ABSTRACT
The “Mama Benzes” of West Africa are often regarded by the West as striking examples of African rags-to-riches stories, of African women triumphing against the odds, and thus of Africa’s capacity to self-develop. Robert Press and Betty Press, for example, consider the Mama Benzes of Lome, Togo, success stories of “personal freedom” in post-independence Africa (1999, 296). They and other Western reporters spotlight Madame Sanvee, the “queen of the Mama Benz,” who started as “a spindly-legged 8-yearold hawking cigarettes and perfume on the streets of” Lome (Brooke 1987, 8; see also Mahoney 1990).
