International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 76

“ENLARGING THE STREET AND NEGOTIATING THE

CURB: PUBLIC SPACE AT THE EDGE OF AN AFRICAN
MARKET”
by Loretta E. Bass, University of Oklahoma
Abstract
A road enlargement project that eliminated the sidewalk selling space
and restructured the edge of a major market in Dakar, Senegal, brought
the crucial role of location for street and market trade to the fore. The
ensuing negotiations revealed powerful hierarchies based on gender,
age, and class that defined the available resouces that market sellers
were able to use to influence their own situations in this context of rapid
social change. Intersections of gender and age and of gender and social
class shaped the process of negotiations that led to differential
outcomes for individual traders.
Introduction
Street sellers cope with and are affected by their changing environment
as cities grow and are redesigned to accommodate increasing
population pressures. This study focuses on street sellers in West
Africa, among one of the fastest urbanizing regions of the world. The
number of Africans living in cities increased from about 13 per cent in
1950 to 35 percent in 1995, an increase of 22 percentage points (Gilbert
and Gugler 1992; United Nations 1984, 1988; The World Bank
1996a, 1996b). African cities are spreading out geographically but are
also revamping their downtowns in order to make room for broader
streets and highways. Generally, the enlargement of streets is regarded
as positive, since expansion facilitates traffic movement. This paper,
however, focuses on the effects of road construction on sellers at the
edge of the Teline market, showing their adaptations during and after
the Route d’Oukam road construction effort. Route d’Oukam was first
paved in the early 1960’s and was being widened in 1995 to provide
high-speed road access to the city’s airport.
This research recounts the experiences of seven of the 68 vendors
who sell along the main street. Using ethnographic notes, this paper
Volume 20 Number 1/2 2000 77

shows how hierarchies based on gender, age, and class defined the
power and available material resources that market sellers were able to
use to influence their situations. As their urban selling environment
changed, the ability of some vendors to provide for themselves in this
environment diminished or disappeared.
During two years of daily observation and participation in open-air
markets in Senegal, West Africa, I collected informal interviews of
women, men, and children who sell along the main road. I was highly
integrated into the market setting, taking part in a tontine, a women’s
savings association, and helping women and children sell their products
in the market. This provided indepth access to the private social
relationships and economic obligations which provide for market
sellers.
Research Problem and Description of the Setting
The vendors of the Teline market underwent considerable strain when
the main road adjacent to the market, Route d’Oukam, was enlarged to
accommodate two additional lanes of traffic. The Teline market has
over 1500 vendors who sell everything from fruits to cloth, skin
brightener to dried fish, and hair straightener to prepared-foods such as
cookies and sweetened drinks. Among the most likely to be affected by
the road expansion were the sellers directly in its path, namely the
sellers of cloth, fruits, vegetables, and prepared food. Along the
market’s edge along Route d’Oukam, men generally sell from
well-established stalls while women typically sell from makeshift
stalls, bringing their stalls with them to the market everyday — in the
form of over-turned buckets. Children are the least established, either
selling from over-turned buckets or as mobile hawkers.
Prior to and after the construction, the Teline market enjoyed a brisk
trade because of its location in the heart of Dakar. However, during the
10 months of construction, all market vendors suffered a temporary loss
of clientele. For some, this short-term loss in clientele was sizable
enough to force them from the Teline market. Sheldon (1990:17) argues
that women market vendors are especially vulnerable because they
operate with small profit margins. In the long term, many sellers along
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 78

the main road were seriously affected. The more-established sellers

along the main road, mostly men, benefitted from the expansion
because their stalls were set back six feet and rebuilt to offer colorful tile
fronts and new roofs. Other less-established sellers, mostly women and
children, permanently lost their selling spaces along the main road
when the sidewalk was significantly decreased in size to increase the
width of the road. Two questions are addressed: How did street sellers
adjoining to the street cope with their changing environment in the short
and long terms? Why were street sellers affected differently by the
expansion?
Theoretical Focus
I analyze systems of stratification by gender, age, and social class to
understand the different impacts of the road expansion project on the
women, children, and men market sellers at the edge of the market.
Hierarchies based on gender, age, and class define the power and
available material resources that market sellers may marshal to
influence their own situations in a context of rapid social
change. Further, the effect of the intersection of hierarchies of gender
and age, and of gender and social class explain the complex processes at
play in shaping outcomes for sellers along the main street.
Commerce of Circumstance
At stake with the road construction effort is the “commerce of
circumstance,” meaning the commerce that takes place because of the
busy road and its passersby. While some researchers have described a
prevailing ideology of individualism in the markets, others have shown
how market traders’ business and personal networks comprise the
overlapping categories of kin, friend, and customer (Clark 1991; Lewis
1976; Trager 1981). My research supports the former when the
“commerce of circumstance” is considered. I found that market
customers would not go 250 meters out of their way in order to shop
with the same market vendors who were now on sidestreets. Customers
would not disembark their car rapides, or public transportation
mini-buses, and walk 100 meters to shop with the same trader even
when the trader was within eye distance. Before the road construction,
Volume 20 Number 1/2 2000 79

vendors along the main road benefitted from the customers of chance —
those who were en route somewhere and did not have time to seek out a
contact deep within the market, or on a back adjoining street to the
market. During the road construction, the main road vendors felt the
precariousness of their contacts. Their sales, the commerce of
circumstance, were severely and negatively affected when the road was
enlarged.
Vendors in the Teline Market
Momadou, a 10-year-old Wolof1 boy sells cold and frozen juices and
water encased in small plastic bags at the edge and throughout the
market. Momadou carries his juices and water in a plastic cooler that he
opens at certain selling junctures of the market. He generally makes
about 500 CFA or one U.S.dollar2 per day after he has paid taxes and
paid for his products. He has been selling for and giving his receipts to
his mother for two years, since he dropped out of the elementary school
just adjacent to the market. Essentially, Momadou’s work is that of his
mother, since it is her effort and planning which provide for his market
vending. His mother prepares the juice and water each night, allowing
them to chill overnight. His mother is one of two wives, and
Momadou’s mother and three younger siblings rent one room in a
complex where there is a shared courtyard used for bathing and
cooking.
Rafine is an eight-year-old Sereer girl selling peanuts along Route
d’Oukam, the front side of the market. Rafine sets up her peanut stall in
the busy selling area by sweeping, overturning a bucket for a chair, and
setting up a makeshift table. She works as a maid for a neighborhood
woman and as a vendor for this same woman in the market. Rafine
generates about 300 CFA or 60 cents each day in profit, after the cost of
producing the peanuts is paid. Rafine comes from a village in the
interior, and her parents receive 3000 CFA or $5.60 per month for their
daughter’s work. Rafine sometimes visits her family in the village
during holidays but otherwise is cared for by her urban employer.
Hodja and Ousmane are Wolof, in their early twenties, and have been
married two years. Ousmane has taken over the alimentaire or canned
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 80

goods and vegetables grocery stall of his father, who is no longer able to
work. Hodja sells coffee and bread as an ambulatory seller to other
market vendors every morning, making her rounds between 9 and 11:00
a.m. She also helps Ousmane in the stall when customers are at their
peak just before noon. Even though Hodja helps Ousmane, she is not
considered an alimentaire vendor alongside her husband. Hodja’s
market work is selling coffee and bread, and is considered secondary to
the selling activities of Ousmane. Ousmane and Hodja are in the
process of establishing themselves in the market; both work to increase
clientele and the variety of products they have to offer. This is
especially hard for Ousmane since he is obliged to pay monthly rent of
32,500 CFA, or $65, and a daily tax of 150 CFA, or 35 cents.

Anta is an older Poular woman who sells dried bissap or hibiscus

blossoms along Route d’Oukam bordering the market. She harvests and
dries bissap blossoms, and sells them in small parcels of used
newspapers to the regular market customers and vendors, as well as
individuals aboard car rapides who summon her to make a sale. Dried
bissap leaves are used in cooking but mostly to make a popular, sweet,
tangy drink. Anta brings in about 600 CFA or $1.20 per day in
profit. Anta is a widow, and although she receives some financial help
from her children, she lives with the family of her twin sister in the
neighborhood adjoining the market and needs the modest income
generated from her small dried bissap business.

Fatou and Fauma are mother and daughter vendors of piments, or hot
peppers, who labor in a trade, the buying and selling of piments, which
is wholly comprised of women. Fauma sits on a low stool behind a table
with other women selling piments, while Fatou sells from a full tray of
piments balanced on her head.Their sales in the market are pooled, and
Fatou is a mobile hawker while her mother maintains an established
stall. Fauma is divorced, so even though she lives with her brothers in a
poor Dakar suburb, her work is necessary to care for the needs of Fatou
and her two sons still going to school. Fauma expects her sons to
continue in school while she expects Fatou to learn and assist her in her
market trade.
Volume 20 Number 1/2 2000 81

Aissatou Fall is a successful, 30-year-old, female Bambara woman

who sells baby clothing and long pieces of African cloth in an
established stall along the front road of the market. She pays monthly
rent of 35,000 CFA or $70, and has unpredictable sales, taking in
anywhere from 500 CFA to 20,000 CFA per day. Aissatou has a Sereer
maid, Binta, age 10, assisting in her in the stall. Binta dusts, sweeps,
runs errands, and c a re s for A issa tou’s thre e -ye a r-old
daughter. Aissatou receives shipments of baby clothing from her
husband who works as a vendor in Barcelona, Spain. She also receives
cash from her husband to improve her cloth stock.
Just three stalls down from Aissatou Fall, Souleymane Sow is a
forty-year-old, male Wolof cloth vendor. His marabout 3 helps him pay
for the stall rental, and in exchange, Souleymane gives alms to his
marabout. Souleymane supports his family of six children from the
commerce in his market stall. Souleymane’s children all attend
school. He rents a two-room apartment in a cheaper neighborhood of
Dakar, where there is a larger market. He has considered transferring
his business to this other market, but knows that market’s potential
profits are lower than in the Teline market.
Samsoudine, a Dioula vendor of fruits, generally enjoys a brisk trade
along the main road of the market. He sells both imported and
native-grown produce from the south of Senegal, where he grew up,
like bananas, avocados, mangoes and monkey fruit. These fruits and
vegetables are expensive by local standards and are generally
purchased by wealthy Senegalese and the expatriates who travel Route
d’Oukam from their jobs and shopping downtown to their homes and
recreational clubs in Dakar’s elite neighborhoods. From his commerce
in the market, Samsoudine supports his family of four children, one
wife, and his parents, and he also helps his sister’s family.
Overall, the market has individuals of many ethnicities, including
Wolof, Dioula, Sereer, Poular, and Bambara groups. Vendors of all
ages and both genders sell in the market. All of these market workers
were vulnerable to the road construction effort. And it is not shocking
that these vendors experienced the construction differently. The next
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 82

section of this paper examines the lives of these vendors, Momadou,

Rafine, Hodja and Ousmane, Anta, Fatou and Fauma, Aissatou Fall,
Souleymane, and Samsoudine, during and after the road construction
project, and documents the adaptations that these vendors embraced.

Gender Inequality in Theory and Practice

First, gender inequality affected how men and women sellers

experienced the impact of the road enlargement project, because
women had fewer material resources than men to negotiate their
interests, and, further, women had less authority in social life than men
to assert their interests. Women and men in Senegal interact primarily
with others of their own sex in their work and social life (see also
Creevey 1994 and Patterson 1996). Men and women market vendors
sell different types of products within distinctly different price ranges
(Bass 1997). Most women sell locally-produced vegetables and
prepared foods along the outskirts of the market, while men generally
sell imported fruits, bulk items, and manufactured goods in
well-established stalls on the main road and in the central area of the
market.

This occupational segregation by gender provides the context in

which men’s products are more highly valued and profitable then
women’s products. Men sell imported goods whereas women sell local
products, many of which they have created or added value through their
labor (i.e. sugar coated peanuts or coconut cookies). In a market setting
where bargaining is the rule, it is much easier to justify the elevated
price of a durable good, than the labor of women. American sociology
has documented that the wage gap between men’s and women’s labor is
due to the segregation of their work (Reskin and Hartmann 1986).
Likewise, the occupational segregation by types of products sold in the
Senegalese market context provides the rules by which women’s work
is heavily devalued in the negotiation process. In general, female
traders in Senegal can expect lower profit margins than male traders,
because most of their market occupations are segregated by sex and the
value of their labor is negotiated away.
Volume 20 Number 1/2 2000 83

Because market tasks are divided by sex, social organizations in the

market are also divided into women’s and men’s groups. Men and
women therefore have two separate social networks with separate
authorities. In the Teline market, there are three main associations, the
men’s association, the women’s association, and the youth or young
men’s association. These associations were formed by vendors to
organize themselves and to interact with the local city government.
These associations generally meet at different times and have different
interests, as defined by the types of occupations they have in the
market. Solidarity exists among most vendors, but this solidarity is
sliced by the socially mandated sex and age segregated vendors’
associations.4
Gender stratification is supported by Senegalese culture. Before the
construction effort, Rafine, Hodja, Anta, Fatou and Fauma, and
Aissatou Fall, all worked in trades that were in step with the sex
segregation of men’s and women’s market vending. The only woman
working on a par equal to that of the men was Aissatou Fall, a cloth
seller. Cloth selling is one of the trades where women and men both can
do well. As well, Mamoudou sold juices alongside other girls and
boys. Before age 12, both boys and girls may work for the benefit of
their mothers. The men, Souleymane and Samdoudine both worked in
predominantly male trades prior to the construction.
Kinship plays a large role in the adaptations of market sellers. When
profits go down, sellers rely on their kin to work in different markets
and create opportunities outside the Teline market. However, kinship
ties did not predict whether a husband or father would defend in a public
forum the needs of the least established children and women vendors
who were losing their selling space at the road’s edge.
There were two public market meetings that discussed the project,
but these meetings took place after the construction effort was well
underway. Prior to the construction effort, nothing was said between
the local city government and the market government. For the first few
weeks after the street was closed, vendors had no idea what the city had
proposed for Route d’Oukam.The men’s association president and a
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 84

few other vendors told me that the street was closed because there was a
break in the water line. Others didn’t know. Three weeks after the street
had been closed, a public meeting was held at the market at 1:30 in the
afternoon, the time when most vendors head home for the afternoon
meal and a nap. Many vendors, mostly men but a few women and
children, stayed for the meeting and the men’s association president
presided. The men’s president explained that the main road was being
expanded, so the road would be closed for some months and a city
planner would come to a market meeting to explain the enlargement
plans. He said that after the construction was finished, traffic would not
get jammed on the edge of the market, and more customers would be
able to come and shop in the market. Although the long term prospects
were promising, vendors were not pleased.
Market vendors had already started to feel the impact of the diversion
of traffic away from the market in the previous three weeks, and wanted
to voice their concerns. Momadou’s frozen juice sales, Ousmane’s
grocery sales, and Samsoudine’s produce sales had all been adversely
affected. One fruit seller complained that he had lost most of his profit
in the last three weeks because his clients are generally in the cars that
used to pass the market by way of the main street. If this kept up for
several months, he didn’t know whether he would be able to pay the rent
for his stall, continue to sell in the Teline market, and provide for his
family. Another man echoed this concern.
Although there was much whispering, not one woman spoke — not
even the women’s association president. When I asked the women’s
association president why she didn’t speak, she said that the meeting
was a men’s meeting, and that the men would take care of the women’s
interests with the city planner. She would talk in private with some of
the men. She offered, “The men will handle our concerns.” She
explained that it is not appropriate to talk against the men in public. The
idea that men voice opinions and women do not is rooted in early
socialization by gender on how to act appropriately in public. Diop
(1985:23) explains that Wolof girls are taught to be obedient and
submissive and not to voice their opinions, or dispute in public what
men say. Their value in society and the future of their children depend
Volume 20 Number 1/2 2000 85

on their behaving this way. Again and again, this finding was confirmed
across ethnic groups in the market setting. Social norms based on sex
stratification affected whether vendors expressed themselves in the
public meeting format.

Further, household labor requirements were a second constraint on

women vendors’ participation in this public meeting. Many female
vendors did not participate because the first public market meeting was
held just before the midday meal which most women vendors are
responsible for preparing. While men work as market vendors, women
are allowed the opportunity to work in the market after their household
labor responsibilities are fulfilled. Women were not consulted about the
time of the meeting and were essentially excluded.

Also, the concerns of the women sellers were not deemed as

important as those of the men, because women’s market income is
generally secondary to that of men. Women’s market trade is often a
natural extension of their household activities, like the sale of prepared
foods. Although women’s salaries are viewed as secondary, West
African women generally decide how much of their income goes to
augment the family budget, especially in polygamous households,
where separate budgets continue to be a necessity because of family
structure (Callaway and Creevey, 1994).

The second public meeting with the city planner was again well
attended by mostly men but only a few children and women sellers. The
president of the men’s sellers association played a key role, and had met
with the city planner before the public meeting. The city planner was
introduced by the men’s association president, and proceeded to
explain the project. The sidewalks on both sides of the street adjoining
the market would be narrowed considerably and the stalls across the
main road would be moved back two meters in order to make room for
two new lanes of traffic and an access road. All of the stalls on both sides
of Route d’Oukam would be reconstructed and retiled to give the
market a new look for passersby. However, neither the city planner nor
the men’s president announced what would happen to the sidewalk
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 86

space of the ambulatory child sellers and less-established women

sellers who placed their make-shift stalls there everyday.
Some men raised questions and concerns to the city planner. How
long would the construction take? If their stalls would be moved away
from the expanding roadway, would they still be able to sell out front
during the construction effort? Would they be guaranteed the same stall
locations after the construction? This was a key concern, because
location often determines a vendor’s selling potential.Would their taxes
and rents increase? All questions were asked in a deferential manner,
perhaps due to the city planner’s higher social status reinforced by his
wearing a suit. Obviously, the city planner was viewed as a powerful
individual, and voicing concerns was difficult even for the men.
Perhaps the men did not voice the women’s concerns because they were
intiminated by the position and power of the city planner. Clearly, the
men were not on an equal footing with him.
No one raised the concerns particular to the women sellers with the
city planner. If they now sell on the sidewalk, where will they sell when
the sidewalk has been narrowed? Would they retain a selling space on
the narrowed sidewalk along the heavily traversed main road after the
construction effort? The women whispered these questions among
themselves, but no one voiced a concern in this public format. The
women debated among themselves how the project would affect them
and they wondered why the women’s association president was not
consulted. Meanwhile, during the last three weeks, Rafine’s peanut
sales and Anta’s bissap sales had decreased markedly. Fatou and
Fauma had experienced decreases in sales but were able to reposition
themselves with friends temporarily on a side street adjoining the
market. Hodja’s coffee sales had diminished as well, since her clients,
the Teline market vendors, had less money to spend and were beginning
to sell in other markets a few days during the week. Aissatou Fall
experienced a drop in sales, but had adapted by having a younger sister
sell in the Guele Tappee market just four blocks away.
Overall, the two meetings and women’s lack of mobilization show
how a gender stratification system based on sex differentiation causes
Volume 20 Number 1/2 2000 87

women in Senegal to experience their work and lives differently than

men. During the public meeting of the market vendors during the course
of the expansion of Route d’Oukam, only the men vendors’ concerns
were addressed and only the men spoke. Children and women heavily
inhabited the area being expanded, and I expected the women to be
vocal in the meetings with the town planner, social norms aside,
because their very livelihoods were at stake. However, women did not
voice their concerns publically due to social norms dictating what types
of behavior are appropriate by gender. Men have more power and
prestige than women in their interpersonal relations, in their
households, and in their work. The authority of men ultimately controls
the authority of women because it controls most of the economic
resources and the market government, and the links to the local city
government.

The meetings echoed Tripp’s (1996) finding that the way urban
women have organized historically as separate from men’s
organizations has led to a more general political history of female
exclusion from the centers of power. The city government contacted the
men’s association as the voice of the market. The men’s association
decided 1) when the meetings would be held and 2) either on the agenda
in the first meeting or in preparing the agenda in the second
meeting. The implications of separate organizations are striking in the
Teline case. The road construction meetings show that women had no
public voice to use in defending their market selling rights. Even
Aissatou Fall, of a higher social class than the other market women and
with an established stall, did not voice any concerns in public. The
urban milieu and the current climate of expanded democratic rights
have not offered new opportunities for full political participation for
these women. Furthermore, even though Senegal has seen high growth
in the number of community associations since 1980 (Gellar 1995),
these associations are still gender based, and therefore, maintain and
reinforce the historically separated and unequal balance of
decision-making power at all levels of social organization in Senegal,
from the household to the market to the state.
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 88

Age Structures Opportunity

Second, the lower age status of child market sellers compared to adult
sellers structured the impact of the road enlargement project, as
children’s work is valued less than adults’ work. Market work, much
like Senegalese society, is stratified by age, where those of older age
status are the decision-makers and figures of authority. Children’s work
is separated and remunerated through a hierarchy of age, where
younger age status translates into fewer opportunities in the
marketplace. Respect for age is a distinguishing attribute among
individuals in Senegalese society, and coupled with the male
dominance also prevailing in Senegalese society, it is not surprising that
older men are the most likely to hold positions of authority.

Also, children’s market work is identified as belonging to their

mothers. Bass (1997) found that nearly 70 percent of child market
sellers give their earnings to their mothers, therefore associating their
labor with the already undervalued labor of women. Children engage in
market work as the least established sellers, because they are
disadvantaged by an age hierarchy, and because their labor is further
associated with women’s work, they are also disadvantaged by a gender
hierarchy. The intersection of age and gender hierarchies renders
children the least established sellers.

Prior to construction, all three child workers, Rafine, Momadou, and

Fatou, sold their products along the main road; Momadou, the juice
seller, and Fatou, the piment vendor, sold their products as ambulatory
sellers and Rafine sold from her makeshift peanut stand. Once the
construction began, Momadou and Fatou were able to adjust their
selling positions fairly easily since they were ambulatory sellers. The
main problem, however, was that there were fewer opportunities for
sales once the construction commenced. Rafine adjusted to the
construction by becoming an ambulatory vendor and by selling a
couple of days each week at another neighborhood market, but still she
experienced a drop in sales. Customers didn’t want to get caught in the
horrendous traffic near the Teline market. Many of Momadou’s and
Volume 20 Number 1/2 2000 89

Rafine’s customers were other vendors, who had less money to spend
on the occasional juice drink or peanut treat.
All three child vendors attended the public meetings, but no mention
was made of their situations. It was clear from interviews with the child
vendors that they did not fully realize the implications of the road
construction and what the narrowing of the sidewalk would mean for
their sales. Also, it would have been inappropriate for the children,
either male or female, to participate in the public meetings, since they
are taught to respect and not to question the wishes of their elders. Sow
(1987) has demonstrated the significance of age and the hierarchy
between generations as distinguishing relationships, authority, and
opportunities within households. Much like the gender hierarchy, the
age hierarchy extends much beyond Senegalese households structuring
relationships, authority, and opportunities in general in social life.
After the construction was finished, Rafine, Momadou, and Fatou
had different experiences. Rafine was not able to reestablish her peanut
stall on the narrowed sidewalk now lining the street adjoining the
market. Momadou remained a juice seller but was not able to sell along
the main road in any sustained way because there was now precious
little selling space. He could venture up to a car rapide, and make a few
quick sales but the narrowed sidewalk made it impossible to remain at
the front edge for an extended period of time. Fatou’s and her mother’s
piment sales picked up again after the construction, but not to their
previous levels, since getting walking space along the main road’s edge
was extremely competitive. The children had to jockey more and linger
less while making their sales along Route d’Oukam after the road
expansion project.
It is necessary to reassert the significance of “age” as an analytical
tool and focus on how it shapes expectations and opportunities. If we
consider children as a stratum in an “age hierarchy” framework (Elson
1981), we can see how socially-constructed age status influences
children’s workplace position and overall life experiences. Much like
the stratification system by gender, based on sex differentiation, causes
women to experience their work and everyday lives differently than the
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 90

men, child market sellers also experience their work and everyday lives
differently than that of adults.
Because most children labor for the benefit of their mothers, the
intersection of gender and age processes significantly affected the
different outcomes of child market sellers; the intersection of both
female and less-age status translated into greater loss. Children are not
only viewed in terms of the age hierarchy, but their work, irrespective of
the child’s sex, is further viewed in terms of the gender hierarchy where
female labor is valued less than that of male labor.
Class Structures Opportunities or Lack Thereof
Class demarcates the way that sellers were affected by the road
enlargement project. In general, the construction was more devastating
for the less-established vendors, whether male or female, than for the
more-established vendors. Those vendors who had formal stall rental
agreements prior to the construction were more likely to benefit rather
than be hurt from the road construction project. Social stratification
based on class determined who participated in the public meetings; the
most vocal vendors in the public meetings were also the most
economically established. This finding is consistent with recent
research on associations in Senegal which has found that higher class
individuals are often active and use the group to benefit their interests,
while lower class members are left out (Patterson 1996).
Those of higher socio-economic status also had more material
resources on which to draw to make it through the lean construction
months. For example, Samsoudine relied on his marabout, and
Soulemane and Aissatou Fall used their familial connections and
savings in order to wait out the construction effort. After the
construction, only the most firmly established sellers enjoyed the
rewards of new stalls and fewer competitors.
In contrast, those who were not firmly established in the larger stalls,
like Hodja’s husband, Ousmane, were not able to hold onto their stalls
through the slow construction period. During construction, Ousmane
lost the lease on his stall because he was not able to pay the monthly
rental payments. He and his wife, Hodja, relocated to a less-profitable
Volume 20 Number 1/2 2000 91

market in the suburb, Gueguwaaye, where they live. Because they had
fewer material resources on which to draw, they were not able to
maintain their newly established position in the market; their
less-established economic status provided no room for a time period
with less profit. Ousmane and Hodja will have to save a great deal of
money to reestablish themselves in the Teline market. However, profits
are lower in the suburban market, so their opportunity for upward
mobility is decreased.
When considering market vendors, those of male status and higher
age status are typically also of a higher economic class. Class
hierarchies are reinforced and intersected by gender and age
hierarchies. Female vendors generally are less established than the male
vendors along the Route d’Oukam. Robertson and Berger (1986)
contend that gender inequalities are only understood in light of both
women’s lower class position, and the cultural factors that keep them in
this position. Because women had a lower gender status, they were not
allowed equal access with men to market occupations and did not have
the same level of authority or material resources to support their
interests. Children vendors were affected in the same way.
Further, the few women sellers in the more-established stalls differ
from their male counterparts in social class, because most of their
husbands work in formal employment or abroad. These few women
with more material resources were fortunate to benefit from the
construction because the established, main-road, male sellers
negotiated a deal with the city planner for all established stall
merchants. The well-established women directly benefitted from the
men’s effort to protect class interests. Thus, because of their higher
social class status relative to others in the market, a few already
privileged women sellers were not harmed but benefited from the road
expansion and subsequent renovations at the edge of the market. The
intersection of class and gender explains why the road expansion
project benefitted a few women, but overall had a negative effect on
women sellers. Similar but not completely parallel to McCormick’s
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 92

(1996) finding that male- and female-owned businesses were equally

profitable, the well-established women enjoyed the same rewards as
their male counterparts with the same level of market business
established.
Because of the separation of work by gender, women in general are
not as likely to be represented in the most established stalls. However, if
they do have one of the most established stalls, they are likely to reap the
benefits of their higher class status relative to other market workers, and
the effects of their gender are less salient. Because of gender status and
the sex segregation of work, though, women are considerably less
likely than men to ever hold an established stall position.
Summary of Conclusions
Although most vendors survived the road construction effort, the
construction effort revealed significant differences in their
experiences. Their adaptations to the rapidly changing environment
had long-term implications for their selling careers. All vendors in the
Teline market felt the impact of the road construction and, hence, fewer
customers and sales. Those vendors along Route d’Oukam, the keepers
of the commerce of circumstance, however, felt the impact most
jarringly. The least established sellers lost the most from the road
expansion project, and were more likely to be disadvantaged through
hierarchies of gender, age, and class. A stratification system by gender
based on sex differentiation caused women vendors to adapt and
experience the road expansion project differently than the men. During
the public meetings of the market vendors during the course of the
expansion of Route d’Oukam, only the men’s concerns were addressed
and only the men spoke, even though children and women heavily
inhabited the area being expanded and were likely to be the most
heavily affected. No mention was made of what would happen to the
sidewalk space of the ambulatory child sellers and the less-established
women sellers. The children and women had no public voice, and the
women were not able to question the authority of the men’s association
president or the male city planner due to cultural norms forbidding
women from questioning the authority of men.
Volume 20 Number 1/2 2000 93

In addition to gender, most women were further disadvantaged due to

their lower class position. Because most of these women were not
renting formal stalls, their selling spaces along the main road were
eliminated. However, these women had been selling in their sidewalk
spaces along Route d’Oukam for over ten years, having paid a daily tax
over this period to the city government. When the prominent male
vendors negotiated to protect their class interests, most of the women
sellers’ concerns were not voiced because they were not the same as
those of the men. However, the least-established men along Route
d’Oukam were also negatively affected by the road construction
effort. In general, it is women but a few men who lose due to the
exercise of class interests, where lower class individuals have less voice
in public matters than higher class individuals. After the construction,
the less-established sellers along Route d’Oukam found less lucrative
spaces on an adjoining sidestreet to the market, and still others were
squeezed completely from the Teline market and now sell in
less-lucrative suburban markets.

Much like women were affected by stratification through gender,

child market sellers were disadvantaged by an age stratification process
in which they were not able to question the authority of adults. Children
were the least established sellers and lost permanent spaces at the front
edge of the Teline market.

The road construction project also shows how the intersection of

gender and age processes significantly affected the different outcomes
of market sellers; the intersection of both female and less-age status
translated into greater loss. Children are viewed in terms of the age
hierarchy, giving them little to no authority, and further in terms of
women’s work, again giving them less authority than the work of men
would. Among the very few, more-established women sellers, social
class became relevant in retaining their market positions. Despite their
disadvantaged gender status, the few women with more economic
resources were positively affected by the road enlargement project
because of their class status. The intersection of gender and class
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 94

explains both the positive impact of a few women sellers and the overall
negative impact on women and children sellers.
Volume 20 Number 1/2 2000 95

Endnotes
1. The Wolof are the most populous ethnic group of Senegal, followed
by the Poular, Sereer, and the Dioula ethnic groups; the Bambera and
other ethnic groups discussed in this paper have immigated from
neighboring counties.
2. I use the approximate exchange rate of 500 CFA/$1 in the
conversions. During my two years of field work, the exchange rate
fluctuated between 470/$1 and 520/$1.
3. A Marabout is a Muslim religous leader.
4. Associations have flourished in Senegal since 1980 when the
political arena was liberalized, allowing for the creation of political
parties and civic groups such a labor unions, women’s federations and
economic organisations (see Gellar, 1995).
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 96

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