Down South

Today, Sarjoe and I headed down “south” (insofar as the Gambia has a “south”) along the coast -- all the way to the Gambia's southern border with the Casamance region of Senegal. The border river (pictured, with Sarjoe) and the beaches in the Kartong area were both beautiful, serene and almost unoccupied.

Working our way back north, we stopped to see (and hold!) the snakes at the local Reptile Center. The woman who gave us a tour said that there are serious misconceptions about snakes in Gambian folklore that can even lead to unnecessary deaths, so part of their mission is to teach several thousand Gambian schoolchildren per year what there really is to fear and not fear from the local snakes. Unrelatedly (I hope), she had a simultaneously understated and lewd sense of humor -- telling us about one kind of snake that allegedly has two penises and can go at it for 24 hour straight; cracking jokes about tortoise polygamy; and ending the tour with the question "What is the most dangerous snake in the Gambia?" with the unexpected response "The one in men's pants."

At around 5pm, we watched the fishing village Tanji in full swing, with boatloads of fish pulling up and a sophisticated ladder of distribution in deployment. From what I could tell, it works something like this: Wholesale brokers take their teams of teenage boys out to the boats, buy fish in bulk, and have them carried back to shore in enormous buckets. Those fish that are to be dried are then carted away from shore in wheelbarrows to the smokehouses just a few dozen meters away. The fish that are to be sold fresh, iced or salted are bought on the beach from the wholesalers by small-scale distributors on the shore, who then take them to market in Serekunda or wherever the next day (presumably) -- or possibly resell them to the people who are actually going to take them to market, taking their own small slice of profit at each step of distribution.

Also today: We had lunch at and a very interesting briefing on the stunning Sandele Eco-resort, which we were checking out on behalf of Avaaz as a possible retreat venue. We also went to the Tanji museum on the history, culture, flora and fauna of the Gambia. And we visited with Sarjoe's sister and his former boss (a retired UNICEF professional).

A meditation on markets

As in every developing country I've traveled in, most everyday commerce in West African countries takes place on the streets rather than in "real" stores. There are some fairly big differences between and within countries, of course: In Accra especially, the markets come to you in that anytime you are stopped in traffic (which is about 80% of the time you're in a car), you are approached by vendors darting through the stopped vehicles to sell you anything from a bag of cashews to a colander to a cell phone -- you could literally do a day's worth of shopping without ever leaving your car. In Dakar people are particularly insistent that surely any white person wants to buy whatever it is they are selling. In Serekunda's main market I for some reason have been unable to locate the sellers of bananas and oranges, though other fruits and vegetables are readily available and you can get bananas and oranges on any road outside town.

But the basic point is that the "informal" economy far outpaces the "formal" economy in the realm of everyday goods and services.

I've been thinking a lot about why that is, how it works, and what the factors are that would lead to an informal market economy to turn into a formal store-based economy. Here's what I've come up with so far:

Hallmarks of an informal market-based economy

• Lots of small-scale subsistence or barely-above-subsistence farming/gardening
• Child labor is available for hawking goods
• Transportation has a relatively high cost in terms of either time or money, so lots of small outlets spread out all over town selling an item significantly reduces transaction costs
• High unemployment
• Low literacy/level of qualification to be employed in the formal economy
• Culture of markets
• Warm weather year-round
  

Hallmarks of a formal store-based economy

• Information about where to purchase things is readily available, whether because of chain reputation, the presence of the internet, or something else.
• Credit readily available/credit cards in widespread use
• Relatively high income level for lowest 20% -- high enough that the marginal amount you can earn by buying a good from a distributor and then selling it on the street, usually, against stiff, ubiquitous competition, is too low to be worth your time even if you are unemployed
  
• Strong culture/enforcement of paying sales/income taxes
• Strong enforcement of licensing/loitering/etc provisions
  
• Culture of stores (meaning simply that consumers are used to going to stores to buy things instead of buying them on the street)
  

I just made this list up, of course, and it really doesn't feel like it tells the whole story to me. I'd really love to hear other people's thoughts on this matter!

Additionally, other than food, almost all of the items being sold are manufactured outside of Africa. And in fact, a fair amount of the food is imported as well. I've tried to inquire as to how the goods are distributed to the vendors once they are imported, but the vendors almost universally fail to understand what the crazy white woman is trying to ask them -- and/or they don't have a clear picture themselves! It seems that the region's main exports to make up the trade balance are groundnuts (peanuts) and, in Ghana, cocoa.

Two Ghanas?

I'm sitting in an internet cafe as sleek as any you'd find in the US, with faster broadband than Rev House has. I'm staying an 8-min walk away at a large, well-kept house owned by a family of lawyers and other white-collar professionals, which has regular blackouts and running water for only a few hours a day. And in between, I walked through an area very comparable to the poorest DC slums (pictured) -- though my impression is safer, at least during the day!

That's Ghana for you.

Unemployment is high here -- much like many of my friends in DC, it's common to be overeducated and jobless. For instance, the driver my host family procured for me during my stay has a master's in finance from a university in China. His course was in English but he obviously speaks Chinese now as well from living there for two years. So, he is proficient in the two most important languages in the world and has a master's degree in a practical field that is generally in demand, and he still can't find a job.

But, somewhat paradoxically to American ears, crime is very low -- and Ghanaians seem extremely proud of that fact, several having mentioned it to me independently. It seems at first blush to me that family ties are a big part of that. You may not be able to find a traditional job, but while you are looking, you are living with your parents or brothers and caretaking or running errands for your cousins/nieces/nephews/uncles/aunts -- and generally making yourself useful.

Gotta run -- off to meet the former VP of Ghana :-)