Maliba African Market Corp., located at 1983 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd., New York, NY 10026-1215, stands as a testament to the rich cultural and commercial ties between Africa and the United States. This market, however, has recently faced scrutiny from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
On August 18 to August 25, 2022, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted a Foreign Supplier Verification Program (FSVP) inspection of Maliba African Market Corp. We also conducted an inspection from June 10 to July 2, 2021. During the most recent inspection, we found that you are not in compliance with the requirements of 21 CFR part 1, subpart L for the foods you import. At the conclusion of the most recent inspection, our investigator provided you with a Form FDA 483a FSVP Observations.
The FDA's inspection revealed non-compliance with food safety standards, specifically concerning the development, maintenance, and adherence to a Foreign Supplier Verification Program (FSVP) as required by section 805 of the FD&C Act and 21 CFR 1.502(a). The market was given an opportunity to address these concerns and provide documentation of corrective actions. Failure to adequately address these issues could lead to further action, including refusal of admission of imported foods and placement on detention without physical examination (DWPE).
This letter notifies you of our concerns and provides you an opportunity to address them. If you do not adequately address this matter, we may take further action. 381(a)(3)) to refuse admission of the food you import for which you appear to be in violation of section 805. We may place the foods you import into the United States on detention without physical examination (DWPE) when you import the foods.
Despite these challenges, Maliba African Market remains a vital cultural and economic link, offering a range of authentic African products to the community in New York.
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A Glimpse into Traditional African Marketplaces
African cities and villages were already humming with marketplaces long before supermarkets and shopping centres existed. Ancient Africa had bustling marketplaces. People travelled great distances to exchange goods. There would be shouting, drumming, and laughter. Wide-eyed, children would run around while their parents bargained over prices.
Imagine strolling through an old African marketplace, a vibrant hub of activity and exchange. Ever pondered what it would have been like to stroll through an old African marketplace?
Local products included leather, fish, pottery, and yams. Others, like horses from North Africa or silk from Asia, arrived from far away. Famous trade cities like Timbuktu, Kano, and Gao were known for their grand markets. These were important centres of learning and culture too, so books, scrolls, and knowledge were part of the trade.
Even smaller villages had weekly markets that brought people together. Africa was able to connect with the outside world through these locations.In the marketplace, people celebrated holidays, exchanged news, and occasionally even resolved disputes. In addition to fostering cross-cultural interaction and elevating the reputations of African cities for their rich traditions, these meetings allowed ideas, inventions, and cultures to spread as readily as commodities.
These marketplaces shaped African goods and trade history for centuries by creating robust communities and strong empires. And the best part? If you could walk through an ancient African market, what’s the first thing you’d look for?
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These locations served as vital hubs for social interaction, economic exchange, and the dissemination of knowledge, shaping the continent's history and culture for centuries.
To understand the significance of marketplaces in Africa, let's explore some specific examples and their unique characteristics.
Mali and Senegal: A Tale of Two Markets
The neighboring countries Mali and Senegal are located in the northwest portion of West Africa. In the east Senegal is bounded by the extensive country of Mali, the capital of which is Bamako. These countries have in common the fact that they both were part of the French colonial empire.
There has always been active mutual trade between the peoples of Mali and Senegal. This becomes evident as soon as one visits the markets in the two countries. Each country has its own specialties, but the overwhelming majority of products on offer are the same.
The railway running between Dakar and Bamako ensures that this two-way trade continues. The port of Dakar makes the city important for the export and import of trade goods. Goods spread out from here to the shops and markets of the whole region.
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The railway transports goods to Bamako, while freight trucks, bush taxis, and boats along the River Niger carry them further out to the villages.
Put simply, a marketplace is where sellers and buyers meet. In Mali and Senegal there are markets of every size and shape. Most of the larger markets are located in the cities and can extend over large areas. The village markets are smaller.
The market is a meeting place for different groups of people. In the large, daily city markets one encounters young and old, men and women, rich and poor, city dwellers and villagers, itinerant traders from neighbouring countries, and tourists. And they bring different ideas and thoughts into the markets.
A whole series of social exchanges takes place in the course of buying and selling in the marketplace. New acquaintances are formed here, and friendships are renewed. Information circulates among some of the participants about prices and the availability of goods.
A village market draws together people from different villages and ethnic groups. Here too, as in the city, there is a meeting of young and old, men and women. People use market day to exchange information of many different kinds. The market is a great opportunity to drink beer together, for those who so desire.
There are also possibilities for flirting with those one does not see on a daily basis.
At first glance, the vast city markets can appear to be chaotic and labyrinthine places. When one looks a little more closely, however, one discovers that order reigns over this chaos. A market can be divided into zones on the basis of the type of goods for sale.
In a certain zone one finds stall after stall with cotton cloth. The next zone contains used books for sale, and, after this, there are stalls where religious articles like prayer beads, prayer hats and religious texts are sold.
Some markets can be divided according to where the sellers come from, or to which ethnic minority they belong. Another alternative is that sellers from a particular part of the country, and also possibly from one ethnic group, might dominate a market. A market can be distinguished by being composed completely of women sellers, or by men only.
A marketplace can be located indoors, outdoors, or both, like Sandaga Market in Dakar. In this market, food and spices are sold indoors, protected from the sunlight, while clothes and other goods are for sale outside in stalls along the streets.
The largest market in Bamako is located in the city's most crowded and traffic-ridden street, and there are only a few centimetres for shoppers between the stalls and the traffic. The market overflows into large parts of the centre of Bamako, and people even have stalls on the city's railway line. At first glance it is difficult to see that one is standing right between two railway tracks, until suddenly the train toots, and chaos breaks out as people are forced to take their goods down from the rail line to other areas that are already full of sellers.
The vast city markets overflow into the streets.
The majority of villages have a market day at least once a week. Some markets follow a three- or five-day cycle, others, a weekly cycle. The marketplace can be an open square in the centre or on the outskirts of the village, or it can be a built structure of wooden poles with a thatched roof.
Even if there is not a market every day, it is usual that some people use the place to sell things on non-market days. But only on market days is the place packed with people and goods.
There are daily markets in the cities, but on Fridays there are many who close their stalls in order to take part in the Friday prayers.
It is not unusual to hear that in cities like Dakar and Bamako people are afraid of the marketplaces after nightfall. Many of the city's "crazies", together with down-and-outers, street children and prostitutes, use the markets as a place to live. But it is also said that evil spirits dwell there. Could it be these spirits protect the stalls of the sellers?
These markets are not just places of commerce; they are social and cultural hubs where people from different backgrounds come together to exchange goods, information, and ideas.
TRADITIONAL LOCAL FOOD MARKET SHOPPING IN GHANA TEMA, AFRICA
Sandaga Market: A Case Study
Sandaga is Dakar's largest market and is located right in the heart of the city which today contains nearly two million people. Sandaga was originally a food and textile market and continues to be known to have the country's - and maybe also the region's - best choice of textile materials.
Sandaga Market has had an enormous growth and prosperity during the past ten years. There is nothing that one cannot buy in this market, at least if one is willing to buy used goods or copies. The Sahel-style main building where the food market is located almost disappears in the mass of sellers' stalls, people and boisterous traffic in the surrounding narrow streets. Nevertheless, whoever takes a tour inside through the half-light to buy food will be assailed by pungent odours.
The majority of the sellers in Sandaga come from a region in Senegal called Baol. The people are thus called Baol-Baol, but are perhaps best known for belonging to the Mouridian Muslim brotherhood.
The Mourides of Senegal are thrifty, hardworking traders who have managed to build up a worldwide trading network with its centre in the Sandaga Market, even though the majority have little or no formal education. Today Mourides from Senegal live all over the world.
The success of the Mourides in recent years, with the help of their global trade network (and this more or less lawful), is due to their ability to import goods they can sell in Sandaga at prices lower than in Dakar's shops. This applies in particular to textiles, electronic equipment, and cosmetics, but is also applicable to other imported goods.
On the streets of New York the Mourides sell copies of Rolex watches and Ray-Ban sunglasses. What they derive by way of profit is invested in cheap electronics that are then shipped to Dakar.
Sandaga operates as a distribution centre for imported goods. The spiritual centre of the Mourides is the small city of Touba in the heart of Baol. Large parts of their economic profits are fed back into Touba and ensure that city growth is greater here than anywhere else in Senegal.
There are those who consider that Touba, and not Dakar, is the real power centre of Senegal due to the fact that the Mourides' network ensures that economic profits go to the Muslim chieftains of Touba, rather than to the state. Others praise the Mourides as innovative entrepreneurs who have managed to put to use their worldwide contacts in the service of local goals.
The Mourides have a strong solidarity, and it is said that, internally, they engage in money lending without the necessity of written contracts. But the competition is tough, and many of the traders in Sandaga have agreements with young boys who work as decoys to get the tourists who are wandering through the market to visit their stalls in particular. In return, these "guides" receive a small portion of the sale.
Sandaga Market exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit and global connections of African traders, particularly the Mourides, who have built a worldwide trading network centered in this bustling marketplace.
The market's vibrant atmosphere and diverse offerings make it a must-visit destination for anyone interested in experiencing the heart of Dakar's commercial and cultural life.
Sandaga Market in Dakar
The Lebanese Influence in West African Markets
The first Lebanese arrived in West Africa more than a century ago. Following lines of kinship from the first wave of Lebanese settlement, many others migrated into the region. There was a particularly great influx between the two World Wars, when Lebanon was under the mandate of France, and the Lebanese could now count on protection in those areas of West Africa that were part of the French colonial empire. Senegal in particular accepted many during this period. Later, the civil war in Lebanon created a new increase in migration to West Africa.
The first Lebanese immigrants made their livings to a large degree as small retailers. In the period between the World Wars many Lebanese worked themselves into positions as middlemen between local farmers and European import-export firms. They bought up small quantities of agricultural products for wider resale and imported textiles to sell in their own shops. Others went into the transport sector. Following World War II, they moved into more varied forms of trade. This might be trade in gold and diamonds or producing plastics, cosmetics or building materials.
Many Lebanese went into the service sector and invested in hotels, restaurants, pharmacies, insurance or service stations. For the most part however, their enterprises remained family firms.
The majority of the Lebanese who came to the region in the 1920s were Christians, while those who came from southern Lebanon following the outbreak of war in 1975 for the most part were Shia Muslims.
Lebanese frequently maintain contact with their homeland, and many return to spend their old age there.
The relationship between Lebanese and Africans is marked by dichotomy. On one hand, the Lebanese tend to be respected for contributing to the development of the infrastructure, for their desire to respect local customs and to master a local language. On the other hand, their wellbeing and political influence are not very popular among Africans. Among other things, the tense and unequal situation is expressed by the fact that one finds only a very limited number of marriages between Lebanese and Africans.
