La marge au centre

Abstract

This article investigates the recent proliferation of cocaine trafficking in and through Guinea-Bissau, a small West African country on the Upper Guinea Coast. Taking its point of departure in an ethnographic study of youth and patrimonial networks in Bissau, the country’s capital, the article elucidates the interplay between local formations of power and global criminal networks. It clarifies how Bissau has developed into a transhipment hub for the smuggling of cocaine from Latin America to Europe, and shows how local patrimonial networks have adjusted to the cocaine trade as a golden opportunity in a place of otherwise barren prospects. The article thus shows how Guinea-Bissau has gone from being an abject space of geo-politically marginality to becoming a central node in the global movement of drugs.

Keywords

• Guinea-Bissau
• drugs
• patrimonial networks
• smuggling of cocaine