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Jonrnal of Southern African Studies 35 ( l ):
133-154.
CHAPTER 33
A Sense of Border
Sarah Green
In the ea rl y 1990s, there were always several s lightly dusty boys trying to sel l ca rto ns
of cigarettes to the drivers and passengers of the slow-moving traffic around the Greek
side of the Greek-Albani:rn border post at Kakavia, located at o ne of the spots where
nor thwestern mainland Greece meets southern Albania. The cartons were all marked
with familiar cigar ette brand names, mostly American, and they were sold for less
tl1an half the usual price of cigarettes in Greece. Everyone knew the tobacco in them
was harsh on the back of the throat, and that tl1ey contained random bits of plant
material that sometimes made the cigarettes spark and crackle, or develop a thick
twig of charcoal when smoked. The cartons had dearly made their way to Greece
from Albania; nobody asked where the boys had come from. They were the kinds of
people who always seemed to inhabit border crossing areas that were not subjected
to precise, hi ghly resourced, carefully organized and controlled policing and surveil·
lance practices. Borders that were slightly frayed at the edges in that sense allowed
spaces for people to do a bit of informal business, among other things.
Nowadays, almost 20 years later, things are different at Kakavia. The road has been
widened and renewed; there is a folly fledged duty-free shop, on both sides; the
queues arc smaller; lhere are li censed businesses selling refreshments and snacks by
the roadside; and the whole place has been tidied up. It has the appearance of a
proper border post in the view of the residents nearby - which is to say, it looks like
a place where bureaucratic procedures arc orderly rather than disorderly. There is
now much less random leakiness at this border: for the most part, the people and
goods that arc legally permitted to cross, do so; those tl1at are not legally permitted
to cross also sometimes get through, but not so openly in defiance of the rules, and
not co such a degree as had occurred in earlier years. There were no more dusty boys,
and the cigarettes for sale in the duty-free shop would only spark and crackle if you
bought the brands that advertised themselves as no-name brands: the design of the
box looks like a named brand, but they have a different name.
A Compa11io11 to Border Sn1dits, First Edition. Edited b)' Thomas M. Wilson and
Hastings Donnan.
© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2012 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.