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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Initial Establishment of the Lebanese Community in Côte d'Ivoire, ca. 1925-1945
Author:Bierwirth, ChrisISNI
Year:1997
Periodical:International Journal of African Historical Studies
Volume:30
Issue:2
Pages:325-348
Language:English
Geographic term:Ivory Coast - Côte d'Ivoire
Subjects:Lebanese
mercantile history
Ethnic and Race Relations
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
History and Exploration
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/221231
Abstract:The first wave of Lebanese immigrants to Côte d'Ivoire, arriving between the early 1920s and the beginning of the Second World War, was made up mostly of young men who had come to West Africa in search of new economic opportunities. Short of funds and credit, the earliest Lebanese immigrants necessarily traded in relatively inexpensive traditional commodities. At these lowest levels of commerce, they had only marginal contact with the 'grandes sociétés', the large European commercial firms which dealt in manufactured imports and cash crop exports. As they managed to accumulate capital reserves, Lebanese entrepreneurs were able to expand their enterprises and, significantly, to move up the commercial scale into the middle levels of trade. In the 1930s they became true intermediaries, trading directly with the large import-export houses, and competing with the independent European merchants. During the years of the Great Depression, Lebanese immigrants began to displace many of the Europeans who had occupied the middle tiers of intermediate trade, which prompted a great deal of resentment from these 'petits blancs'. The Lebanese were successful because they offered cost-effective advantages to the large expatriate firms, and because they developed better relationships with the indigenous African peoples who formed the economic base of colonial society. Notes, ref.
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