Entrepreneurialism and innovation among Cameroonian street vendors in Cape Town

ABSTRACT

Following the economic destabilization that resulted from the implementation of structural adjustment programmes, many young Cameroonians decided to leave their country to find ways to make a living abroad. These migrants often arrived in host countries with expectations of settling in and getting by, with scant knowledge of and little regard for the challenges that awaited them. This article focuses on migrants’ economic activities, particularly street vending, to understand how young Cameroonians in Cape Town, South Africa, improvise and negotiate a living for themselves through entrepreneurial economic activities. Using a ‘life history’ approach, which provides qualitative biographical accounts and emphasizes the experiences of individuals, this article examines these migrants’ entrepreneurial activities as they try to overcome the crisis they are facing and generate income for themselves and their families back home. Straddling economic hardship, they creatively reinvent and reposition their businesses, with some, as this article shows, eventually becoming transnational entrepreneurs.

KEYWORDS:

• Street vendors
• cultural entrepreneurship
• pitching
• innovations
• crisis
• South Africa

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. In Cape Town, there are over 160 Pinyin migrants judging from those enlisted in the hometown associations. The village group of Pinyin has an approximate population of 43,000.

2. I knew most interviewees from my PhD research. The interviews were conducted in English and Pidgin English depending on what language the informant was comfortable with. Often, conversations at business locations were in Pidgin English and recorded interviews at the informants’ homes were in English, with the exception of two informants who preferred Pidgin English. All names used are pseudonyms.

3. For comprehensive analysis of ‘bushfalling’, see Alpes (2012, 2014) and Nyamnjoh (2011).

4. He assists migrants with moving houses; the fees vary depending on the distance.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Henrietta M. Nyamnjoh

Henrietta Nyamnjoh is a researcher with UKRI-GCRF Funded South-South Migration, Inequality and Development Hub at the University of Cape Town. Her research interests include migration and mobility, transnational studies and migration and health. Additionally, she is interested in understanding religion in the context of migration. Henrietta has researched and published on migrants' appropriation of Information and Communication Technologies, migrants' Hometown Associations and migrants' everyday lives.