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

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.