West African Traders as Translators Between Chinese and African Urban Modernities

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The second phase of our research project confirmed that powerful imaginations of China and things Chinese in Africa are shaped less by Chinese actors residing in Africa than by the rapidly growing number of African transnational traders who venture afar to procure made-in-China goods. Among these traders, China has become an alternative reference point and a source of inspiration for the ongoing negotiations about urban modernities in Senegal and Ghana, as part of which translations of things Chinese are introduced. We have identified three major, recurrent topics of translation that need to be further investigated in the project's next phase for their significance and potential in triggering social change and re-ordering: the adaptation of material objects and their significations to local tastes and demands; the endorsement of Chinese professionalism and business practices; and the critical adoption of Chinese ways of organizing politics and society.In our future work we aim to further analyze the translational products in terms of their original Chinese significations, the underlying factors shaping their selection and adaptation by our informants, and the effects of their integration into the contexts of urban Ghana and Senegal. Having empirically established that individual's social positioning and economic engagement strongly influence the process of translation, our main research aim in the third phase is to advance the systematic understanding of translation and its mechanisms presented in our actor-centered translation model. Also, we will examine the repercussions of increased exposure to China in urban Senegal and Ghana through the traveling of people and translational products on the interaction and cooperation between Chinese sojourners and local populations in these societies, which was the main research objective of the first phase of the project.In addition to contributing to general theory building on translation as a translocal social process, our project also adds value to the SPP1448 because of its examination of the profound dialectical effects of travelling ideas on the production, legitimization and competition of narratives and counternarratives in the ordering of societies.