This paper is concerned with the material and social transformation of a German ambulance car into a Ghanaian minibus—called tro-tros in Ghana. We track the journey of a Mercedes Benz 310 from Winnenden in Germany to Kumasi in Ghana and examine the transformation of Rettungswagen 7/83–2 to tro-tro Dr. JESUS. Tracing the car's geobiography enables us to explore a specific material relation between Europe and West Africa. Considering debates on technology transfer and transformation, we argue for a nuanced understanding of ‘fluid technologies’ that includes opportunities but also emphasises the dangers implicated in the transfer and transformation of objects. Furthermore, by locating the reused bus within international trade in discarded objects, we introduce the notion of ‘provincialising waste’ to underline changing uses and values of objects. In this paper we suggest that careful attention needs to be paid to the ambivalent geobiographies of secondhand objects.
Regional Integration outside of Europe is often understood as a story of the deficient adaptation of European concepts and institutions. The background of this perception is the eurocentric idea that Europe is the sole model and yardstick fer ather integration processes. This view also includes the presumption that the history of European integration was a father isolated process. ' In order to avoid such a eurocentric bias this article applies the concept of 'Entangled Histories' and analyses the histories ofEuropean and West African regional integration not as separated but as intertwined processes. Still, those processes are embedded in relations of unequal power. The historical analysis shows that the colonial heritage had a strong infiuence on both the European as the West African integration projects. The mutual influences are particularly dem: with regard to the creation of the Economic Community ofWest African States (ECOWAS) as the only enduring West African integration project that transcends the colonial boundaries of anglophone and francophone countries. At the same time, the analysis illustrates that the role the EEC played in West African integration processes was decisively shaped by European power politics. Particularly France was able to form the attitude of the European Community in compliance with its own geopolitical interests. These politics hindered a sustainable overcoming of the colonial boundaries in West Afric.an integration. Therefore. one can hardly describe the European Community as a promoter of regional integration in West Africa. Im Sommer 2007 hielt der französische Staatspräsident Nicholas Sarkozy an der Universität von Dakar eine Rede an die afrikanische Jugend, in der er neben recht kontrovers diskutierten Äußerungen zur französischen Kolonialvergangenheit auch Stellung zu seinem Projekt der Mittelmeerunion bezog: A ceux qui, en Afrique, regardent avec mefiance ce grand projet de I'Union Mediterraneenne que la France a propose a tous les pays riverains de la Mediterranee, je veux dire que, dans l'esprit de la France, il ne s'agit nullement de mettre a l' 6eart l' Afrique, qui s' etend au sud du Sahara mais, qu'au contraire, il s'agit de faire de cette Union le pivot de I'Eurafrique, la premiere etape du plus grand rove de paix et de prosperite qu 'Europeens et Africains sont capables de concevoir ensemble.! Nicolas Sarkozy, Rede vom 26. 7.2007 an der Universität Dakar. http://www.elysee.fr/elysee/elysee.fr/ francaislinterventionsI2007/juilletJallocutioß_a_Luniversi te_de_dakar. 79184.html (zuletzt aufgerufen am 3. 2. 2008).
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