ABSTRACT
Based on an analysis of Nigerian newspapers and oral-history interviews with Chinese enamelware technicians, Nigerian enamelware traders, handicrafts people, and consumers, this chapter explores the social and economic meanings of Chinese-made enamelware in northern Nigeria from the late colonial period to the 1990s. Between the 1950s and the 1990s, Chinese enamelware products dominated kitchens, living rooms, and bedrooms in the northern part of Nigeria. These were initially imported from China by European trading firms but later manufactured in Nigeria by Chinese-owned factories. This chapter concludes that it was not only the immediately obvious “modern” advantages of the enamelware that enabled it to dominate northern Nigeria’s market, but it was also its integration into local, socio-cultural networks of meaning that granted it a significance far beyond its practical use. Such processes of integration further enabled enamelware to become an important component of local marriage customs and an essential possession for Hausa women.
