Sensuous Scholarship

5. Spaces, Places, and Fields: The Politics of West African Trading in New York City's Informal Economy

~ ~rA~~~, rlA~~~, A~~ fI~l~~ ThePolitics of West African Trading in New York City's InformalEconomy The "field" in anthropology is becoming a dizzying array of cross-cutting transnational spaces that take place in zones of multiple contestation. Consider the kaleidoscopic forces that converged in mid-October 1994, on New York City's 125th Street, the cultural crossroads of Harlem. The 125th Street Vendors Association, a loosely organized "union" of some 500 African American vendors and West African traders from Senegal , Mali, Niger, and The Gambia, threaten to shut down 125th Street if Mayor Giuliani makes good on his campaign promise to disperse the African market from Harlem's main thoroughfare . Although the "union" is supported by the Nation of Islam whose ministers preach versions of Islamic purity and African American self-sufficiency, some members of the "union" dislike and distrust Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Many of the West African traders wonder how and why such a man calls himself a Muslim. The vendors are also supported by the Reverend Al Sharpton, who uses his particular orientation to Christianity to articulate his solidarity with hard-working African and African American people. After the market's dispersal, Sharpton gets arrested for peddling Bibles on 125th Street. There are also supportive Asian and African American shop owners on 125th Street who think that the crowds brought in by the African market are good for business. There are, of course, just as many Asian and African American shop owners who think the presence of the vendors is bad for business. They say that the vendors are disrespectful and dirty and engage in unfair business practices. 94 Embodied Representations Like the Nation of Islam, the Masjid Malcolm Shabazz promotes Islamic austerity and African American self-sufficiency. The religious organization that follows the path of its founder, Malcolm X, promotes a plan to regulate the vendors, suggesting that the unregulated 125th Street market be moved nine blocks south of the shopping district to the Masjid Malcolm Shabazz International Plaza, their regulated and city-sanctioned site at 116th Street and Lenox Avenue, a commercially depressed space. They want to charge the vendors a registration fee, which would make them "legal," as well as daily rent. In exchange , they would monitor the market's cleanliness and security . This idea is endorsed by the Harlem Business Alliance and the Harlem Urban Development Corporation. Both organizations promote economic ties to West Africa, but do not like the cluttered, unregulated presence of an open-air African market on Harlem's major business boulevard. Such a presence may well be intolerable, for it suggests spatially that Harlem's economic renaissance is but an illusion. Harlem's elected officials who have vested interests in economic development also support the 125th Street crackdown and the Masjid's "generous offer." The Masjid's plan is also welcomed warmly by the Giuliani administration. And why not! The plan co-opts a generally revered African American religious institution and provides a peaceful alternative to violent racial confrontation- something no mayor would want. At the same time, City Hall would receive 30 percent of the revenues that the Masjid collects, meaning that it would collect taxes from previously unlicensed and non-taxpaying vendors. In exchange City Hall would police the market and clean the streets regularly. The plan also provides positive political payoffs for the Giuliani Administration. Giuliani could say that he is keeping his political promises. Police Commissioner Bratton could say he is following through on his promise to enforce city regulations which, as we shall see, are at odds with the practices of an informal economy. Most of the West African traders, who say that their presence reinvigorated the economy of 125th Street, are seemingly powerless pawns in the game of New York City's political and cultural discourse. And yet they, like the exceedingly diverse African American community in Harlem, weave crazy quilts of their own. The Senegalese, for example, have been in New York Spaces, Places, and Fields 95 City since 1982 and are well represented among the West African traders in Harlem. Some Senegalese, most notably people well established in various businesses, support the market move to 116th Street. Many Senegalese street vendors, however, oppose the mayor's crackdown. These differences are exacerbated by ethnic, regional, and religious differences. Senegalese from the Casamance, the south, are less likely to be tied into economic and religious networks that are...