Aiming to contribute to emerging research on the relationship between urbanism and logistics, this paper analyses the impact of both new infrastructures and facilities and  regulatory and institutional changes on the routines of truck drivers operating in Chad’s capital city. Located on the border with Cameroon, N’Djamena remains Chad’s main transport hub. The various layers of the city’s logistics apparatus and its embeddedness in international, regional and national trade and transport networks result from a long historical process, whose broad lines the paper sketches. However, the focus is placed on the period of unprecedented infrastructural investment that began with the birth of the country’s oil economy in the early 2000s. Drawing on ethnographic observations and interviews, I reflect on how variously situated truck drivers have experienced a series of developments ranging from the municipal restrictions on daytime driving or the insecurity associated with the rise of Boko Haram to the construction of a new international bridge over the Logone river in late 2012 or the recent expansion of the city’s dry port.

Conectez vous pour accéder au texte complet