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Money Has No Smell: The Africanization of New York City
In February 1999 the tragic New York City police shooting of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed street vendor from Guinea, brought into focus the existence of West African merchants in urban America. In Money Has No Smell, Paul Stoller offers us a more complete portrait of the complex lives of West African immigrants like Diallo, a portrait based on years of research Stoller conducted on the streets of New York City during the 1990s.
Blending fascinating ethnographic description with incisive social analysis, Stoller shows how these savvy West African entrepreneurs have built cohesive and effective multinational trading networks, in part through selling a simulated Africa to African Americans. These and other networks set up by the traders, along with their faith as devout Muslims, help them cope with the formidable state regulations and personal challenges they face in America. As Stoller demonstrates, the stories of these West African traders illustrate and illuminate ongoing debates about globalization, the informal economy, and the changing nature of American communities.
Blending fascinating ethnographic description with incisive social analysis, Stoller shows how these savvy West African entrepreneurs have built cohesive and effective multinational trading networks, in part through selling a simulated Africa to African Americans. These and other networks set up by the traders, along with their faith as devout Muslims, help them cope with the formidable state regulations and personal challenges they face in America. As Stoller demonstrates, the stories of these West African traders illustrate and illuminate ongoing debates about globalization, the informal economy, and the changing nature of American communities.
232 pages, Paperback
First published April 15, 2002
About the author
Paul Stoller
30 books47 followersPaul Stoller is an anthropologist and novelist who teaches anthropology at West Chester University. He has conducted ethnographic research in the Republic of Niger in West Africa and among West African immigrants in New York City. His books, novels and memoirs are attempts to convey the wisdom of African systems of thought. He is currently doing research on family life among West African immigrants in New York City and is at work on a new novel, The Sorcerer's Burden and a new work of non-fiction, The Business of Social Relations: Global Resilience Among West Africans in the World. His most recent book, The Power of the Bertween: An Anthropological Odyssey was published in December 2008 by The University of Chicago Press. Paul has a new website, paulstoller.com which up and running.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 27, 2026
this book made me believe in anthropology
August 7, 2013
Well, I loved Paul Stoller's "In Sorcery's Shadow", and that ethnography was written a good ten years before this one... So, let's see if time has helped Stoller's pen and see if he can manage a perfect five this time...
...
... Or not.
For fans of Sorcerys Shadow, this will be a real disappointment. It is the driest, most uninspired book I've ever read. It reads as a simple text book, with none of the flavor or zest of the previous text.
Money Has No Smell tells he story of the Africanization of New York City. Basically what that means is that it follows the lives of West African traders living on the streets as vendors in Harlem and the surrounding areas. While this sounds promising, what it becomes is simply the summarized events of many peoples lives.
Heavy on the summary. One of the charms of Sorcerys Shadow was it's tendency to recount actual dialog within it's pages. This lead to people telling their stories in their own words, which made what would have been very dry very interesting. You get to know the people and care about them. That doesn't happen here. It drones on forever. You will find yourself reading pages and pages and forgetting what you read seconds later.
It does have some wonderful data on Afrocentrism, and it's effect on the activities of the traders, historical figures like Malcolm X, and even the commercialization of events such as Kwanzaa. Sadly, most of the information presented could have been acquired on Wikipedia. And been more interesting.
1/5. Some might call that harsh. I mean, it IS what an ethnography. It is the way a scientific anthropological study should read... Not an excuse, especially following Stoller's previous offerings. A good text book should make you want to read. This fails to teach and fails to interest. Absolute fail.
...
... Or not.
For fans of Sorcerys Shadow, this will be a real disappointment. It is the driest, most uninspired book I've ever read. It reads as a simple text book, with none of the flavor or zest of the previous text.
Money Has No Smell tells he story of the Africanization of New York City. Basically what that means is that it follows the lives of West African traders living on the streets as vendors in Harlem and the surrounding areas. While this sounds promising, what it becomes is simply the summarized events of many peoples lives.
Heavy on the summary. One of the charms of Sorcerys Shadow was it's tendency to recount actual dialog within it's pages. This lead to people telling their stories in their own words, which made what would have been very dry very interesting. You get to know the people and care about them. That doesn't happen here. It drones on forever. You will find yourself reading pages and pages and forgetting what you read seconds later.
It does have some wonderful data on Afrocentrism, and it's effect on the activities of the traders, historical figures like Malcolm X, and even the commercialization of events such as Kwanzaa. Sadly, most of the information presented could have been acquired on Wikipedia. And been more interesting.
1/5. Some might call that harsh. I mean, it IS what an ethnography. It is the way a scientific anthropological study should read... Not an excuse, especially following Stoller's previous offerings. A good text book should make you want to read. This fails to teach and fails to interest. Absolute fail.
August 20, 2015
An anthropologist embeds himself in the community of West African "traders" (street vendors) operating in NY in the 1990's and documents their lives, businesses, relationships, and networks. This is one of the better social science works I've read about African immigrants in America, largely because of the depth and texture of observation.
I thought some of the theoretical framework fell flat- I'm not sure there's any real value in using Baudrillard to explain how African vendors simulate African-ness for African-American customers or how selling knock-off apparel and bootleg videos works. Some of the descriptions of immigration law are wrong and probably would have been best omitted. And I thought Stoller forced the cultural continuity argument a bit: yes, many of the Fulani and Hausa vendors come from family traditions of trading and selling in African markets, but Stoller doesn't address the many street vendors who were middle-class professionals in Africa and have reinvented themselves in the US due to labor market conditions. And make no mistake, despite some of the cover blurbs, this is a book about street vendors, not African immigrants in general- there are, for example, virtually no women present.
But that specificity is precisely what makes this book interesting and useful. The book's account of the fight in the 1990's between the vendors and Giuliani about shutting down the 125th Street "African market" and relocating it to 116th Street (where it is now), is an important piece of NY's urban history, as seen by some of its participants. And I really appreciated how Stoller depicted the intricacy of the family, personal, and business networks of West African vendors, demonstrating the complex transactions behind something as simple as a West African man selling shea butter or CDs on the street.
I thought some of the theoretical framework fell flat- I'm not sure there's any real value in using Baudrillard to explain how African vendors simulate African-ness for African-American customers or how selling knock-off apparel and bootleg videos works. Some of the descriptions of immigration law are wrong and probably would have been best omitted. And I thought Stoller forced the cultural continuity argument a bit: yes, many of the Fulani and Hausa vendors come from family traditions of trading and selling in African markets, but Stoller doesn't address the many street vendors who were middle-class professionals in Africa and have reinvented themselves in the US due to labor market conditions. And make no mistake, despite some of the cover blurbs, this is a book about street vendors, not African immigrants in general- there are, for example, virtually no women present.
But that specificity is precisely what makes this book interesting and useful. The book's account of the fight in the 1990's between the vendors and Giuliani about shutting down the 125th Street "African market" and relocating it to 116th Street (where it is now), is an important piece of NY's urban history, as seen by some of its participants. And I really appreciated how Stoller depicted the intricacy of the family, personal, and business networks of West African vendors, demonstrating the complex transactions behind something as simple as a West African man selling shea butter or CDs on the street.
August 10, 2012
A fascinating, but often repetitive account of West African merchants in New York City and the intersection of their home culture, language, customs, and religion with "American-ness." For Africa-philes, or anyone who has lived in West Africa (I have) or New York City (I haven't), this book is a good read.
October 24, 2011
I had to read this for a cultural anthropology class. It isnt the type of book I would read on my own, but it was interesting!
February 19, 2013
for lovers of african culture...enjoy!
August 20, 2013
I was disappointed in this book. There could have been so much more but in the end it seemed that it just went into circles, small circles at that.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews