Chasing a Pair of Chinese Sandals: Markets and Trade Routes in Cameroon

What are the connections between a village in Cameroon and the transnational network of Chinese junk? From interviews with vendors of Chinese junk and observations of commercial areas, this paper shows territorial dynamics at two ends of the trade route in Cameroon: Douala and the periodic markets in Mont Bamboutos (West). This paper argues that the structuring of the Chinese junk trade route integrates town and countryside in a complementary space produced by commercial relations, appropriated by the traders, and characterised by recent booming trading places, recent urban-rural mobility and unprecedented connections to transnational networks. The development of the Chinese junk sector structures a trade route characterised by local combinations of visible faces and inconspicuous connections and sides. The first part of the paper emphasizes the development of Chinatown in Douala through the change of the commercial equipment’s landscape and the change of the actor landscape. The second part deals with the role of the rural markets and of the rural hawkers’ mobility in the structuring of the trade route and of new territorialities based on urban-rural mobility.