactly what they want. I have never seen anyone make a spon-taneous decision to buy something they suddenly see. But some cus-tomers notice what is on display, look curiously at everything and absorb these impressions. Anyone who goes frequently to the same shop is familiar with most of the goods displayed there.

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Small shops mostly stock a small range of standard, frequently needed articles: salt, tea and sugar, cooking oil, rice, pomade, rubber sandals, with just one type of each article. Bigger shops have not only a wider range of articles but also different types of the same article: several kinds of pomade or spaghetti, a selection of different kinds of rubber sandals. Some shopkeepers introduce new products from time to time which were previously unknown in Timia. They stock them for a test period, to see whether people buy them or not. They are obviously able to rely on at least a few customers who are willing to try out new things.

In comparison to the caravan system, it is obvious that the goods available in Timia have not only become more varied, but they have also become more integrated in everyday life and more anonymous. The customer and especially the trader know more or less vaguely that the goods come from far away, often from outside Africa. But because they are permanently present in the shops, they belong to the everyday life of Timia. They are available at any time. In principle it is easy to buy them; one only has to go across the street, but one must have enough money – and that is where the difficulty lies. In the caravan system, the goods arrive in Timia once a year, and the arrival and unpacking of the goods is a big event. The goods have been carefully selected. The caravaneers have spent many days in Kura choosing the best quality alassho. The caravaneer has visited several different markets, far apart from each other, searching for the right wooden bowl for his daughter who is shortly to be married. Many of the goods are bound up with stories. People know that the sandals come from Balarabe, and they can enquire about his state of health, or whether the sandals are now made by his son instead of by himself. The fabrics from Nigeria come together with stories of har-assment by the police, and the problems associated with smuggling them across the border.

In Timia money is playing a new role. Many women are handling money for the first time. Only thirty years ago there were women in Timia who had never seen a banknote. They can now recognize the different banknotes and are learning the prices of things. But the men

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have also had to change their habits. In earlier times they had money in their pockets once a year, following the sale of the dates and salt. A caravaneer had to set priorities: first, he had to buy a year's supply of millet for the family, then various items of clothing in Kano and Kura. If any money was left over, he could then buy luxury items such as honey or jewellery. On his return to Timia, the caravaneer had spent everything he had on the annual requirements for his fam-ily. After this he saw no money for many months. But in the shops, people buy things regularly in small amounts.

Today in Timia it is possible to speak of consumption and con-sumers, terms which were hardly appropriate under the monopoly of the caravan system. Today there is a permanent and varied range of products on sale and everyone can make their own selection. The people mostly do not have much money, but they frequently have some very small sum which enables them to buy what they need in tiny amounts. When they enter a shop they almost always know ex-actly what they are going to buy. But they notice all the different things on display and know that everything can be purchased.

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