Nina Sylvanus
Biographic Data
| ID | 113567 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nina Sylvanus |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nina |
| FAMILY NAME | Sylvanus |
| SIGNATURE | SYLVANUS N |
| AFFILIATIONS | Northeastern University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3079-7714 |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 70 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The Port at the Edge: Corporate Logistics and the Recalibration of Sovereignty in West Africa
This article examines the volatile relationship between corporate logistics and state sovereignty in Lomé’s transformation from colonial harbor to global transshipment hub. Focusing on concession contracts and vertically integrated shipping conglomerates, it argues that privatized container terminals do not simply erode state power but rearticulate it through enclave-like regimes of operational governance. Drawing on historical and ethnographic r…
Un port ancré dans l’histoire, une histoire ancrée: Circulations, passé et présent
Le Togo, petit pays entrepôt qui a longtemps été une zone économique frontalière importante du golfe de Guinée, est devenu un pôle maritime majeur du couloir côtier qui relie Abidjan à Lagos, en passant par Accra, Lomé et Cotonou. Sa capitale, Lomé, abrite aujourd’hui l’un des principaux ports de transbordement maritime de conteneurs d’Afrique de l’Ouest. Ce complexe portuaire a en outre connu des changements notoires en termes de gouvernance, pa…
Transport Corridors in Africa
In-depth examination of the inherent tensions and dynamics of transport corridors in Africa: between short-term optics and long-term durability; between regional integration and national interest; between the facilitation of trade and the generation of corridor revenue. The image of the corridor, a central pathway of road and rail carving its way through Africa's interior, has guided the coordination of transport and trade developments on the con…
Response to Marzia Milazzo's review of Conspicuous Consumption in Africa
We are writing as contributors to, and editors of, the volume Conspicuous Consumption in Africa (WUP, 2019), to express our deep concern at a review of this book which was published in Ethnic and R
Chinese Devils, the Global Market, and the Declining Power of Togo's Nana-Benzes
This article examines the shifting representations of and discourses produced about Chinese salesmen and their collaborators in the small West African nation of Togo. It suggests that in this context representations of China's so-called New Scramble for Africa are troublesome, namely because they tend to silence the role of Togolese women traders as producers and as central historical and economic subjects in the making of a postcolonial commodit…
Fakes: Crisis in Conceptions of Value in Neoliberal Togo
Togolese subjects, the paper argues, have come to experience the contemporary moment as a crisis in conceptions of value congealed around the notion of fake. As commodities have become increasingly volatile as stable material forms in postcolonial Togo (and elsewhere), the paper suggests that disjunctures between what the law recognizes as fake and what consumers think of as fake are increasingly exposed. By using the "fakeness" of African wax-pr…
Navigating Chinese textile networks: Women traders in Accra and Lomé
Commerçantes togolaises et diables chinois: Une approche par la rumeur
Ce texte traite d'un ensemble de discours autour des entrepreneurs chinois et de leurs partenaires d'affaires africains, en l'occurrence des commerçantes en tissus. Les rumeurs et les histoires, vraies ou fausses, qui circulent sur le principal marché du Togo témoignent des transformations de la compétition économique dans le pays et dans la sous-région ouest-africaine. Le remplacement des relations commerciales anciennes entre l'Europe et l'Afri…
The fabric of Africanity: Tracing the global threads of authenticity
This article explores the global circulation of a commodity - African wax-prints, manufactured since the late 19th century in Europe for the West African market and increasingly reproduced today in China - by way of focusing on the idea of the `authentically African'. Exploring the biography of wax fabric, this article seeks to cross-examine what serves as a parameter of authenticity, both in international markets, in which the African signifier …
L'habileté entrepreneuriale des Nana Benz du Togo
L'étoffe de l'africanité
Chinese Devils, the Global Market, and the Declining Power of Togo's Nana-Benzes
This article examines the shifting representations of and discourses produced about Chinese salesmen and their collaborators in the small West African nation of Togo. It suggests that in this context representations of China's so-called New Scramble for Africa are troublesome, namely because they tend to silence the role of Togolese women traders as producers and as central historical and economic subjects in the making of a postcolonial commodit…
The fabric of Africanity: Tracing the global threads of authenticity
This article explores the global circulation of a commodity - African wax-prints, manufactured since the late 19th century in Europe for the West African market and increasingly reproduced today in China - by way of focusing on the idea of the `authentically African'. Exploring the biography of wax fabric, this article seeks to cross-examine what serves as a parameter of authenticity, both in international markets, in which the African signifier …
Commerçantes togolaises et diables chinois: Une approche par la rumeur
Ce texte traite d'un ensemble de discours autour des entrepreneurs chinois et de leurs partenaires d'affaires africains, en l'occurrence des commerçantes en tissus. Les rumeurs et les histoires, vraies ou fausses, qui circulent sur le principal marché du Togo témoignent des transformations de la compétition économique dans le pays et dans la sous-région ouest-africaine. Le remplacement des relations commerciales anciennes entre l'Europe et l'Afri…
Fakes: Crisis in Conceptions of Value in Neoliberal Togo
Togolese subjects, the paper argues, have come to experience the contemporary moment as a crisis in conceptions of value congealed around the notion of fake. As commodities have become increasingly volatile as stable material forms in postcolonial Togo (and elsewhere), the paper suggests that disjunctures between what the law recognizes as fake and what consumers think of as fake are increasingly exposed. By using the "fakeness" of African wax-pr…
L'étoffe de l'africanité
L'habileté entrepreneuriale des Nana Benz du Togo
Transport Corridors in Africa
In-depth examination of the inherent tensions and dynamics of transport corridors in Africa: between short-term optics and long-term durability; between regional integration and national interest; between the facilitation of trade and the generation of corridor revenue. The image of the corridor, a central pathway of road and rail carving its way through Africa's interior, has guided the coordination of transport and trade developments on the con…
Response to Marzia Milazzo's review of Conspicuous Consumption in Africa
We are writing as contributors to, and editors of, the volume Conspicuous Consumption in Africa (WUP, 2019), to express our deep concern at a review of this book which was published in Ethnic and R
L'étoffe de l'africanité
L'habileté entrepreneuriale des Nana Benz du Togo
The fabric of Africanity: Tracing the global threads of authenticity
This article explores the global circulation of a commodity - African wax-prints, manufactured since the late 19th century in Europe for the West African market and increasingly reproduced today in China - by way of focusing on the idea of the `authentically African'. Exploring the biography of wax fabric, this article seeks to cross-examine what serves as a parameter of authenticity, both in international markets, in which the African signifier …
Commerçantes togolaises et diables chinois: Une approche par la rumeur
Ce texte traite d'un ensemble de discours autour des entrepreneurs chinois et de leurs partenaires d'affaires africains, en l'occurrence des commerçantes en tissus. Les rumeurs et les histoires, vraies ou fausses, qui circulent sur le principal marché du Togo témoignent des transformations de la compétition économique dans le pays et dans la sous-région ouest-africaine. Le remplacement des relations commerciales anciennes entre l'Europe et l'Afri…
Navigating Chinese textile networks: Women traders in Accra and Lomé
Fakes: Crisis in Conceptions of Value in Neoliberal Togo
Togolese subjects, the paper argues, have come to experience the contemporary moment as a crisis in conceptions of value congealed around the notion of fake. As commodities have become increasingly volatile as stable material forms in postcolonial Togo (and elsewhere), the paper suggests that disjunctures between what the law recognizes as fake and what consumers think of as fake are increasingly exposed. By using the "fakeness" of African wax-pr…
Chinese Devils, the Global Market, and the Declining Power of Togo's Nana-Benzes
This article examines the shifting representations of and discourses produced about Chinese salesmen and their collaborators in the small West African nation of Togo. It suggests that in this context representations of China's so-called New Scramble for Africa are troublesome, namely because they tend to silence the role of Togolese women traders as producers and as central historical and economic subjects in the making of a postcolonial commodit…
Response to Marzia Milazzo's review of Conspicuous Consumption in Africa
We are writing as contributors to, and editors of, the volume Conspicuous Consumption in Africa (WUP, 2019), to express our deep concern at a review of this book which was published in Ethnic and R
Transport Corridors in Africa
In-depth examination of the inherent tensions and dynamics of transport corridors in Africa: between short-term optics and long-term durability; between regional integration and national interest; between the facilitation of trade and the generation of corridor revenue. The image of the corridor, a central pathway of road and rail carving its way through Africa's interior, has guided the coordination of transport and trade developments on the con…
Un port ancré dans l’histoire, une histoire ancrée: Circulations, passé et présent
Le Togo, petit pays entrepôt qui a longtemps été une zone économique frontalière importante du golfe de Guinée, est devenu un pôle maritime majeur du couloir côtier qui relie Abidjan à Lagos, en passant par Accra, Lomé et Cotonou. Sa capitale, Lomé, abrite aujourd’hui l’un des principaux ports de transbordement maritime de conteneurs d’Afrique de l’Ouest. Ce complexe portuaire a en outre connu des changements notoires en termes de gouvernance, pa…
The Port at the Edge: Corporate Logistics and the Recalibration of Sovereignty in West Africa
This article examines the volatile relationship between corporate logistics and state sovereignty in Lomé’s transformation from colonial harbor to global transshipment hub. Focusing on concession contracts and vertically integrated shipping conglomerates, it argues that privatized container terminals do not simply erode state power but rearticulate it through enclave-like regimes of operational governance. Drawing on historical and ethnographic r…
Art (6 works) · Political science (5 works) · African history and culture studies (4 works) · Geography (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Aesthetics (3 works) · African Studies and Ethnography (3 works) · China's Global Influence and Migration (3 works) · Economics (3 works) · Humanities (3 works)