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Journal of African trips

Africa, spring 1999 part III

Agelasto
2004-05-21 18:12:22

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take an entire day to fill up with passengers. Also, the drivers prefer to drive in the
dark in order to avoid inspections. During an average trip, a long distance taxi is stopped
usually about once every hour by an official of one type or another. Sometimes a man in
uniform blows a whistle or waves a baton. He checks for travel documents, which in my
case includes the yellow fever certificate. If someone lacks the correct papers, a fine (or a
bribe depending on one?s perspective) can usually be paid on the spot. Sometimes there?s
an official looking road block. These usually occur on the outskirts of large towns, the
type that are large enough to be represented on my map (only 35 towns in all of Guinea,
which has a total population of 7 million; this is a very rural country!). At these
inspections, the officials look at the cargo. They don?t care about personal belongings or
individual consumer items. But for anything that looks commercial in nature (e.g., bolts of
cloth, bundles of plastic sandals, liters of cooking oil), the owners must produce certificates indicating they have paid customs duty. The catch is that paying customs duty
in most West African countries is a real hassle, usually requiring company registration - a
delay that is not days or weeks, but rather months - and a trip to the capital city in
advance of each trip for which goods are to be transported. Thus, most businessmen and
businesswomen (in bush taxis the latter outnumber the former) do not bother getting the
necessary certificates. They are not doing this primarily in order to avoid fees, but rather
to avoid bureaucratic delays. At these roadside inspections (which function mostly only
during daylight) the business people pay the duty and a small fine for the goods they
transport. That?s the way it should work. More often than not, the inspector just looks at
the taxi and tells the driver ...