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Self-Entrepreneurship, Trade Culture and Domestic Economy: A Social Radiography of the Sharshari Traders in Dire Dawa

Received: 18 May 2019     Accepted: 24 June 2019     Published: 23 August 2019
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Abstract

This paper is an ethnographic research that tried to study former women merchants who use to trade in between Dire Dawa and Djibouti including small towns along the Ethio-Djibouti railway stations. Moreover, the paper introduces women cross border traders locally known as Sharshari. Here, family, educational and economic background of the traders are revealed, some ambivalent conceptions of the society on Sharshari trader are seen and last but not the least the central position of women traders at domestic activities appraised. The research further describes the domestic economy of those traders who use to trade in between Dire Dawa, Ethiopia and the city of Djibouti, Djibouti republic. Methodologically the research is crafted qualitatively. The views of 10 informants that include women traders; train drivers, local elders and former labor workers of the Sharshari traders are incorporated. The methods of data collections are also diversified in a bid to get more reliable, cross checked and deep empirical evidences. Hence, methods like interviews, observations, informal conversation, focus group discussions and participant observations are used to inquire and grasp information that are best fitting to the objectives of this research. Using the above mentioned methods, the research has got the following findings. Here, Sharshari trans-local traders were prominent traders who used to trade commodities in small town between Dire Dawa and Djibouti. Majority of the traders are uneducated. Most of them have learned the business from their families who use to generate income through such trading activities between small towns in the above mentioned small towns. Since Sharshari are women in gender, they had to execute different activities in their respective household.

Published in Journal of Human Resource Management (Volume 7, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.jhrm.20190702.13
Page(s) 49-56
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2019. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Sharshari, Cross Local Trade, Domestic Responsibility and Self-entrepreneurship

References
[1] Shiferaw Bekele. 1987 Aspect of the History of Dire Dawa, 1902-1936. A Paper Presented at 4th Annual Seminar of the Department of History in Hawasa, July 8-12, 1978.
[2] Baldet, Henry. 1972 Urban Study of Dire Dawa. Unpublished MA Thesis, Addis Ababa University.
[3] Muzvidziwa, V. 2005 Women without Borders: Informal Cross Border Trade among Women in South African Development CommunityRegion. Addis Ababa: OSSREA.
[4] Toksanbaeva, M. 2001 The Social Vulnerability of Women. Problems of Economic Transitions, Vol. 43: Issue 9, pp 72-83.
[5] Boserup, E. 1970 Women’s Role in Economic Development. London: Earthscan Publisher.
[6] Lambert, Agnes. 1987 Une Alliance Tumultueuse: Les CommercantsMaliennes du Dakar- Niger et Les Agents del L’Etat Cahiers Des Science Humaines, Vol. 23: No. 1, pp 89-103.
[7] Bourdieu, P. 1985 The Social Space and the Genesis of Groups. Theory and Society, Vol. 14: No 6, pp 723-744.
[8] Mutopo, P. 2010 Women Trading in Food across the Zimbabwe – South Africa Border: Experience and Strategies. Gender and Development, Vol. 18: No. 3, pp 465-477. Retrieved from, http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cgde20.
[9] Muzvidziwa, V. 2001 Zimbabwe’s Cross Border Women Traders: Multiple Identities and Response to New Challenges. Journal of Contemporary Studies, Vol. 19: No1, pp 67-80.
[10] VerEecke, C. 1993 Muslim Women Traders of Northern Nigeria: Perspective from the City of Yola, Ethnology, 217-236.
[11] Phadungkiati, L. & Connell, J. 2014 Social Networks as Livelihood Strategies for Small Scale Trades on the Thai-Lao Border. Australian Geographer, Vol. 45: No 3, pp375-391. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cage20.
[12] Lewellen, T. C. 2003 Gender and Power in Political Anthropology: An Introduction (3rded.). Praeger: Westport and London.
[13] Grey-Johnson, C. 1992 The African Informal Sector at the Cross Roads: Emerging policy Options. African Development, Vol. 18, No 1. Pp 65-91.
[14] Rosaldo, Michellez. 1974 Women Culture and Society: A Theoretical Overview. In Michellez Z. Rosaldo and Louis Lamphere (eds.). Women, Culture and Society. Stanford: Stanford University press.
[15] Bourdieu, P. 1989 Social Space and Symbolic Power. Sociological Theory, Vol. 17: No. 1, pp 14-25.
[16] Gaidzanwa, R. B. 1998 Cross Border Trade in Southern Africa: a Gendered Perspective. Harare: Sapes Book.
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  • APA Style

    Tensay Hailu, Desta Tegegne. (2019). Self-Entrepreneurship, Trade Culture and Domestic Economy: A Social Radiography of the Sharshari Traders in Dire Dawa. Journal of Human Resource Management, 7(2), 49-56. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jhrm.20190702.13

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    ACS Style

    Tensay Hailu; Desta Tegegne. Self-Entrepreneurship, Trade Culture and Domestic Economy: A Social Radiography of the Sharshari Traders in Dire Dawa. J. Hum. Resour. Manag. 2019, 7(2), 49-56. doi: 10.11648/j.jhrm.20190702.13

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    AMA Style

    Tensay Hailu, Desta Tegegne. Self-Entrepreneurship, Trade Culture and Domestic Economy: A Social Radiography of the Sharshari Traders in Dire Dawa. J Hum Resour Manag. 2019;7(2):49-56. doi: 10.11648/j.jhrm.20190702.13

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  • @article{10.11648/j.jhrm.20190702.13,
      author = {Tensay Hailu and Desta Tegegne},
      title = {Self-Entrepreneurship, Trade Culture and Domestic Economy: A Social Radiography of the Sharshari Traders in Dire Dawa},
      journal = {Journal of Human Resource Management},
      volume = {7},
      number = {2},
      pages = {49-56},
      doi = {10.11648/j.jhrm.20190702.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jhrm.20190702.13},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jhrm.20190702.13},
      abstract = {This paper is an ethnographic research that tried to study former women merchants who use to trade in between Dire Dawa and Djibouti including small towns along the Ethio-Djibouti railway stations. Moreover, the paper introduces women cross border traders locally known as Sharshari. Here, family, educational and economic background of the traders are revealed, some ambivalent conceptions of the society on Sharshari trader are seen and last but not the least the central position of women traders at domestic activities appraised. The research further describes the domestic economy of those traders who use to trade in between Dire Dawa, Ethiopia and the city of Djibouti, Djibouti republic. Methodologically the research is crafted qualitatively. The views of 10 informants that include women traders; train drivers, local elders and former labor workers of the Sharshari traders are incorporated. The methods of data collections are also diversified in a bid to get more reliable, cross checked and deep empirical evidences. Hence, methods like interviews, observations, informal conversation, focus group discussions and participant observations are used to inquire and grasp information that are best fitting to the objectives of this research. Using the above mentioned methods, the research has got the following findings. Here, Sharshari trans-local traders were prominent traders who used to trade commodities in small town between Dire Dawa and Djibouti. Majority of the traders are uneducated. Most of them have learned the business from their families who use to generate income through such trading activities between small towns in the above mentioned small towns. Since Sharshari are women in gender, they had to execute different activities in their respective household.},
     year = {2019}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Self-Entrepreneurship, Trade Culture and Domestic Economy: A Social Radiography of the Sharshari Traders in Dire Dawa
    AU  - Tensay Hailu
    AU  - Desta Tegegne
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    JF  - Journal of Human Resource Management
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    AB  - This paper is an ethnographic research that tried to study former women merchants who use to trade in between Dire Dawa and Djibouti including small towns along the Ethio-Djibouti railway stations. Moreover, the paper introduces women cross border traders locally known as Sharshari. Here, family, educational and economic background of the traders are revealed, some ambivalent conceptions of the society on Sharshari trader are seen and last but not the least the central position of women traders at domestic activities appraised. The research further describes the domestic economy of those traders who use to trade in between Dire Dawa, Ethiopia and the city of Djibouti, Djibouti republic. Methodologically the research is crafted qualitatively. The views of 10 informants that include women traders; train drivers, local elders and former labor workers of the Sharshari traders are incorporated. The methods of data collections are also diversified in a bid to get more reliable, cross checked and deep empirical evidences. Hence, methods like interviews, observations, informal conversation, focus group discussions and participant observations are used to inquire and grasp information that are best fitting to the objectives of this research. Using the above mentioned methods, the research has got the following findings. Here, Sharshari trans-local traders were prominent traders who used to trade commodities in small town between Dire Dawa and Djibouti. Majority of the traders are uneducated. Most of them have learned the business from their families who use to generate income through such trading activities between small towns in the above mentioned small towns. Since Sharshari are women in gender, they had to execute different activities in their respective household.
    VL  - 7
    IS  - 2
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Social Anthropology, Wolaita Sodo University, Sodo, Ethiopia

  • Department of Civic and Ethical Studies, Wolaita Sodo University, Sodo, Ethiopia

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