Daniel K. Thompson’s Smugglers, Speculators, and the City in the Ethiopia–Somalia Borderlands explores the changes in the social and cultural economy in Jigjiga, Ethiopia through the perspectives of cross-border traders, urban businesspeople and government officials. Drawing on oral interviews, field notes and participant observation, Thompson shows how urbanites near the Ethiopia–Somali border are engaged in borderwork and how this borderwork influences city life. He examines local and transnational connections to show how the construction of border security and urban inequality are intertwined. Thompson argues that ‘the link between urban life and border management regimes runs through people’s everyday efforts to manage relationships and that this relationship management is significantly oriented around material transactions as people work to move across space and to circulate resources across securitized borders’ (p. 7). He does this to demonstrate ‘how everyday norms of reciprocity in what Jigjigan Somalis call the cultural economy (dhaqan-dhaqaalaha) work in contradictory ways to reinforce new border securitization strategies and emerging urban inequalities’ (p. 7).

The book has six chapters as well as an introduction and conclusion. Thompson’s introduction explains the objectives of the book and where the research fits into the broader academic literature; he writes that ‘arguments in this book suggest that a view of African borders as sites for managing belonging and connection is incomplete without an understanding of urban life’ (p. 21). The first chapter looks at urban borderwork by studying how smuggling across the Ethiopia–Somalia border establishes groups of mutual interests. Engaged in participant observation, Thompson argues that ‘economic rationalities take shape in context-specific ways among embodied and emplaced actors’, which ‘challenges assumptions that individualistic materialism is the fundamental force behind business people’s efforts to exchange and distribute resources’ (p. 55). The second chapter examines the experiences of Jigjiga Somali traders across borders and checkpoints by exploring the lives, motivations and activities that smugglers engage in daily. Thompson explains that, ‘from the Jigjigan merchants’ perspectives, what it means to be Somali in Ethiopia today is not just about religious divisions or the ethnic politics of federalism’, but is ‘more tangibly in day-to-day life, about moralities of solidarity and reciprocity in the kontarabaan [contraband] economy’ (p. 62).

The third chapter historicizes borderland urbanization regarding urban merchants’ inter-ethnic cooperation by looking at perspectives about identity and economic culture. Thompson argues that expectations of transactability shape Somali boundaries in Ethiopia, noting how Jigjiga’s Somali business actors engage in actions that affirm and transgress social boundaries. Building from this, the fourth chapter looks at border securitization and trade regulation in the context of Ethiopian federalism. Thompson shows how ‘border securitization is not just an issue of topography’, but ‘also a matter of reorganizing topological relationships, forging new alliances, and creating opportunities for mutual benefit as a way of handling diaspora populations’ (p. 115).

Next, the fifth chapter examines the market of contraband to understand how everyday transactions and spatial density pose challenges and opportunities for redistribution through an examination of specific ‘street egalitarianism’ cases. Thompson argues ‘that while Somalis’ nonhegemonic ethos militates against instrumental relationships in principle, in practice, reciprocity and instrumentality are intertwined in people’s business and survival strategies’ (p. 141). Lastly, the sixth chapter analyses transactional frontiers with attention to the cultural economy and diaspora and returning people in Jigjiga, South Africa and the USA. Thompson demonstrates how the frontiers are partly a result of diaspora inequalities abroad and how migrant sites are significant points for border enforcement and distinctions.

Smugglers, Speculators, and the City in the Ethiopia–Somalia Borderlands is a highly recommended study that probes economic culture and urban life by examining the logic of transactions and how urban borderwork is made and unmade in different contexts. Thompson’s conclusion explains that ‘diaspora Somalis and local urbanites are key players in new border security initiatives in the Horn of Africa and, more specifically, that Somali urbanites in Jigjiga and in diaspora participated in constructing the unprecedented hyper-securitization of the Ethiopia–Somaliland border between 2010 and 2018’ (p. 193). The conclusion also looks at socio-political developments after 2018, when his fieldwork ended, and highlights where the book fits into broader studies on geopolitical boundaries. Overall, the book thoughtfully probes the interpretations and negotiations involving local Somali urbanites and diaspora in border security and activities. Yet, it could have been connected to more economic theory about global capitalism and security. This would include deeper engagement with the political context that Thompson avoids. For example, the author writes ‘I have no desire to meet’ the president of Ethiopia’s Somali regional state, choosing instead to engage with smugglers, business figures and the diaspora (p. 34). Additionally, the research could also have addressed whether the specific city studied is reflective of broader trends in Ethiopia or Africa. Nevertheless, the book is an important contribution to urban and cultural studies as well as African studies.