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Linn Axelsson Making Borders: Engaging the Threat of Chinese Textiles in Ghana, Stockholm Studies in Human Geography 22, Stockholm, Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis, 253 pages. 2012 USD 28.00, paper, ISBN: 9789186071998.
I have to admit a mixture of skepticism and interest when asked to review this book—textiles and borders: what was the connection beyond tariffs and transborder trade? Could it be the subject of a whole book? After reading this book, which is Linn Axelsson’s doctoral thesis at the University of Stockholm, any skepticism has been replaced by new insight and admiration for what is an important piece of work, which makes a distinctive contribution to the political geography and "China in Africa" literature.
In the literature on the textile trade we generally read about price/quality ratios and how these affect patterns of trade. Axelsson’s project is a different one. It is to examine how imports of "African prints" from China have been received in Ghana at levels of both policy and identity. Based on extensive fieldwork, Axelsson examines how Chinese imports have come to be perceived as threats to the Ghanaian economy and nation by virtue of being either smuggled, counterfeit or ‘morally unjust’. This construction as unjust is because these textiles are produced in China and therefore will not provide employment for Ghanaian workers, while simultaneously drawing symbolic value national culture.
In a largely neoliberalized economy import bans are uncommon, although Nigeria has made, and continues to make extensive use of these, despite being a World Trade Organization member. In Ghana there have been a variety of responses to imports of African prints made in China. For example, in response to widespread smuggling and under-invoicing, a ‘single import corridor’ was instituted for a number of years through the port of Takoradi. This was a response to the failure of the customs service to collect correct duties across land borders as result of corruption. However, rather than representing a form of "governance beyond the state," this was a rescaling of the governance of these commodities.
The counterfeiting of Ghanaian designs also evoked other forms of governance, with textile companies having their own anti-counterfeit teams scouring markets and working in collaboration with the state. Finally, the Ghanaian government instituted campaigns to encourage people to wear nationally produced African cloth on Fridays and later during the whole week in response to the perceived threat posed from Chinese imports.
Axelsson examines these responses as forms of bordering. Drawing on literature in political geography, she examines the rescaling and restructuring of borders so that are at once ubiquitous—with the wearing of indigenous textiles defining the borders of the nation—and at specific sites such as markets or Takoradi port. Regulations were also instituted requiring importers to submit samples of prints they wished to import, pushing borders outwards beyond the territorial confines of the Ghanaian state. These new spatial strategies of governance then resulted in borders being folded inwards and outwards.
The "African" wax prints, which are the subject of the book, are complex commodities. They became popular during the colonial era in West Africa when they were imported from Holland, based on Indonesian designs. Since that time, they have been indigenised. It is ironic, however, that given their origins they have become symbols and, when worn, embodiments of national identity. Axelsson also argues that Chinese imports have been constructed as threats to the future of the Ghanaian nation as an industrialized one.
This is a fascinating piece of work, which I am glad to have had the opportunity to read. As it is a doctoral thesis there is a methods chapter, which might not have been included otherwise if it was being published as a regular book. Likewise the final chapter is essentially a summary of the thesis. However, it does read very well and coherently. It speaks to, and shows great insight into the complex interactions between issues of identity, economics and politics and how the contradictions between cultural nationalism and neoliberalism are expressed, played out and ‘resolved’ through the case study in question. If there is a criticism of the book, it is perhaps that more could have been made of how the case study reflected on the restructuring of sovereignty under neoliberalism, on which there has also been work done in Ghana. However, this is an exceptionally well written and researched book, with an important and innovative argument. As such it deserves to be widely read.
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