Smugglers, Speculators, and the City in the Ethiopia Somalia - Borderland

For a century, the Ethiopian city Jigjiga was known as a dusty hub of cross-border smuggling and a hotbed of rebellion on Ethiopia's eastern frontier. After 2010, it transformed into a post-conflict boomtown, becoming one of Africa's fastest-growing cities and attracting Somali return-migrants from across the globe. This study examines Jigjiga's astonishing transformation through the eyes of its cross-border traders, urban businesspeople, and officials. Daniel K. Thompson follows traders and return-migrants across borders to where their lives collide in the city. Analysing their strategies of mobility and exchange, this study reveals how Ethiopia's federal politics, Euro-American concerns about terrorism, and local business aspirations have intertwined to reshape links between border-making and city-making in the Horn of Africa. To understand this distinctive brand of urbanism, Thompson follows globalized connections and reveals how urbanites in Africa and beyond participate in the "urban borderwork" of constructing, as well as contesting, today's border management regimes.

List of contents

Introduction; 1. Urban borderwork; 2. Smuggling and judgment; 3. Borderland urbanization; 4. Connective borders; 5. Contraband urbanity; 6. Transactional frontiers; Conclusion; References; Index.

About the author

Daniel K. Thompson is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Merced. His fieldwork in eastern Africa and the US explores how migration, border-making, and urbanization shape economic strategies for dealing with uncertainty. His work has featured in journals including African Affairs, Urban Geography, and Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.

Summary

Analysing the work of Ethiopian-Somali smugglers and return-migrant investors, this study explores the relationship between cities and borders amid Africa's rapid urbanization. Daniel Thompson describes how African city-dwellers' lives are shaped by global border security regimes, and how they contest these borders in daily urban life.

Product details

• Authors: Daniel K. Thompson, Daniel K. (University of California Thompson
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 13.03.2025
• EAN: 9781009556262
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0955626-2
• No. of pages: 259
• Series: African Studies
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Geosciences > Urban, spatial and country planning; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; Somalia, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / General, 21st Century, Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography, 21st century history: from c 2000 -, 21st century, c 2000 to c 2100, Urban & municipal planning, Social and cultural anthropology, African History, Central / national / federal government policies, Urban and municipal planning and policy, Ethiopia, Central government policies