Urban Africa Book Series
Urban Displacement and Trade in a Senegalese Market
An anthropology of endings
Gunvor Jónsson
The Malian market at the railway terminus in Dakar was bulldozed in 2009 and, following privatisation of the railway, passenger services in Senegal soon ceased altogether. The consequences were felt especially by women traders who had travelled the line since its inauguration, making the terminus in Dakar the centre of a thriving network of traders and migrants. To examine the fates of those whose livelihoods were destroyed or disrupted, Gunvor Jónsson spent a year with the women evicted from the terminus.
Urban Displacement and Trade in a Senegalese Market explores what happens at ‘the end’ of urban displacement, when it is all over, so to speak – when the dust has settled and people find themselves scattered in sometimes unfamiliar surroundings, trying to pick up the pieces and create something meaningful.
This book argues that rupture and ensuing displacement do not produce a clean slate where identities, networks and histories must be produced from scratch. Traders and their markets do not simply vanish into thin air when they are evicted. The book examines not only what is lost but what emerges when a dense node, such as the terminus, is dissolved and fragmented. The ethnography of the traders reveals that the aftermath of eviction in cities may lead to diasporic forms of consciousness and identity formations. Displacement, whether on a local or global scale, demands difficult adjustments and people’s capacities to adapt to new circumstances and environments vary. This book uncovers some of these different capacities and variations in traders’ reactions to displacement.
Published for the International African Institute by UCL Press
ISBN: 9781800086326, 246pp, March 2024
Call for proposals
The URBAN AFRICA Book Series , published by UCL Press and the International African
Institute,
provides a platform for critical, in-depth analysis of key contemporary issues affecting urban
environments across the African continent. View flyer
The International African Institute (IAI) and UCL Press welcome proposals for the new jointly published Urban Africa Book Series.
The Urban Africa Book Series is unique in providing critical, in-depth analysis of key contemporary issues affecting urban environments across the continent. It will provide a wide-ranging and rigorous analysis of the urbanisation processes shaping African urban contexts, and also provide African perspectives on the nature of global urbanisation. It has a particularly strong interest in publishing work by scholars based in African contexts, and ensuring publications are widely accessible to African students and researchers, notably via Open Access publication. It will seek to work in close collaboration with African based networks and centres of urban scholarship to publish the best of African urban research. The series aims:
- To publish a series with a distinctive African-centred approach compared to conventional urban studies lists and journals. The series will showcase leading scholars in African urban studies.
- To provide a high-profile platform to urban scholars from the African continent currently under-represented in urban studies.
- To bring the best work in African urban studies from the Northern academy and across the global South to African studies audiences, and to make these widely accessible to Africa-based scholars.
Review criteria
Proposals and manuscripts will be reviewed by at least two members of the editorial board and/or external reviewers. Criteria will include the following:
- (i) what does a proposal/manuscript contain that is telling us something new about urban Africa empirically?
- (ii) proposals need to emphasise ‘the urban’ and contribute African perspectives to urban studies more generally.
Series editors
- Jennifer Robinson, UCL University of London
- Jeffrey Paller, University of San Francisco, California
The International African Institute hosted at SOAS University of London is an institution engaged in the production and dissemination of African research and knowledge production, notably via its publication programme. It is the publisher of the journal Africa since 1928.
Established in 2015, UCL Press is the UK’s first full Open Access university press, with particular strengths in anthropology, architecture and the build environment, and urban studies.
To request the formal proposal submission form or with any initial enquiries please write to: Stephanie Kitchen, Managing Editor, International African Institute, sk111(at)soas.ac.uk
Editorial board
Daniel E. Agbiboa (Harvard University)
Filip De Boeck (University of Leuven)
Innocent Chirisa (University of Zimbabwe)
Armelle Choplin (University of Geneva)
S.-J. Cooper-Knock (University of Edinburgh)
Sean Fox (University of Bristol)
Thomas Goodfellow (University of Sheffield)
Richard J. Grant (University of Miami)
Prince Guma (University of Sheffield)
Jennifer Hart (Wayne State University)
Shuaib Lwasa (Makerere University)
Ntombini Marrengana (Bertha Centre, UCT;African Urban Research Initiative)
Patience Mususa (Nordic Africa Institute, Sweden)
Garth A. Myers (Trinity College, Hartford)
Basile Ndjio (University of Douala)
Ambe Njoh (University of South Florida)
Carlos Nunez Silva (University of Lisbon)
Nancy Odendaal (Planning, UCT; Association of African Planning Schools)
Ayodeji Olukoju(University of Lagos)
George Owusu (University of Ghana, Legon)
Ben Page (Geography, UCL)
Jeff Paller (University of Gothenburg and University of San Francisco)
[US based lead editor]
Susan Parnell (University of Bristol)
Edgar Pieterse (University of Cape Town)
Helene Neveu-Kringelbach (UCL Institute of African Studies / Anthropology)
Jennifer Robinson (Geography, UCL)
[UCL based lead editor]
David Simon (University of Royal Holloway)
AbdouMaliq Simone (Sheffield University)
Julian Walker (Development Planning Unit, UCL)
Michael Walls (Development Planning Unit, UCL)
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