Papers, Faxes, and Sacks of Rice

Since the 1980s, West African migrants have developed systems allowing them to pay in France for food products that are delivered to their families in their villages of origin. This article analyzes the way one such transnational circuit has been working in the long-run, and examines the current challenges it faces. Using “fax-marchandises”, also called the “cooperative”, allows male migrants to fulfill their social obligation to provide for their families back home; it further contributes to consolidating one of the institutions of the transnational village. Borrowing tools from economic ethnography, we examine the workings of these in-kind transfers and delineate the whole circuit that allows for credit and anticipation, thus highlighting the way these two dimensions (fulfilling a socially-defined role at family-level and contributing to a village-based institution) intertwine.