Comercio chino y representaciones mutuas entre los migrantes chinos y los caboverdianos de Tarrafal de Santiago (Cabo Verde)

Abstract

In the 1990s, Chinese migrants began to settle in Cape Verde, where they made a living selling Chinese products in retail shops. As retail sales dropped sharply, Chinese migrants, especially on the island of Santiago, shifted to the retail sale of food acquired in the wholesale warehouse in Praia (the country’s capital located in the south of the island). This article examines this shift and also discusses the Chinese populations’ main complaints about life in Cape Verde, their representations of Cape Verdeans and Cape Verdeans’ representations of them. This analysis draws in particu- lar on the perceptions of women and men from the city of Tarrafal (located in Santiago’s northwest extreme).