ASince the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into force in 1994, U.S.

-Mexico trade has soared

structure of trade flows within Mexico however has been hardly documented. This paper offers an analysis of state
Mexico trade flows. We find that the regional structure of bi-national trade under NAFTA has remained quite stabl
States, in particular Texas and the Northeastern Mexico states, have consistently played a large role in overall U.S.nonetheless some non-borders states have also weighed heavily in that relationship, especially Michigan and Centr
states. The regional features of trade we identify point to varied and multi-layered border and trans-border dynam
beyond a simple border effect. Furthermore, we find that economic integration in the Texas-Northeastern Mexico r
intensified significantly under NAFTA in terms of business cycle synchronization. Moreover the region has come to
considerable level of economic interdependence, as evidenced by the relatively large share of Northeastern Mexico
output linked to its trade with Texas. These bi-national, border region economic linkages present opportunities as
challenges for both national economic policies and the management of the shared border. A

bstract

Goma and Gisenyi form a single conurbation that straddles the border between the Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC) and Rwanda. Thriving off the borderland environment, the Association des Petits Ptroliers du
Nord Kivu (A.P.PE.NO.KI) is monopolizing the second-economy distribution of petrol in Goma, a commodity
essential to the basic functioning of the city. This group has mirrored the Congolese states top-down political
structure. Interaction between A.P.PE.NO.KI and local authorities occurs along a number of tiers that transect
their respective hierarchies. I argue that this has led to a de facto institutional integration of the two. What
results is a proliferation of domestic sovereignty that contributes to the ongoing fragmentation of the
Congolese stat

bstract

Over the past three decades, economic changes in West Africa and
Nigeria in particular have significantly intensified the role of
border markets as conduits for both legal and illegal cross-border
trade. Most of these border markets became significant only
because of the volume of trade passing through them from the
neighboring countries. The economic and social crises which the
country faced since 1980s as well as the concomitant political and
economic policies put in place to deal with them, accelerated
cross-border trade. Consequently there was a sudden boom of
markets adjacent to the border areas during the same period. The
focus of this paper is to study the impact of liberalization policies
on the growth and development of border markets along Nigerias
north-west international border, with a particular focus on the
market of Jibiya in Katsina State.
Top of page
Index terms

Keywords :structural adjustment, trade liberalization, Nigeria,

border markets
Top of page
References

Abstract
The objective of this issue of Articulo Journal of Urban Research is to examine the characteristics of border
markets in a comparative perspective. In this introductory paper, I first discuss what makes African border
markets different from other markets, and examine several factors that explain their unequal economic
development: the presence of a trade community, the combination of trading and productive activities, and the
relative porosity of borders. In a second part, I examine how border markets on the U.S.-Mexico border must
simultaneously guarantee the security of the state while favoring regional trade. The last part of the paper
argues that more policy attention should be paid to border markets which, despite being at the margin of
states, are a vital component of their economy. Fifty years after most West African states became independent
and just as NAFTA turns 20, it is high time to challenge the conventional wisdom and put border markets at
the center of trade policies.
Top of page

Index terms
Keywords :

border, markets, West Africa, Central Africa, North Africa, United States, Mexico, trade, traders

Top of page

Outline
At the margin of states
Africa Why do border markets flourish?
Trade communities
Circulation and production
Porous borders
North America A gated world
At the center of trade policies

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At the margin of states

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1 This paper is part of a larger research agenda, initially developed in Luxembourg and in the U.S. w (...)

1Border markets are different in important respects from other markets. While regional and
national markets draw their wealth from their hinterlands, border markets owe their existence to
the presence of border differentials and thrive at the point of convergence of transnational
networks. Whereas most markets evolve slowly, border markets experience sudden booms or
declines due to variations in price differentials, exchange rates between currencies, taxes
between countries, and bans of imports and exports. Unlike other markets that primarily owe
their importance to the size and qualifications of their labor pool, border markets are dependent
on the business opportunities offered by their peripheral location.
2Because of these unique characteristics, border markets are stimulating cases for reassessing
some of the assumptions of the social sciences, about such factors as centrality, power or
hierarchy, and rethinking the action of nation-states in border regions. The objective of this issue
of Articulo Journal of Urban Research is to examine the characteristics of border markets in a
comparative perspective through the lens of six original papers. Like border markets, which
temporarily bring together a variety of traders from different cultural backgrounds, our thematic
issue relies on a wide range of academic and policy experts from various disciplinary fields,
including history, geography, economics, and criminal justice.
3In this introductory paper, I first discuss what makes African border markets different from
other types of markets, and examine several factors that explain their unequal distribution and
economic development: the presence of a trade community, the combination of trading and
productive activities, and the relative porosity of borders. In the second part, I examine how
border markets on the U.S.-Mexico border must simultaneously guarantee the security of the
state while favoring regional trade. The last part of the paper argues that more policy attention
should be paid to border markets which, despite being at the margins of states, are a vital
component of their economy.

Africa Why do border markets flourish?

4In Africa, one might believe that the mere presence of a border and a city is sufficient to create
the conditions of a bustling cross-border activity. Nothing is further from reality: many border
regions experience only little cross-border trade, and many cities actually turn their back to the
border rather than transforming into global bazars. A recent study conducted by the Sahel and
West Africa Club (Walther 2014a) shows for instance that the 130 border markets identified from
Senegal to Chad are unequally distributed: while several clusters of border markets can be found
along some portions of the Nigerian borders, in the Senegambia, between Southern Togo and
Benin, and between Cte dIvoire and its Northerner neighbors, many border regions are
virtually deprived of border markets.
5So why do some border cities turn into dynamic border markets and some dont? The following
sections explore three factors that impact on the economic development of border markets: the

presence of a skilled community of traders that can successfully exploit border differentials, the
combination of trading and productive activities that rely on market and transport infrastructure,
and the relative porosity of borders, which provides business opportunities.

Trade communities
6It might sound obvious, but the success of border markets is primarily linked to the people
involved in trade. Without an innovative community of traders involved in transnational business
networks, border towns and cities can hardly pretend to be border markets. It is these
entrepreneurs that will, on a daily basis, exploit the various differentials that continue to
characterize border regions, and try to make a profit of connecting different nationally-organized
markets (Walther 2014b).
7Throughout history, these business communities have been crucial to the prosperity of market
places. Many markets that flourished before colonization have vanished or dramatically declined
in the 20th century, such as Salaga in Ghana or Kong in Cte dIvoire, because they no longer
served as crossroads along regional trade routes or because their political support disappeared.
In some places, such as in Gaya in Niger, the remembrance of a prior history of long-distance
trade has completely disappeared from migration-and-settlement narratives, despite the fact
that the city was located on one of the main trade routes developed between Hausaland and
Asante in the 19th century (Lovejoy 1986). Inversely, some of the more dynamic contemporary
border markets are products of colonialism, strategically placed along the new transportation
routes created by colonial powers, such as Malanville, the Beninese market located on the Niger
River banks.
8In his contribution Cross-Boundary Traders in the Era of High Imperialism, Allen H. Howard
(2014, this issue) masterfully illustrates this issue. Building on several decades of fieldwork and
archival research in the Sierra Leone-Guinea region, he shows how the structure of trade has
been radically transformed by colonization. Some African traders successfully adapted to the new
spatial order imposed by the French and the British. African kola traders, for example, quickly
realized the advantages of using steam ships to develop new networks to other colonies and of
relying on telegraph to follow prices and deliveries. A number of smugglers, as the colonial
powers started to call them, also crossed the newly established borders in search of higher
prices for local products and to respond to the increasing demand for imports from the rest of
the world. Cattle traders also prospered after having moved to new rail centers. Other African
traders, however, couldnt compete with European firms, especially long-distance traders, whose
social networks had been affected by the restructuring of the trade route, as caravans sponsored
by African states were replaced by colonial railways.

Circulation and production

9Another important factor in the development of border markets is their ability to combine
trading and production activities. As market places, African border markets are intimately linked
to the trade flows in raw materials, commodities and services that connect the globalized world.
Border markets can therefore be seen as places of convergence for the transnational movements
of goods and people (Dobler 2009, Zeller 2009). But border markets are more than places of
flows; they also play a crucial regional role for the organization of agricultural activities. In
Africa, border markets combine, on the same site, a variety of products that transit only briefly
through the market, such as second-hand cars, cigarettes or fuel, and, simultaneously, a number
of agricultural products, such as onions or cereals, for which the border market serves as a place
of storage before being distributed regionally. In other words, it is in border markets that the
two different spatial strategies of transnational circulation and regional production converge
(Walther 2012).

10The presence of a reliable market and transport infrastructure is crucial for trade communities
and producers because it allows the combination of trading and production activities to conjointly
benefit the regional economy. In precolonial times, trade routes were known to be mobile as
were human settlements. Howard (2014, this issue) shows, for example that trade corridors
connecting Futa Jallon to the Atlantic Ocean and along the coast of the Gulf of Guinea were
composed of several routes. Smaller routes crossed corridors, creating a grid. Resources of trade
were diverted by traders into developing the centrality of their towns, by securing trade routes,
hosting traveling traders, building facilities, and creating a dense network of clients. The
construction of railways lines by the colonial powers considerably perturbed those trade
corridors, as some markets lost their centrality. On both sides of the colonial border, rail systems
were developed to extract crops and channel imports to Conakry in French Guine and Freetown
in Sierra Leone. Both colonial infrastructures remained separated. As a result, the dendritic
system imposed by colonization and oriented towards regional centers progressively replaced the
grid upon which traders had relied until the 1890s.
11Today, many trade policies focusing on building road and rail infrastructures have been
developed in Africa. Recent examples include the Trans-African Highway network which aims at
rehabilitating and developing transnational road axis on the continent and the new West African
rail loop that should interconnect Cotonou with Abidjan via Niamey and Ouagadougou. Another
related aspect of these policies is the recent building of Joint Border Posts by the West African
Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) to accelerate border clearance, such as between Niger
and Benin (Malanville), Burkina Faso and Togo (Cinkans), or Burkina Faso and Mali
(Hrmakono). As Dobler (2014) argued, the impact of such transport corridors and joint posts
will probably vary according to the scale of activities and level of involvement in formal activities
of traders. Because these initiatives aim at reducing barriers to trade, and hence the frictions
caused at checkpoints, they might encourage firms in the formal sector to trade regionally and
result in a significant reduction of cross-border opportunities for local traders. Border markets
could lose some of their revenues if goods no longer wait before crossing border checkpoints, if
informal bargaining is reduced to a minimum between traders and state officials, and if traders
invest less locally. But joint posts and transport corridors are probably not a great threat to small
and/or informal traders, who dont use the formal procedures and infrastructures anyway and for
whom crossing the border is likely to remain a profitable business as long as they can develop
strategies that exploit the porosity of the border.

Porous borders
12Another factor that can determine the success of border markets is the relative porosity of
borders. The degree of openness of the border greatly varies between cases and generates
specific flows of goods and people. Borders that are officially closed to a number of products to
protect national production but functionally open to informal flows thanks to the collusion
between traders and state authorities offer a stimulating environment for cross-border trade.
This phenomenon is particularly visible on the Nigerian borders, where the state has
continuously resisted the harmonization of external tariffs and removal of barriers to trade
promoted by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a supranational
organization founded in 1975 (Golub 2012). As a result, while most Francophone countries in the
region have embraced free-trade policies, Nigeria continues to prohibit the import of several
goods, such as second-hand cars or clothes, whose illegal trade has considerably enriched longdistance traders.
13In his contribution Trade Liberalization and Border Markets in North-West Nigeria, Abubakar
Samaila (2014, this issue) illustrate this issue by showing how Northern Nigerian border
markets have recently benefited from the effects of liberalization policies. Focusing on the Jibiya
market strategically located between Maradi in Niger and Katsina in Nigeria, the author argues
that structural adjustment programs and economic crisis have strongly stimulated cross-border
trade, so much so that Jibiya is locally known as the Paradise of smugglers or the Kuwait of
customs officers. Markets on both sides of the Niger-Nigeria border have flourished from the
trade of various commodities and agricultural products which the Nigerian economy could not

produce any more, that were heavily subsidized, or that could be purchased for a lower price on
global markets. The partial harmonization of customs regulation which imposed import and
exports bans on a range of staple food grains and manufactured products further increased reexports from the world markets that formally arrived in Benin, transited trough Niger, and
entered the Nigerian market illegally. As the author argues, the measures adopted since the
1980s were, for border markets a recipe for an acceleration of cross-border trading activity
(Samaila 2014, this issue).
14Differences in tax policies and subsidies harmonization are also known for stimulating informal
trade patterns in North Africa. As Lofti Ayadi, Nancy Benjamin, Sami Bensassi and Gal
Raballand (2014, this issue) show in their article An Attempt to Estimating Informal Trade
Across Tunisias Land Borders, the main motivation of informal traders at the Tunisian borders is
to benefit from differences in tax burden and in the resulting consumer sale price in a number of
commodities, starting with fuel. An interesting result of this study is that the structure of trade
networks differs whether trade takes places across the Algerian or Libyan borders. Trade with
Algeria is mainly organized through a linear chain of actors in which Algerian wholesalers hire
transporters to bring the goods ordered by their Tunisian counterpart to a storage owner on the
Algerian side of the border. Close family and cultural ties between traders on both sides of the
border then facilitate the crossing of imported goods to another storage owner in Tunisia.
Imported goods from Algeria are then picked up and delivered to local wholesalers, until they
reach the final consumer. This situation share similarities with what Howard (2014, this issue)
observed in the precolonial Sierra Leone-Guinea trade system, where goods carried over long
distances were traded through peoples private networks and locations and not in open market
places.
15In comparison, the structure of trade between Tunisia and Libya is more circular. The supply
chain starts when Tunisian wholesalers order a certain quantity of goods from Chinese, Turkish,
or Libyan suppliers, possibly with the help of a financier. Once the goods arrive in Libya, they are
received by a Libyan agent, who arrange for the goods to be transported to a border entrepot.
The goods are then stored until a Tunisian transporter comes to deliver them to a wholesaler,
who will finally reimburse his financier if needed and sell the goods to the end customers.
16Fuel is also at the heart of Hugh Lamarques (2014, this issue) article Fuelling the Borderland,
which studies the distribution of petrol in the borderland between the Congolese city of Goma
and the Rwandese city of Gisenyi. The article shows that differences in prices and national
regulation strongly determine the informal trade of gasoline across the border. Rwandan
authorities strictly police the distribution of gasoline in the country, while the deregulated
Congolese market leads to more favorable prices (and more opaque activities). Gasoline follows
a tortuous path until it reaches the tanks of the cars circulating in Eastern Congo: usually
imported via Rwanda with permits that avoid import duties, the relatively cheaper gasoline is
distributed to the official stations of Goma, before being either re-exported to Rwanda illegally or
resold to privately owned stations and individuals, known as Kadhafis, named after the late
Libyan colonel. Organized within the Association des Petits Ptroliers du Nord
Kivu(A.P.PE.NO.KI), the Kadhafis have progressively established a monopoly over Gomas
second-economy gasoline trade and developed a structure that mimics local state institutions
while operating parallel to them. The relationships developed in the borderlands between
A.P.PE.NO.KI and local officials, the author argues, compete with powers at the center of the
Congolese state and have the potential to undermine its already fragile statehood and cohesion.

North America A gated world

17Nowhere is the current paradox between the necessity to combine security and trade more
evident and controversial than at the border between the United States and Mexico. In the gated
world that has supplanted the utopian borderless world of the 1990s, modern borders must
simultaneously provide a barrier to the flows of criminal, terrorist, and illegal activities that
might enter the state and foster cross-border trade. The tension between the need for better
national security and the development of transnational flows, which has always been present

since the adoption of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, has
significantly increased in the post 9/11 period. The border is now guarded by the U.S. Customs
and Border Protection, a federal agency whose aim is both to keep terrorists and criminals out of
the United States and facilitate international travel and trade. Simultaneously, the increase of
trade caused by NAFTA has also made it necessary to channel a growing amount of goods
through border controls. Borders have then become huge interfaces that filter, scan, and channel
millions of trucks, some heading North with manufactured goods assembled in
Mexican maquiladoras, some heading South with American goods en route to the Mexican
market. Each of the two papers published in this issue illustrates one side of the coin.
18In their article Trade Flows Between the United States and Mexico, Ismael Aguilar Barajas,
Nicholas P. Sisto, Edgardo Ayala Gaytn, Joana Chapa Cant and Benjamn Hidalgo Lpez (2014,
this issue) show that trade between the two countries soared following the signature of NAFTA in
the mid-1990s. An interesting finding of this long-run study is to show that, if the overall value
of goods crossing the U.S.-Mexico has increased dramatically 390 billion dollars in 2012, up
from 97 billion in 1995 most trade patterns have remained stable over the period. The authors
show that trade is not only important for border states, such as Texas, but also for more distant
states, such as Michigan or Central Mexico, which have maintained close relationships with the
neighboring country through road corridors. The contribution of neighboring American states to
the economy of Northeastern Mexican states is particularly strong for assembly sectors, such as
the textile, wood, chemical, and machinery industries, which feed maquiladoras. The study also
documents the effects of the liberalization of trade at a more local level, an aspect that has been
studied less frequently than import or exports flows or foreign direct investment at the macro
level. The authors highlight the crucial role of some border posts, such as Laredo in Texas, the
first NAFTA port of entry with 1.8 million truck crossings every year.
19The article Transnational Entrepreneurs and Drug War Violence Between Ciudad Jurez and El
Paso by Maria Cristina Morales, Pamela Prieto and Cynthia Bejarano (2014, this issue)
documents another kind of border crossing. While many studies dedicated to the U.S.-Mexico
border focus on illegal crossings and impoverished Mexicans, the authors study how wealthy
business owners and their families migrate from Ciudad Jurez to the American city of El Paso in
search of a less violent environment. Building on a corpus of interviews with members of La Red,
a business network, the article explains the many obstacles faced by Mexican business owners in
their own country, starting with the omnipresent risk of being kidnapped or killed or having to
pay rent money to the drug cartels. As a result of the 2006 drug war initiated in Mexico, the
authors argue, the business environment has deteriorated so much that hundreds of thousands
of people and thousands of shop owners the precise figure is unknown have fled to the
American side of the border. Interestingly, the authors show that many Mexican business owners
established in the U.S. sometimes with the help of the American government have
maintained close professional relationships with their own country. This has led to a bi-national
business model where Mexican managers travel back and forth between El Paso and Ciudad
Jurez to supervise their business ventures.

At the center of trade policies

20African and U.S.-Mexico border markets are, as Nugent (2012) argued, extremely different. If
in Africa most border markets thrive in a context of weak states and low territorial disparities,
border markets located on the U.S.-Mexico border are characterized by strong historical
antagonism and high disparities. While the main concern of African states is to try to formalize,
as much as possible, the informal sector that flourishes at their margins, the U.S. and Mexico are
primarily occupied with the apparent contradiction of securing a border while enhancing lawful
travel and trade.
21If the contributions gathered in this issue have something in common, it is to show that
border markets shouldnt be viewed as a marginal, and sometimes exotic, part of the national
economies any more. Like other border towns, border markets are geographically peripheral
(but) economically pivotal to use Nugents (2012: 568) words and their development should be

of great concern to the states around the world. In both Africa and North America, border
markets have received a strong impetus from the liberalization of trade that has characterized
the last decades. In both regions, however, it must be recognized that state investments in
infrastructure and human capital have been much more limited than what their importance for
national economies would suggest.
22In Africa, despite a revival of interest for cross-border trade from international
organizations (OECD 2009a, McLinden et al. 2010, African Development Bank 2012, World Bank
2009, 2013, USAID 2014), relatively few trade policies are applied with explicit consideration to
space and target border markets. The issue is different between the United States and Mexico,
where billions of dollars have been spent on the walls and on the border guards that secure
America but relatively less money has been dedicated to eliminate congestion and improve the
degrading infrastructure that allows free movements of goods and people. As Aguilar Barajas
and colleagues (2014, this issue) note in their conclusion, strains on border crossings facilities
and needed improvements in infrastructure and customs formalities are a recurrent topic of
concern for urban dwellers and businessmen that experience the delays and financial losses
associated with border crossings.
23I see at least two reasons why more policy attention should be paid to border markets.
24The first reason is demography. In many parts of the world, border regions are heavily
populated. As recently shown by the Sahel and West Africa Club (Walther 2014a), 38% of the
urban population of West Africa is located less than 100 km from a national border. This
represents a population of 53 million urban dwellers in 2010. On the U.S.-Mexico border as well,
border regions have experienced a stronger demographic growth than the rest of the United
States or Mexico (Aguilar Barajas et al. 2014, this issue). Of course, not all borderlanders are
actively engaged in cross-border activities and not all border cities are border markets. However,
the fact that borderlands and border cities, far from being marginal, concentrate a significant
and sometimes growing proportion of the population should invite trade policies to consider
border markets as a fundamental component of national economies.
25The second reason is that border markets are not just places where truck drivers wait
endlessly with their vehicles because of administrative red tape, corruption, and lack of basic
standards. They are important for local communities and local producers as well. Place-based
policies, based on the idea that local actors and institutions shape the development potential of
regions (OECD 2009b, c), could fruitfully be mobilized to foster economic development in such
places. Instead of considering border markets as unnecessary obstacles along transnational
roads, place-based policies that see them as market places in their own right could benefit the
state as well as the regional economy. Such policies could build on some of the determinants
discussed in this paper: invest in the people that make trade communities, invest in the places
that combine trade and production, and support the positive aspects of the openness of borders.
26Policies focusing on border markets could aim at supporting local entrepreneurs that sustain
cross-border activities. In those regions where most cross-border traders are illiterate, as in
Africa, this could be achieved by improving the qualifications of the young professionals
and providing structured training and development programs to those already engaged in trade.
Formalizing the formal, as is intended by ECOWASs Regulatory Informal Trade Program, could
also lead to train businessmen to use practices that do not circumvent the state and accounting
procedures that facilitate their business registration.
27Place-based policie

ross-Boundary Traders in the Era of High Imperialism: Changing

Structures and Strategies in the Sierra Leone-Guinea Region
Allen M. Howard
Abstract | Index | Outline | Text | Bibliography | Notes | Illustrations | References | About the author

Abstract
This article examines exchange across the Sierra Leone-Guinea boundary line in three different periods during
the era of high imperialism. My main arguments can be summarized as follows. First, boundary crossings are
best understood through a spatial analysis that combines action and structure and that emphasizes network
building, power, and struggle, all shaping dynamic functional regions. Second, a multi-level analysis is needed,
one that moves back and forth between the local, regional, and global, looking at how the larger forces are
expressed locally in ways that influence traders cross-boundary strategies and at how traders helped shape
structures. Third, comparing traders boundary crossing strategies in different time periods helps to locate the
structural forces that have enhanced or reduced their adaptability - giving rise to new opportunities, or
curtailing businesses. These arguments, in sum, raise questions about the relationships of traders actions to
boundaries and to functional regions. I conclude by looking at the value of historical studies for interpreting
contemporary cross-boundary trade.
Top of page

Index terms
Keywords :

trade, borders, history, Sierra Leone, boundaries, Guinea, traders

Top of page

Outline
Introduction
Phase I: Coastal Colonial Customs Spheres and the Responses of Regional Traders
Phase II. Imperial Creation of Inland Colonial Boundaries and Traders Responses
Phase III. Boundaries and Traders in the Early Colonial Era
Traders, Boundaries, Networks, Regions, and Global Forces
Conclusion

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Introduction

1 I wish to thank Olivier Walther and the two anonymous readers for their valuable comments.Here I
c (...)

1This article examines exchange across the Sierra Leone-Guinea boundary line in three different
periods during the era of high imperialism. My main arguments can be summarized as follows.
First, boundary crossings are best understood through a spatial analysis that combines action
and structure and that emphasizes network building, power, and struggle, all shaping dynamic
functional regions. Second, a multi-level analysis is needed, one that moves back and forth
between the local, regional, and global, looking at how the larger forces are expressed locally in
ways that influence traders cross-boundary strategies and at how traders helped shape
structures. Third, comparing traders boundary crossing strategies in different time periods helps
to locate the structural forces that have enhanced or reduced their adaptability giving rise to
new opportunities, or curtailing businesses. These arguments, in sum, raise questions about the
relationships of traders actions to boundaries and to functional regions. I conclude by looking at
the value of historical studies for interpreting contemporary cross-boundary trade.
2 To focus on boundaries, I am ignoring merchants and middle-scale traders who invested in shops,
fac (...)

2The main cases here involve two types of traders, out of the many kinds of traders, in the
Sierra Leone-Guinea macro-region during a period from 1870 to 1920 2. One type were the
professional traders (juula), who moved commodities over long-distances and served to
integrate the various sub-regions. Juula (or dyula/dyuula) were professional, inter-regional
traders, typically Muslims. They have been widespread in West Africa since the time of the Mali
Empire. Usually the term refers to Mande speakers, but it also has been applied to Pularspeaking (Fula) professional traders and those of mixed linguistic backgrounds, and in some
instances has become an ethnic identity (see Amselle 1971, Griffeth 1971, Curtin 1975: 6875). The other type comprised a diverse body of small- and medium-scale traders who moved
goods within one of those sub-regions, the Sierra Leone-Guinea plain. Juula dealt in kola, cattle,
cloth, gold and other high value items, as well as a few heavier goods, particularly hides and
rubber. They also handled imports, including some of high value, such as guns. An important
part of their traffic involved taking African-consumed commodities across ecological zones, in
particular, moving kola from wet coastal areas inland and cattle from dry interior uplands to the
wetter lowlands and to important cities, especially to Freetown, the capital of the small British
enclave of Sierra Leone and a major Atlantic port.
3The second type mainly handled bulky agricultural exports, such as peanuts and palm kernels,
and also manufactured imports that were consumed widely. Most such traders were concentrated
in the coastal area. Until it was prohibited, some juula and coastal traders also dealt in enslaved
people as part of both the Atlantic and internal slave trades (for slaving and also abolition see
Howard 2006). Exchange was mediated in households, shops, merchants factories, and other
sites in towns and lesser centers; trade was not situated in market places, as such, except for
cattle and food in Freetown and a few other centers.
4Changing global forces influenced the decisions of both types of traders. Those forces included
the spread of Islam, the establishment of regular steamship and telegraph service along the
west coast, the rise of multi-national firms, and, the main focus here, the imperial expansion and
rivalry of Britain and France. All of those forces were expressed in particular ways in the Sierra
Leone-Guinea plain and the other regions that comprised the great macro-region.
5Imperial expansion went on in overlapping phases: setting down coastal customs spheres,
conquering the interior, planting a boundary line between the two newly formed colonies,
establishing colonial administrative and transport infrastructures. The first phase of British and
French boundary expansion which took the form of extending their customs spheres along the
coast occurred when the Sierra Leone-Guinea system was highly integrated and at its
commercial zenith. Long-distance, trans-regional juula were then little affected, but African
traders who moved goods back and forth between the spheres within the coastal region were
heavily impacted and reacted strongly.

6By the late 1860s, the Sierra Leone-Guinea macro-region had become well integrated into a
system in which people, goods, and information about prices and conditions flowed along the
roads (see Map 1). The system stretched approximately 500 kilometers east-west (actually
northeast-southwest) and up to 250 kilometers north-south (actually northwest-southeast). That
system was inter-connected with other West African commercial systems and with Atlantic
commercial systems. Roughly parallel roads constituted two major east-west corridors (The
Falaba Road Corridor and the Futa-Scarcies Corridor), while a major north-south corridor (The
Coastal Corridor) involved movement on the sea, along the Atlantic shore, and through
mangrove swamps. The well integrated system of the late 1800s meant that inter-regional
traders had many options. Juula could sit in a town on the upper Niger River and gather
information on prices at different exchange sites for their cattle or other goods and for the kola
and imports they planned to obtain. Likewise, they could learn about warfare, brigandage, and
overall road conditions, and could consider such factors as their relations with exchange partners
(Howard in preparation). With such knowledge, juula could assess which of various alternative
roads to take and where to buy and sell. At major junctions along the way they could make reevaluations, and their return trips had similar alternatives. The strategies of juula were
constrained, however, by their own prior investments in social ties and by the investments of
settled friends who assisted them or traded with them; the networks which gave them
flexibility also had limits and constraints.
Map 1. Commercial Corridors and Sierra Leone-Guinea Region, 1870s-1880s

Zoom Original (png, 184k)

Source: author. Cartography: Rutgers University.

3 It is not possible here to examine how other major states affected the history of inter-regional tr(...)

7Inter-regional trade in the 1860s through 1890s depended to a considerable degree on the
demand generated in the Atlantic and in the great inlandalmamates (Islamic states), but the
major polities did not direct trade in the system 3. The governors of Sierra Leone, in Freetown,
did at times launch armed attacks in the coastal waterways and occasionally beyond, but
exercised their inland commercial policies mainly through emissaries and connections with
African networks. The great almamates intervened politically and militarily in the uplands, but
affected the plain only indirectly. Their main commercial influence was by sponsoring caravans,
sometimes numbering in the thousands; headed by official emissaries, such caravans carried

state goods and provided protection for independent traders. The majority of inter-regional trade
in the late nineteenth century, however, was in the hands of professional juula, who trafficked
goods back and forth; invested in commercial, social, and political networks; and facilitated the
flow of information. Generally speaking, boundaries, where they existed at all, were weak;
traders built whatever fees and duties they were charged into their costs and avoided, wherever
possible, power holders or authorities who exacted larger tolls or forced payments.
8In the plain, titled authorities, big men, traders, and others exercised social and political power;
they accumulated and invested resources to promote the towns and roads that comprised the
main corridors. They used their alliances and, when needed, armed force to advance their
interests against rivals in other towns and to counter those who were opposed to trade or saw it
as threatening. In the latter 1800s, broad alliances maintained key roads that integrated the
plain, linked it with the interior, and promoted flows between important towns. The spaceorganizing efforts of commercially oriented actors facilitated both regional and inter-regional
commerce, and some exchange centers and roads in the plain served both kinds of commerce.
In various ways, regional commerce synergistically boosted inter-regional commerce and vice
versa.
9While the broad patterns of the plain corridors and high ranking towns remained fairly
stable during the last decades of the century, it also was spatially dynamic. People continued to
struggle politically and commercially over particular routes and towns, which rose and declined
in importance. Because of the redundancies in exchange sites and the competition among
traders fixed in place, experienced mobile traders typically had more than one commercial
friend. Both regional and inter-regional traders could make deals in the head of navigation
towns, the factories on the river banks and islands, or Freetown or they could buy and sell
things at each of those stages, which had competing collectors of commodities and retailers.
The traders decisions involved prices, networks, and social and cultural factors.
4 The prime kola producing areas actually extended inland beyond the heads of navigation; buyers
were (...)

10The Coastal Corridor was an especially important part of the plain and served both regional
and inter-regional trade. It was made up of the seas, roads, and rivers that were plied by boats
large and small carrying passengers and goods. The road with the highest volume ran through
the head of navigation towns. It and lesser roads nearer the coast were inter-digitated with
waterways, forming a complex grid that enabled traders to move east-west and north-south.
Oftentimes they combined movement that was perpendicular to the ocean with movement
parallel to the shore. Juula, in particular, often traveled some distance laterally in the Coastal
Corridor as they headed for exchange points, or as they wound their way home. Specialized
traders developed particular networks in the later 19 th century. For instance, traders arriving
both overland and by sea targeted the rich kola producing sub-region of the Scarcies, where
towns contained buying agents who served their unique needs. And, regional traders who
profited by moving laterally among exchange sites seeking the best prices built connections with
merchants, shop keepers, and other middle people who sought their produce or sold them
imports4.

Phase I: Coastal Colonial Customs Spheres and the

Responses of Regional Traders
11The 1870s and 1880s saw major changes as the European imperialists expanded their
customs spheres. The British took the lead through a series of steps by declaring a narrow
coastal strip in the Coastal Corridor to be under their customs authority, expanding its extent,
and setting up stations and patrols. They gained compliance through a combination of
negotiation with African rulers and exertion of force, including armed boats that chased down
violators. In this period, the French also began to establish a small customs zone around their
tiny enclave of Binty. European customs policies amounted to a weak boundary extension, since

their authority and power were limited within their customs spheres. Their enforcement devices
and the unequal duties they charged, however, often led to differences in prices for goods in the
two spheres. African traders located in the Coastal Corridor already had a strategy of selling
produce where they could gain the best return and/or buying imports in whichever sphere
offered lowest prices, possibly by obtaining imports that avoided duties in Freetown. Once the
French and British began to collect duties in the rivers on some imported goods, or implement
policies that favored imports of their own national origin, their actions affected prices in their two
spheres and further influenced the commercial and network-building strategies of some regional
traders.
5 For 1879, see Sierra Leone National Archives (SLNA)/Aborigines Minute Paper (AbMP) n.n., 25 June,
1 (...)

12The year 1879 marked a new, aggressive British expansion of their custom sphere and their
enforcement mechanisms through pursuit of alleged violators and searches of vessels and even
persons. Rulers of kingdoms and towns some of whom were doing business responded by
ousting or embargoing Sierra Leonean and British traders from their territories. Besides the
economic issues, African authorities were angered by the British intrusion into their territories
and the insulting behavior of customs agents. Traders who protested most vociferously, even
violently, against the British duties were those who lived in the coastal zone near the boundary
between the spheres. They were used to moving goods within the region, even rather short
distances, but with the tougher enforcement, their lateral trade and their well-established
networks were threatened. Some continued their trade by evading customs patrols, which the
British now branded smuggling5.
6 Almami (literally, the imam) was the title given to heads of Islamic states (almamates) and,(...)
7 Authorities and traders in some towns of the Sierra Leone-Guinea plain also promoted exchange
with (...)

13During this era, traders and authorities in Freetown African and European merchants,
colonial officials, and, especially, the leaders and elders of the resident Mandingo and Sarakuli
communities were highly energetic in promoting commerce with Futa Jallon, the upper Niger,
and other distant interior areas. They hosted and gave presents to juula and leaders of caravans
sponsored by Almami Samori Tour and other heads of African states, and they sent expeditions
inland6. Some Freetown community leaders, such as AlmamiBaraka, headman of the Sarakuli,
were part of widespread networks and traded inter-regionally, while many others were well
linked with authorities and big men in the towns of the Coastal Corridor and beyond 7. The highly
mobile juulacontinued to treat the Sierra Leone-Guinea plain as part of the larger macro-regional
system, and most seem to have been affected in only limited ways by the British-French
expanded customs jurisdictions. They regularly crossed through the customs zones and the
boundaries of the European enclaves. Furthermore, many of the commodities they carried were
not taxed. If imports they sought were subject to duty, juula could avoid the tax by trading
elsewhere, or could add those levies to the other costs they sustained along the way.
14Although significant changes were under way along the coast, all in all, this remained an era
with a well-integrated commercial system with alternative routes for travel and competition and
struggle among various exchange sites. There were few boundaries, and most that existed were
permeable. African traders thought in regional or macro-regional terms, and incorporated global
forces into their strategies. Global forces affected traders in various ways, often indirectly.
Atlantic transport technology and competition among European and African merchants, bulk
buyers, and shopkeepers in the Coastal Corridor generally increased the options for mobile
traders arriving from the interior and the plain. All traders responded to prices for imports and
commodities that emanated from the Atlantic or the large interior states and consuming centers.
Coastal traders, in particular, were buffeted by the world-wide depression of the 1870s and early
1880s, which cut severely into the returns of some. Inter-regional traders handling hides saw
that market drop; many turned to rubber, which experienced a boom (and, later, a bust). Yet,
most traders were able to adapt without great difficulties as long as the regions remained

integrated, the system provided travel and exchange options, and a wide range of goods
continued to be bought and sold.

Phase II. Imperial Creation of Inland Colonial

Boundaries and Traders Responses
15In the 1890s, the French and British took over the interior, created the formal territories
known as the Sierra Leone Protectorate and French Guine, and erected the colonial
boundary between them. They began to transform space by erecting customs stations along the
inland boundary, posting guards, sealing frontiers, and taking other measures to control trade to
their benefit. Although some African leaders accommodated, many rulers and military
commanders, along with their followers, mounted armed resistance. All were defeated by the
early years of the twentieth century. Europeans used a variety of means to establish in each
colony a single main port and administrative capital, Freetown and Conakry respectively, and the
early stages of an administrative hierarchy with districts and district officers (in
Guine, cercles and commandants de cercle). The imperialists destroyed the Sierra LeoneGuinea system: beyond establishing the boundary, they interfered with the movement of traders
and broke links between people and towns. Some traders adapted, mostly through adjustments
in their boundary strategies, and continued to trade, while others gave up their businesses.
16France was more aggressive than Britain in their assault on African spatial patterns. Around
1891, as they expanded inland, the French began to channel, limit, and at times totally prohibit
exports through Sierra Leone from areas they now regarded as within their colony. In doing so
they had two main goals: first, to build up the trade of French businesses and the revenue of
their new colony, Guine Franaise, while undermining Sierra Leone commercially, and, second,
to isolate and weaken the states led by the almamis of Futa Jallon and AlmamiSamori Tour
(Person 1968, Barry 1998). They also stopped the internal traffic in slaves, which often was
associated with trading in cattle and other commodities; while they did have a humanitarian
motive, that policy, too, was designed to weaken African commercial organization and
resistance. Operations were directed from Conakry, where, in 1891, the French had installed a
Lieutenant Governor (under the Governor General in Dakar) and an administrative structure.
Frances imperial planning also called for the development of Conakry as a capital and for
commerce to be channeled to and through its port (Goerg 1997).
8 See Baillaud (1907: 142-164) and Aspe-Fleurimont (1907: 135-141), Sierra Leone Colony, Annual
Repor(...)

17To weaken Freetown and traders based in British territory and to strengthen French
commerce, Guine officials declared that direct importation of non-French merchandise through
Conakry was duty free, but goods imported by way of Sierra Leone were heavily taxed. As a
result, by 1899, 90% of all imports into their colony were through the port of Conakry. This
ended Freetowns role as an entrepot for sections of the northern coast that were now in Guine.
The total of all Guine imports through Freetown, excluding specie, dropped from about 90,000
to 15,000, using French figures, or from 60,000 to 4,000 using British figures. In 1897,
Guine exported products worth only 3,000 to England, but 176,000 in 1900 8. Along with
other French actions, the commercial growth of Conakry and some towns in Guine helped
undercut the businesses of traders who had been moving goods between customs spheres.
Some adapted, as is discussed in the next section, but many were unable to develop new spatial
strategies.
9 Both British and French sources document this extension in detail.Collaborating chiefs were also u (...)
10 On forced sales, see SLNA/NACLB (Native Affairs Confidential Letter Book) 1889-1898, 17 Oct.,
1892, (...)

18Between 1891 and 1894, France extended controls from their coastal bases to the southern
margin of Futa Jallon (see Map1) as the first stage in their strategy to construct a semicircular
ring of posts along the full length of what became the inter-colonial boundary. With those posts
they could collect duties and send out patrols to intercept traders 9. In 1895 France and Great
Britain signed a convention that recognized their mutual right to collect tolls at the boundary,
while stipulating open commerce. By using coercion to control the interior frontiers, however,
France went beyond what the British thought was permissible under the agreements. France not
uncommonly used force against traders redirecting caravans, seizing cattle and other
commodities, compelling sale of animals at fixed price (often below market value), and
arresting juula10.
11 See SenNA 7G/36 pc. 46, 28 Feb, 1895, report of Captain Brouet.

19Toward the end of 1896, France occupied Timbo, the capital of Futa Jallon. They then went on
to defeat its ruler, Almami Bokari Biro, and declare a protectorate. In 1893, Commandant
Coombes, one of the architects of French imperial advance into Guine, stated in a circular letter
that Futa Jallon would have to be completely cut off from Sierra Leone and its resources used for
building the economy of Guine; later, military personnel referred to this statement as policy 11.
By taking control of a major trading state and the primary source of cattle for the region, they
were better able to re-direct the flow of this valuable commodity (and other goods, particularly
those that were exchanged for cattle or traded alongside cattle). Also, the French almost totally
re-directed the rubber trade, which in the last three decades of the 1800s had grown to be a
major export commodity. Whereas traders had primarily carried rubber to Freetown in the
middle 1890s, once France began to divert it through force and tax policies, Conakry quickly
took most of it. This further undercut older patterns of inter-regional traffic that were linked with
rubber. France also carried out a long and strenuous campaign to defeat Almami Samori Tour.
The destruction of the Muslim states ended their capacity to finance large caravans and reduced
the importance of several towns that had facilitated inter-regional flows.
12 See SLNA/CSMP1186/1899, SLNA/CSMP 428/1904.
13 Howard interview with Pa Thokor, Kamagbonson, Biriwa chiefdom, 2 October, 1968.

20French boundary policies severely distorted regional commercial patterns organized

by juula and other traders. Longer trips, higher risk costs, and imposed duties cut into traders
profits. Avoidance was a common juularesponse to boundary patrols, unpredictable closures,
and, especially, customs fees. For the first time, trading across interior ecological zones was
defined as smuggling. From the mid-nineties onward for many years during the colonial
era, juula and border guards played a dangerous cat and mouse game. For
many juula smuggling became a way of life, though detection threatened their lives and
livelihood12. When interviewed decades later, elderly juula recounted harrowing stories of being
chased through bush paths by armed patrols, and as proof showed the scars they had
sustained from sharp thorn trees and bullets 13. These tribulations were not simply a desire to
stick to old ways. Rather, traders sought to maintain their investment in regional networks of
hosts and exchange partners. Cattle traders, in addition, wished to preserve their knowledge of
places where they could find water and feed, thus maintaining their animals health, weight, and
market value.
14 Guine Journal Officiel, Jan., 1901, p. 11, rept. of Commission, and 1 Aug., 1901, rept. of Commis (...)

21Many juula demonstrated flexibility in modifying their travel paths and networks and
creating new ones. They re-imagined the macro-region with the new boundaries in mind. When
the French attempted to destroy the Falaba Road Corridor by instituting a prohibitively high tariff
on cattle passing through that section of the colonial boundary, juula who sought to reach the
lucrative Freetown market quickly adjusted by walking their animals a very long way around
through Liberia and eastern Sierra Leone. French officials were forced to abandon a mistaken
policy14. Still, overall, there was a severe reduction in cattle exportation to Sierra Leone lasting

well into the 20th century, and juulaand middlemen were required to make major changes in
patterns of exchange, as described in the next section.
22Imperial conquest broke up the pre-colonial system of exchange towns, roads, and personal
and commercial networks and, ultimately, destroyed the Sierra Leone-Guinea system. Most
important for the long term history of the macro-region was the great reduction in exchange
between complementary ecological zones. The flow of traders and commerce along the Falaba
Road Corridor, the Futa-Scarcies Corridor, and the Coastal Corridor declined precipitously.
Exchange that had a long history was now illegal, or at least more costly and risky. Traders
located in the two colonies faced impediments to partnerships and network building, including
different laws and court systems, tax regimes, and currencies. As colonial rule became more
deeply entrenched, however, some traders were able to take advantage of the new situation, for
instance, by profiting from differentials in prices and also the exchange rates of currencies.
Increasingly, traders began to move more regularly across the boundary in new patterns, either
smuggling or paying duties, and re-orienting their networks to the existence of new urban
centers and rail transport.

Phase III. Boundaries and Traders in the Early

Colonial Era
23Within the new boundaries, the British and French authorities established administrative units
(districts, cercles, provinces, etc.) headed by European officers, where taxes were levied, court
cases heard, convicts jailed, licenses issued, and so on. African rulers were removed from office
or demoted to being chiefs in an administrative hierarchy, and lesser title holders often found
their authority constricted, although colonialism provided some office holders with new
opportunities to acquire resources and exploit subjects. In the plain, many title holders and big
men lost much of their capacity to order space through social, political, and military power and
experienced a restricted capacity to use extensive networks and long-term alliances. A major
step in spatial reorganization took place between about 1900 and 1917 as Europeans in both
colonies directed the construction of railway lines linking the capitals and their ports to the
interior; the rails, along with feeder roads, created dendritic systems for channeling bulk
quantities of agricultural exports to the main ports and imports inland to Africans producers and
other consumers (Map 2).
Map 2. Colonial Boundary and Railways, ca. 1915

Zoom Original (png, 191k)

Source: author. Cartography: Rutgers University.

24Towns rose and fell depending on their location in relationship to areas of crop production and
the new infrastructure. Some old trading towns at the heads of navigation in other words at
the intersection of the coastal and east-west corridors lost most of their commercial life, while
others entered long periods of competition with rival towns, and still others continued as viable
exchange centers. Thus, Magbeli nearly died and its traders declined or moved because its
hinterland was truncated by the splintering of the Falaba Road Corridor and the building of the
northern spur of the Sierra Leone railway, and by the rise of new collection points along it.
Traders in Kambia and Melikuri, near to each other on opposite sides of the colonial boundary,
competed over prices of imports and access to the once common hinterland where exports were
produced; their opportunities were determined to a considerable degree by custom duties and by
the development of transport routes running parallel to the colonial boundary, which some
traders continued to cross (see Howard in preparation). Generally, in the early years, Melikuri
had an advantage, but around the First World War, Kambia traders benefited because their
networks tapped an extremely rich kola growing area at a time when overseas markets were
expanding. African traders and authorities undertook the physical upgrading of one of the roads
of the old Futa-Scarcies Corridor and bought lorries that traversed the road with bulky produce
and imports. Port Loko was less affected by the rail than Magbeli and the boundary than Kambia;
its local traders did fairly well, especially as cattle and other goods continued to reach it and as
traffic in its river, part of the Coastal Corridor, remained vigorous. European traders, however,
took advantage of the colonial umbrella to set up operations there (and in several other head of
navigation centers in both colonies) and directly challenge Africans in certain sectors.
25Many of the older inland towns places that had prospered in part from the
19th century juula and caravan trade that integrated the whole Sierra Leone-Guinea system
either declined along with the destruction of that traffic, or saw their residents make major
adjustments to new regional commercial patterns. Thus, towns that had benefited from being at
the edges of the fractured transition area between the uplands and the coastal plain lost a lot of
traffic; they would include places in Sierra Leone around the Biriwa kingdom and in Guine on
roads leading away from Futa Jallon. In contrast, some old centers gained from being on or very
near to the new colonial boundary, which also saw the rise of new towns, especially those
assigned colonial functions. Thus, Falaba, the ancient capital of Solima, which had been in
decline during the late 19 thcentury, got a boost when the British chose it to be a district

headquarters and when cross-boundary cattle traders located there. Heremakono on the French
side similarly gained in importance and attracted traders, including those crossing the frontier.
Many traders who were most involved in cross-boundary trafficking those examined in the
above section found it difficult to take advantage of the new administrative and transport
structures, but some adapted well by changing their locations, patterns of movement, and
networks. In the process, they modified their strategies for dealing with boundaries.
15 See SLNA/CSMP 540/1900 Collector of Customs to Col. Sec. 13 Feb.; SLNA/CSMP 527/1902 Report on
Cust(...)

26A special variation of the competition in the Coastal Corridor developed along the far lower
sections of the Sierra Leone-Guine boundary. Many Africans treated the French and British
sections of that zone as one region. Farmers and occasional traders regularly moved back and
forth across the boundary to sell their crops and buy necessities. Professional (regional) traders
residing in the zone and farther afield made careful assessments of which goods to buy in each
sphere; they obtained some on the British side and some on the French side, depending on how
duties and transport costs affected prices (for similar historical trading options, see Nugent
1996: 58-60). Colonial officials quickly recognized that Africans were creating a border zone
along both sides of the boundary by traveling back and forth through numerous bush paths and
waterways. The British, in particular, mounted a campaign to interdict African traders they
considered smugglers, but, in the end, abandoned most stations and removed the supervisors
and patrols15.
16 See SLNA/CSMP 1245/1909 Abolition of the Customs Preventative Service.

27Many juula who had been involved in the long-distance exchange of kola and cattle had to rethink their strategies as Europeans planted colonial rule inland and as technology, demand, and
other global forces brought changes. A significant body of former caravaners gave up traveling
the roads and settled down in old trade towns, in newer rail and administrative centers, or in
Freetown or Conakry, often becoming diatigis (landlords or hosts/intermediaries) serving
mobile traders. Some juula sought to keep their commerce viable by sustaining older patterns,
others by radically modifying their spatial and organizational arrangements to fit the new colonial
realities. Among them were traders described above those who crossed at the far interior
points, avoiding French patrols while maintaining sections of the old routes from Futa Jallon and
the Upper Niger. They also included those who went along with French policy of re-direction on
the Guine side of the boundary: when they arrived near the Atlantic, they traveled into Sierra
Leone, even reaching Freetown. Sometimes those juula not only transferred cattle from Guine,
but also operated like regional traders by moving dutied imports along the water and bush paths
near the coast16. Thus, in the cross-boundary section of their travels they became smugglers.
28In general, rail and administrative towns grew in size as they took on new functions and were
settled by foreign and African migrants employees of large firms, laborers, marketers, artisans,
government clerks, teachers, and others who generated demand for goods. Most, though not
all, of the rail and administrative towns were located away from the frontiers, so African traders
were required to make spatial adaptations to take advantage of new opportunities. Towns along
the northern rail spur in the Sierra Leone Protectorate, like Yonibana, Magburaka, and Makeni,
and along the Guine rail, like Kindia and Mamou (Map 2), quickly attracted African and foreign
traders. Large-scale European firms, antecedents of modern multi-national corporations, built
produce collecting, wholesaling, and retailing networks along the rails, gaining revenue through
handling volume. Those African traders using the rails to transport food, kola, and other
commodities to Freetown and Conakry struggled against the power of foreign companies by
demanding lower fares and shipping rates, the right to rent rail cars jointly, and so on (Howard
in preparation). Other traders who settled in the new towns found ways to re-orient their
connections and build new networks, even across boundaries.
17 The following section is based on Howard interviews with Alhaji Brimah Kabba, Sendugu, Port Loko,
1 (...)

29Many juula also took up residence in the new rail and administrative centers, for instance,
Makeni (Sierra Leone) and Mamou (Guine), either re-orienting their trade or
becoming diatigi17. Some emigrated from Futa Jallon or the upper Niger, others from the plain,
including now bypassed villages and dying towns. One of the new patterns of cross-boundary
trading involved traders taking kola bought around Makeni or other centers in Sierra Leone to
obtain cattle in Mamou on the Conakry-Niger rail, Kindia (another new rail center in Guine), or
old towns like Timbo or Labe. Some who abandoned the old corridors, re-directed their trade by
forging connections that reached from Futa Jallon into southeastern Sierra Leone. All such crossboundary networks now connected the main source of cattle with towns or crop production areas
where population and demand were growing; traders maintained parts of an ancient commercial
nexus by altering their location, patterns of movement, and networks.
30One final and significantly different form of cross-boundary trade deserves mention because it
illustrates how mobile traders created very distant ties and then altered their networks as
colonial rule gave rise to new towns and modes of transport. Traders had for centuries been
coming by sea from Bissau (a Portuguese enclave) and other northern coastal points to buy kola
in the coastal area near where the Sierra Leone-Guine border later was fixed, especially in the
Scarcies Rivers. In the later 19 th century, traders, most of them Krio based in Freetown, built
successful businesses by purchasing kola nuts from traders operating in the Coastal Corridor and
then accompanying the kola north on the scheduled steamships, mostly to Bathurst (Banjul).
After the British and French conquered the Senegambian hinterland and made structural
changes similar to those in Guine and Sierra Leone, African traders fundamentally changed the
Atlantic kola trade. Dakar became the capital of Senegal, and, later, of all Afrique Occidentale
Franaise (AOF), and also rose as a major kola market where a diverse body of traders carried
out exchange. Bathurst continued to be the import center for The Gambia and, to some degree,
Senegal. Traders began sending kola unaccompanied to Senegal and The Gambia on ships that
regularly stopped at their ports. They used the inter-colonial telegraph lines to arrange deals
with distant partners and to modify prices and contracts quickly as market conditions changed.
Traders, thus, were now promoting trade that crossed the Sierra Leone boundary (in the port)
and then French and British boundaries in the northern colonies. Sierra Leoneans also built up an
even larger commerce in kola to Nigeria. Since Sierra Leone kola still crossed the boundary into
Guine, kola was now flowing in commercial networks that reached from multiple buying nodes
throughout coastal northern Sierra Leone to multiple selling nodes in at least four other colonies,
crossing boundaries as it flowed.

Traders, Boundaries, Networks, Regions, and

Global Forces
31The Sierra Leone-Guinea commercial system of the 1870s and 1880s constituted a macroregion made up of several smaller regions. The system was shaped by demand from the Atlantic,
the wider West African world, and the regions that comprised the system. Among those regions,
the Sierra Leone-Guinea plain was critical because it bridged the interior and the ocean and
because Freetown was located within the plain. Complex networks of all types spanned the plain
and reached far beyond (Howard 2005). Trade flowed along roads that integrated the plain and
linked it with neighboring regions.
32Three things stand out about the spatial patterns of the Sierra Leone-Guinea system. The
centers of political and military power on the coast and inland, namely the Colony of Sierra
Leone and the great Muslim almamates, affected but were unable to order the space of the
plain. Titled authorities, big men, traders, and farmers of the plain organized that area politically
and commercially through cooperation, competition and violent struggle. Furthermore, traders
found the boundaries of the Colony, large African states, and numerous mini-states of the plain
were permeable, although they did have to pay duties, fees, and extractions of sovereignty.
Finally, within the overall stability of the main commercial corridors and towns, the patterns and
complex relationships among networks, towns, and roads were quite flexible. Traders were used
to adapting to changes in the accessibility and safety of roads, the location of favorable

exchange sites, and the functional activities sited in various towns. Those traders who did well
had a strategic sense of opportunity, hazard, and amenity, which included building bridges
across social and political lines and negotiating existing boundaries. A similar, perhaps even
more acute, strategic thinking was needed in the imperial and colonial eras as Europeans
established and patrolled boundaries that were exclusionary and often difficult to cross.
33Colonialism, capitalism, and transnational technology had long exerted influences on the
area, but from the late nineteenth century onward those global forces led to new structural
realities in Sierra Leone and Guine Franaise and eventually drastically altered the options for
African traders.
18 My thinking on this subject has been strongly influenced by the work of Pred (1990).

34In global terms, the European inland extension of boundaries and subsequent spatial changes
were associated with national rivalries, world-wide imperial conquest, and the application of
advanced weaponry and technology abroad and with colonial rule that was simultaneously
violent, bureaucratic, and negotiated. African rulers, titled officials, big men, and traders lost
much of their ability to use power and resources to contest the order of towns and roads. In the
first two decades of the 20 th century, European authorities and firms directly reshaped space in
the plain and interior by setting up administrations and building new infrastructures, most
importantly, spatially fixed, carbon-based rail transport systems, and other fixed capital facilities.
The rail and road systems and administrative structures established formal (in contrast to
functional) regions, and, along with associated changes in urban population levels, retailing by
large firms, and consumption, led to a hardening of the spatial patterns of towns. That, as well
as the improved telegraphs and regularity of steamships, affected African traders in many ways,
but unevenly according to their location and capacity to use the technologies. In sum, global
forces that were expressed locally and regionally influenced traders strategies for crossing the
new boundaries. The cumulative actions of traders also modified the structures in which they
made decisions18.
35Africans both resisted and accommodated to the spatial changes wrought by global forces and
continued to shape space locally, regionally, and inter-regionally in the context of new
constraints. For many traders who successfully adapted to the colonial era, their spatial
strategies involved reconstituting networks links among exchange nodes and ties with other
traders as well as crossing boundaries. Traders in different sectors and locations developed
different border crossing logics and networks. Many African traders of the Sierra Leone-Guinea
plain who dealt in imports and bulky export crops were pushed down the commercial ladder or
closed their businesses. Those who continued to trade responded differently to the colonial
boundary depending on where they were based, the commodities they handled, and the
competitors they encountered. Some traders living around Kambia and Melikuri seem to have
found ways to accommodate to the presence of colonial officials, negotiating relationships on
both sides of the boundary. Those who operated in the zone between the head of navigation
centers and the coast tried to sustain a modified version of the ancient exchange in the Coastal
Corridor, a terrain where slavers had sought to evade the British navy and administrative officers
throughout the 19th century and where rulers, big men, traders, and farmers smuggled goods
from the 1870s into the 20th century. Traders in that zone created a border region rich with
networks and culture that included knowledge of passageways and techniques for challenging
and outlasting the controls of colonial authorities.
36Traders who dealt in kola and cattle frequently were seeking ways to link older, but
continuingly productive, source areas with new sites of consumption. Kola traders were
especially attentive to changes in colonial policies, technology, and demand. Demand was in turn
affected by prices of kola grown in other colonies and by the incomes of consumers, who
typically were residents of new towns or farmers producing cash crops for global markets. Some
kola traders in Sierra Leone maintained older patterns by becoming diatigi who
hosted juula coming from inland areas of Guine seeking kola or by carrying kola to interior
consumption zones. By necessity such exchanges meant crossing the boundary. Others who
bought kola choose, instead, to supply overseas exporters who operated out of Freetown. A

spectacular pattern of adaptation was shown by those traders mostly Krio, many of them
women who took advantage of the regular patterns of steamship movement to transfer kola to
distant, overseas colonies such as The Gambia, Senegal, and Nigeria in all cases crossing
boundaries. Those kola exporters coordinated the boundary crossing with partners in the
consuming colonies through innovative networks and use of telegraph lines for instant
communication about quantities, quality, and prices.
37Cattle juula often found certain pre-colonial roads no longer possible to use and colonial
boundaries difficult to cross, but not impermeable. They modified their strategies and networks
where it was necessary and profitable, while also maintaining certain existing patterns that were
oriented to Futa Jallon (now in Guine) which remained the premier cattle raising and
exporting area and to Freetown and some older places which remained leading centers for
exchange or consumption. Traders also were quick to build new networks by linking supplies with
new sources of demand in prosperous places and by allying with wholesalers and marketers who
disposed of animals. Some re-oriented the kola-cattle nexus to integrate new towns in the two
colonies. Thus the adaptability of both kola and cattle traders did not simply involve novel ways
of crossing boundaries; critical to boundary crossing and to intra-colony trade, as well, was their
ability to see and meet broad shifts in demand and to facilitate changes in networks linking
centers.
38In Sierra Leone and Guine, traders both preserved and altered their connections and
movements within colonies and across the colonial line, giving rise to modified or new networks.
Through those actions, they created functional regions that did not coincide with formal colonial
regions namely, the administrative districts or the colonies themselves, which the French and
British envisioned as containers.
39Those functional regions, including ones that reached into distant colonies, often represented
a combination of old and new patterns of investment in places, flows, and exchange partners.
Traders were influenced by global forces spatially manifested through colonial boundaries,
administrative centers, and transport systems, while they forged local sites of exchange and
regions that integrated production zones with consumers.

Conclusion
40Prior to the late-nineteenth intensification of imperial intervention, the Sierra Leone-Guinea
commercial system was highly integrated, which gave traders, particularly certain inter-regional
traders, many options and a sense of spatial flexibility which many carried forward in time.
During the era of high imperialism, the French and British first created customs spheres, then
set down a line marking off their respective territories, and, finally, conquered the interior,
patrolled the boundary intensively, and disrupted existing commercial patterns. Various kinds of
African regional and inter-regional traders developed different strategies for dealing with the
Sierra Leone-Guine boundary. Professional traders (juula), who moved commodities interregionally throughout the wide Sierra Leone-Guinea system, responded to such changes
differently from those traders who handled imports and exports in the Sierra Leone-Guinea plain,
a sub-region of the whole system.
41Within those two categories, however, traders had different capacity to adapt depending on
their resources and locations, the goods they handled, and their relationships to other structural
and global forces besides imperialism. Those who acted in ways that enabled them to sustain
their businesses either re-directed their existing networks or formed new networks to take
advantage of changing patterns of urbanization, technology, and demand on one side or both
sides of a colonial boundary. Through those actions, they created functional regions that did not
coincide with formal colonial regions.
42Such historical findings have relevance for contemporary studies of traders in post-colonial
Africa. First, it is important to locate traders in their longer historical framework and to
incorporate an analysis of who wields spatial power. Prior to colonization, regional traders, along

with titled authorities and other big men in the Sierra Leone-Guinea plain, exercised social and
political power and accumulated and invested resources that promoted flows along particular
roads and exchange centers. After colonial conquest, European officials and companies
intervened spatially by laying rail lines and building administrative headquarters and commercial
outlets, which in turn affected the size of towns, income of consumers, and so on. Such wider
spatial realities conditioned the decisions of traders. Thus, it seems important to focus not only
on traders acts of boundary crossing, but to understand their perceptions of and responses to
changes in power, transport, exchange centers, and demand, often well beyond the immediate
boundary zones.
43Interpreting the actions of traders in different commercial sectors seems particularly
important to any analysis, past or present. The border crossing problems and logics of various
traders in the Sierra Leone-Guinea area were quite different, as were their networks, that is,
their exchange nodes and their ties with others. Traders who dealt in kola and cattle frequently
were seeking ways to link older source areas with new sites and regions of consumption. They
were attentive to changes in demand that was in turn affected by local, regional, and global
prices, incomes of consumers, and colonial policies. Some of their wider business strategies
differed fundamentally from those who crossed the Sierra Leone-Guine boundary in the coastal
area; the latter were handling manufactured goods and export commodities, and thinking in
terms of rapidly shifting global prices and changes in the suppliers of imports, as well regional
exchange rates, local prices, and relations with customs officials. These traders have parallels
with contemporary traders in the area where Nigeria, Niger, and Benin meet (Walther 2009,
2014).
44Comparing border cultures as described and analyzed by Nugent (2002) in different
periods and contexts also appears to be a fruitful exercise. If a border culture existed along the
Sierra Leone-Guine boundary in the early colonial period, it was created by traders and others
living around Kambia and Melikuri and in the zone between those head of navigation centers and
the coast. Farther inland, on a long stretch of the Sierra Leone-Guine boundary, African traders
developed flexible strategies of accommodating and avoiding the colonial state that has some
parallels to what Nugent found for more recent periods along the Ghana-Togo boundary. Cattle
traders, in particular, recognized the boundary when necessary, for instance by paying duties,
but also contested the boundary by avoiding customs stations and patrols. Traders actions along
boundaries can best be understood in the framework of markets, colonial (or national) states,
and the wider, trans-colonial (or transnational) regions traders forge. All of these ways of
interpreting traders require an analysis that is multi-level, moving back and forth between the
local, regional, and global. Such an analysis should also look both at how traders strategies
were affected by global forces and dynamic structures and at how their cumulative decisions and
actions helped shape regions and structures.

Articulo Journal of Urban Research is a peer-reviewed online journal devoted

to the exploration of urban issues through the lens of a wide range of social
science approaches. The Journal embraces a multidisciplinary perspective on
the transformation of social, environmental and economic issues of cities and
city regions. Publishing both theoretical and empirical articles, the Journal is an
international forum that brings together academics and practitioners working
on urban issues in cities around the world to present ground breaking and
relevant research.

Articulo - Journal of Urban Research is indexed by SCOPUS (Elsevier) and by the

French Evaluation Agency for Research and Higher Education (AERES) since
2013.Ttulo Primero
Captulo I De los Derechos Humanos y sus Garantas (Captulo cambio de
denominacin, mediante Decreto publicado en el Diario Oficial de la Federacin
el 10 de junio de 2011)
Artculo 1

Folio Anterior Folio: 8798 Folio Siguiente

ARTICULO 1. EN LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS MEXICANOS TODAS LAS PERSONAS
GOZARAN DE LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS RECONOCIDOS EN ESTA
CONSTITUCION Y EN LOS TRATADOS INTERNACIONALES DE LOS QUE EL
ESTADO MEXICANO SEA PARTE, ASI COMO DE LAS GARANTIAS PARA SU
PROTECCION, CUYO EJERCICIO NO PODRA RESTRINGIRSE NI SUSPENDERSE,
SALVO EN LOS CASOS Y BAJO LAS CONDICIONES QUE ESTA CONSTITUCION
ESTABLECE.
(REFORMADO MEDIANTE DECRETO PUBLICADO EN EL DIARIO OFICIAL DE LA
FEDERACION EL 10 DE JUNIO DE 2011)

LAS NORMAS RELATIVAS A LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS SE INTERPRETARAN DE

CONFORMIDAD CON ESTA CONSTITUCION Y CON LOS TRATADOS
INTERNACIONALES DE LA MATERIA FAVORECIENDO EN TODO TIEMPO A LAS
PERSONAS LA PROTECCION MAS AMPLIA.
(ADICIONADO MEDIANTE DECRETO PUBLICADO EN EL DIARIO OFICIAL DE LA
FEDERACION EL 10 DE JUNIO DE 2011)

TODAS LAS AUTORIDADES, EN EL AMBITO DE SUS COMPETENCIAS, TIENEN LA

OBLIGACION DE PROMOVER, RESPETAR, PROTEGER Y GARANTIZAR LOS
DERECHOS HUMANOS DE CONFORMIDAD CON LOS PRINCIPIOS DE
UNIVERSALIDAD, INTERDEPENDENCIA, INDIVISIBILIDAD Y PROGRESIVIDAD. EN
CONSECUENCIA, EL ESTADO DEBERA PREVENIR, INVESTIGAR, SANCIONAR Y
REPARAR LAS VIOLACIONES A LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS, EN LOS TERMINOS
QUE ESTABLEZCA LA LEY.
(ADICIONADO MEDIANTE DECRETO PUBLICADO EN EL DIARIO OFICIAL DE LA
FEDERACION EL 10 DE JUNIO DE 2011)

ESTA PROHIBIDA LA ESCLAVITUD EN LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS MEXICANOS. LOS

ESCLAVOS DEL EXTRANJERO QUE ENTREN AL TERRITORIO NACIONAL
ALCANZARAN, POR ESTE SOLO HECHO, SU LIBERTAD Y LA PROTECCION DE LAS
LEYES.
(ADICIONADO MEDIANTE DECRETO PUBLICADO EN EL DIARIO OFICIAL DE LA
FEDERACION EL 14 DE AGOSTO DE 2001)

QUEDA PROHIBIDA TODA DISCRIMINACION MOTIVADA POR ORIGEN ETNICO O

NACIONAL, EL GENERO, LA EDAD, LAS DISCAPACIDADES, LA CONDICION
SOCIAL, LAS CONDICIONES DE SALUD, LA RELIGION, LAS OPINIONES, LAS
PREFERENCIAS SEXUALES, EL ESTADO CIVIL O CUALQUIER OTRA QUE ATENTE
CONTRA LA DIGNIDAD HUMANA Y TENGA POR OBJETO ANULAR O MENOSCABAR
LOS DERECHOS Y LIBERTADES DE LAS PERSONAS.
(REFORMADO MEDIANTE DECRETO PUBLICADO EN EL DIA
Determinado
singular

Masculino

el coche

la casa

plural los coches

las casas

Indeterminado

Masculino

singular

un nio

plural unos nios

Femenino

Neutro

lo til

Femenino

una nia

unas nias

El artculo determinado nos informa que el sustantivo del que se shabla es

conocido.
Por ejemplo:
El coche est roto. (El coche del que hablamos es un objeto determinado o
conocido.)

Utilizacin de los artculos determinados

Cuando decimos la hora o un da determinado de la semana:

Salgo para la Universidad a las 8.

Viajamos a Madrid el lunes.
Practico baloncesto los lunes.
Recuerda:
Hoy es martes 13.

Con los apellidos:

El Sr. Ramrez est enfermo.

Recuerda que cuando hablamos directamente con la persona se omite el
artculo:
Sintese, por favor, Sr. Ramrez.

Cuando hablamos de algo ocurrido a una edad determinada:

Me cas a los veintids aos.

Recuerda que si hablamos de la edad que tenemos es incorrecto el uso del
artculo.
Tengo 32 aos.

Cuando hablamos de los colores:

Me gusta el amarillo.
Recuerda:
Ella tiene una blusa amarilla.

Cuando del porcentaje:

El 80 por ciento de los internautas son jvenes.

Con algunas palabras como CASA, CLASE es muy corriente la omisin del
artculo:

Estar en casa todo el da.

Estoy en clase.
Pero, recuerda:
Esta es la casa de Jos. (nos referimos al edificio)

El + verbo en infinitivo: permite formar sustantivos verbales que

corresponden a la accin definida por el verbo:
El trabajar me agota.

Si el sustantivo femenino comienza por a o por ha acentuada se

sustituye LA por EL:

El arma blanca
el agua fra
el hacha afilada
Si en lugar del artculo femenino hubiera un adjetivo demostrativo, un numeral,
artculo indeterminado o el sustantivo estara en plural, stos estarn en
femenino, por ejemplo:

una hacha afilada

esta arma
Las armas blancas
Existen algunas excepciones como: La hache (letra del alfabeto)

Se pueden utilizar artculos determinados con el nombre de algunos

pases:

(La) Argentina, (El) Brasil, (El) Canad, (El) Ecuador, (Los) Estados Unidos, (Las)
Filipinas, (El) Japn, (El) Paraguay, (EL) Per, etc.
Recuerda que tambin se puede utilizar un artculo determinado para
determinar un periodo en la historia de un pas:
La Espaa de Franco.

Se utiliza tambin artculos determinados con sustantivos como: agua,

cerveza, comida, etc. Cuando stos son sujetos de la oracin:

El agua estaba fra.

La comida estaba buena.
Recuerda:
Hay agua?
Quiero ms comida.

El artculo neutro LO se utiliza solamente acompaado de adjetivos,

adverbios o participios. Nunca va acompaado de nombres:

Lo malo es que no hay nada de comer.

Has visto lo rpido que escribe.

Recuerda que LO aparece tambin acompaado de preposiciones:

Lo de Mara (el asunto de Mara) es caso perdido.

arriba

Utilizacin de los artculos indeterminados.

El artculo indeterminado nos informa que el sustantivo del que se habla es
desconocido. Tambin el artculo indeterminado seala un elemento en un
grupo; si el artculo se omite indica un aspecto an ms indeterminado. Se
considera que el artculo masculino un es la forma apocopada del adjetivo
uno.

Artculos indeterminados en singular

All hay una tienda. (es un objeto indeterminado)

l es profesor. (el artculo se omite cuando delante de profesiones, pero si el
sustantivo es determinado es necesaria su utilizacin)
l es un profesor muy exigente.

El artculo indeterminado se omite delante de las siguientes palabras.: tan,

tanto, igual, otro, tamao, semejante, doble, distinto, tal (delante de un
nombre de persona s), cierto.

Artculos determinados en plural

Haba unos doscientos caballos (unos significa aproximadamente)

All hay unos libros. (unos significa algunos)

Haba perros y gatos. (el artculo se ha omitido, el aspecto es ms
indeterminado)

rtculo
artculo s. m.
1 Texto publicado en un peridico, una revista o un libro, generalmente breve,
que trata sobre un tema desde un punto de vista objetivo (como la noticia) o
subjetivo (como el artculo de opinin).
2 Producto u objeto que se compra o se vende.
3 Determinante que acompaa al sustantivo e indica que nos referimos a un
elemento conocido o a uno indeterminado, general; concuerda con el
sustantivo en gnero y nmero.
4 Parte de un tratado, ley o documento oficial que forma, junto con otras, una
serie numerada y ordenada.
5 Parte que en un diccionario se dedica a la definicin de la palabra con que
se encabeza.
artculo de fe Verdad revelada por Dios.
in artculo mortis Expresin latina que significa 'en el ltimo momento', 'en el
trance final', 'cuando se est a punto de morir': matrimonio in artculo mortis.
Diccionario Manual de la Lengua Espaola Vox. 2007 Larousse Editorial, S.L.
artculo
m. Artejo.
Articulacin (huesos).
Cada una de las divisiones de un diccionario correspondiente a una palabra.
Escrito de cierta extensin e importancia inserto en un peridico o en una
publicacin anloga.
Cosa comerciable.
artculo de la muerte ltimo tiempo de la vida, prximo a morir.

der. Cada una de las disposiciones numeradas de un tratado, ley, etc.

artculo de previo pronunciamiento El incidente que, mientras se decide,
paraliza el negocio principal en un proceso.
gram. Parte variable de la oracin que acompaa al sustantivo o a una palabra
o expresin sustantivada. Tiene las funciones de individualizar y concretar, as
como la de indicar su gnero y nmero. Se divide en determinado e
indeterminado.
artculo determinado o determinante El que presenta a un ser ya conocido, es
decir, individualizado entre sus congneres. Sus formas son: el, la, lo, los y las.
artculo indeterminado o indeterminante Por su similitud con los adjetivos
indefinidos, debera llamarse ms propiamente indefinido. Es el que presenta al
ser designado por el nombre como a un ser no conocido. Sus formas son: un,
una, unos y unas.
rel. artculo de fe Segn la Iglesia catlica, verdad que se ha de creer como
revelada por Dios y propuesta por la misma Iglesia.
Diccionario Enciclopdico Vox 1. 2009 Larousse Editorial, S.L.
artculo (atikulo)
sustantivo masculino
1. comercio producto que se puede comprar o vender artculos comestibles
producto esencial para la vida de una persona El pan y el agua son artculos de
primera necesidad.
2. periodismo escrito sobre un tema, que se publica con otros La revista tiene
excelentes artculos de psicologa.
3. texto de una enciclopedia con explicacin completa El artculo tiene toda la
informacin que pidi el profesor.
4. derecho punto o parte numerada de un documento oficial El artculo 14 de la
Constitucin garantiza los derechos de los ciudadanos.
5. gramtica determinante que acompaa al sustantivo "La" es el artculo
femenino singular.
Copyright 2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.

1. El artculo.

En el dibujo se usan dos artculos determinados (el y la) y uno indeterminado

(un).

El artculo es la parte de la oracin que se coloca delante del nombre o

sustantivo para sealar su gnero, su nmero e indicar si el nombre nos es
conocido o no. Ejemplos: el coche, un coche; el reloj, un reloj.

Los artculos se dividen en dos clases: determinados e indeterminados.

2. Artculo determinado

Es el que se pone delante de un nombre o sustantivo que conocemos de

antemano. Sus formas son: el, la, lo, los, las. Ejemplos: el amigo (masculino
singular), la iglesia (femenino singular), lo correcto (singular neutro), los coches
(masculino plural), las calles (femenino plural).

3. Seala los artculos que van con cada sustantivo:

casas

libro

amigos

revista

4. Artculo indeterminado.

Es el que se pone delante de un sustantivo que no conocemos de antemano.

Sus formas son: un, una, unos y unas. Ejemplos: En casa tengo un libro
(singular masculino), he saludado a una vecina (femenino singular), vimos
volar a unos pjaros (masculino plural), me presentaron a unas nias (femenino
plural).

5. Seala el artculo indeterminado:

plural femenino

singular masculino

plural masculino

singular femenino

6. Artculo contracto.

Es la unin del artculo "el" y las preposiciones "a" y "del". Son al y del; "al"
por la unin de a + el y "del" por la unin de de + el. Ejemplos: voy al patio,
salgo del colegio.

7. Seala si estos artculos son determinado, indeterminados o contractos:

unas

al

los

del

los

un

8. Cacofona.

Si decimos "la guila" suena mal y por eso decimos "el guila".

La cacofona es un sonido desagradable que resulta de unir dos vocales

iguales. Los sustantivos femeninos en singular que empiezan por "a"
acentuada y por "ha acentuada con tilde o sin ella? llevan el artculo "el" para
evitar la cacofona.

Ejemplos: el guila, el agua, el rea, el hada, el hambre, el hacha.Ejemplo de

Artculo de opinin

Un artculo de opinin es un artculo en el cual la persona que lo escribe pone

sus perspectivas y sus razonamientos acerca de algn tema. Como los artculos
que escriben en alguna revista o las columnas que escriben personajes
celebres. En los artculos de opinin la responsabilidad cae en la persona que
escribe el artculo y no en la editorial que lo publica.

Ejemplo de artculo de opinin:

El uso de las redes sociales y el atraso escolar

Es innegable el beneficio que han trado consigo las redes sociales, en el

aspecto de la enorme facilidad que aportan para la comunicacin
intercontinental y el traslado en tiempo real de la informacin. Pero en los
ltimos aos han trado desordenes y hasta riesgos para los usuarios y para
quienes los rodean. Por principio, las nuevas generaciones, cada vez ms
obesas, no logran despegarse del asiento frente al monitor de su computadora,
otros no despegan sus dedos de sus celulares y blackberrys, perdiendo no solo

tiempo de interaccin real con humanos tangibles, especialmente sus

familiares, sino tambin postergando sus tareas y estudios por preferir seguir
obsesivamente la menor tontera que aparezca en alguna de esas redes
sociales, llegando en la mayora de los casos a caer en la compulsin y
obsesin, entonces se habla ya de adiccin a las redes sociales. Esta
enfermedad aumenta enormemente, y miles de personas pierden no solo
materias escolares, algunas el ao escolar por completo e incluso el trabajo,
cuando desatienden en su totalidad sus deberes por atender cualquier novedad
en las redes, aunque sea algo totalmente absurdo.

Por otra parte, tambin aumentan los casos de jvenes agredidos por otros
usuarios, quienes los acosan y suben fotos o videos humillantes de sus
incautas victimas, quienes las ms de las veces, dan informacin privada a
cualquiera que quiera interactuar con ellas, sin pensarlo antes, y solo se
enteran del video o foto, cuando otro conocido les manda la informacin. Es
entonces que se dan cuenta de su error, pero demasiado tarde: su imagen
esta daada y es casi imposible de borrar del Internet. Por eso es mejor usar
las redes sociales, solo para lo que fueron hechas, pero cuidando no caer en la
adiccin ni descuidar los estudios. Pueden ser muy entretenidas, pero al final,
existe el mundo real, y para sobrevivir en l se necesitan conocimientos reales,
fuera de la realidad virtual.

Autor: Vctor Humberto Clemenceau.

Espero les haya servido el artculo de opinin.4.8 El artculo de opinin

El artculo de opinin tiene una gran presencia en la prensa. En este tipo de
artculos se emiten opiniones concretas suscitadas por un tema de actualidad.

Las funciones del artculo son similares a las del editorial. En l se ofrecen
valoraciones, opiniones y anlisis sobre diversas noticias. A diferencia del
editorial, el artculo va firmado y representa la opinin particular de su autor.
En ocasiones, incluso esta opinin puede disentir manifiestamente de la
postura institucional del peridico expresada en sus editoriales. Otra diferencia
que debes tener en cuenta es que los temas tratados en los artculos pueden
ser mucho ms variados puesto que los editoriales slo abordan noticias que
poseen una gran relevancia.

La libertad expresiva de la que gozan los articulistas es casi total, desde luego
mucho mayor que la de los editorialistas. El articulista puede elegir el tono, la
perspectiva, la seriedad, etc, con la que piensa dirigirse a sus lectores,
mientras que el editorialista siempre est sometido en su escritura a cierta
solemnidad.

El artculo de opinin est estrechamente ligado al autor, por ello su

credibilidad y capacidad de influencia dependen del prestigio y autoridad que
merezca esa firma a los lectores.

Los artculos suelen tener una extensin entre las quinientas y las ochocientas
palabras y no tienen por qu ser escritos por periodistas. Cualquier otro
profesional puede expresarse mediante un artculo de opinin. Pero sean
periodistas o no, los articulistas suelen ser profesionales contrastados con
muchos aos de experiencia y una trayectoria conocida por la opinin pblica.

Podemos distinguir dos tipos de articulistas: los que abordan cualquier tema o
asunto de actualidad y publican sus artculos con una determinada
periodicidad, y los que publican, de forma peridica u ocasional, artculos
referidos a aquellos asuntos que pertenecen a su especialidad.

Dentro del artculo de opinin se pueden distinguir las columnas personales.

Las columnas son espacios reservados por los peridicos y revistas a escritores
de notable prestigio, con una periodicidad regular. La libertad expresiva en
estos casos es total con dos nicas limitaciones: el nmero de palabras
establecido por el peridico y la claridad debida a los lectores. Constituyen un
gnero hbrido entre la literatura y el periodismo.

El columnista debe reunir dos cualidades: un dominio virtuoso del lenguaje,

que materializa en un estilo propio, y una capacidad para ofrecer una
perspectiva nica y diferente sobre hechos conocidos que pertenecen a la
actualidad. El grado de complicidad que el columnista adquiere con sus
lectores es muy elevado. Espaa cuenta con magnficos columnistas que debes
leer; por citar algunos: Francisco Umbral, Maruja Torres, Vzquez Montalban,
Jaime Capmany, etc. Elige tus favoritos.

Lorenzo Goms, importante periodista y articulista, escribi: "Una columna

periodstica est llena de tiempo. Es un recuadro con tiempo dentro. Es una
botella como esas que se echan al mar, desde una isla, para que un barco que
pase la encuentre y lea el mensaje".