The tomato paste tin can: An African journey (Burkina Faso)

In Burkina Faso, where imported goods now constitute the basic ingredients of the daily urban diet, tomato paste seems to epitomize the country’s position at the end of the globalized food chain. With the expansion of this manufactured comestible, the empty tomato paste tin can also has gradually replaced previously used calabashes and plastic bowls to become the sole recipient used by child beggars for receiving food donations. As such, it has become the primary graphic symbol for child begging, in particular, and for African underdevelopment in general. But this iconic status should not eclipse the fact that most Burkinabe households use this same can for a large array of daily tasks. This article patiently follows ‘the can’ through the variety of its uses, from tomato paste container to water recipient, measuring instrument, begging device, seat or cooking pot, thus offering a contribution to the social study of objects. It reveals that street children and Koranic students are both marginalized by using it, and also included in the various informal networks it ties together. Usually framed as an emblem of ‘underdevelopment’ and ‘poverty’, the can becomes a symbol of the transformations of the Burkinabe economy and of the rapid changes of consumption patterns the country is experiencing.