Based on a fieldwork from 2000 to 2003 in the Poitou-Charentes area, the author analyses the interpretations African traders provide about their role within the context of merchant exchanges. On the basis of the observation of six trading interactions, the author shows the power of ethnicity as an interpretative resource with which Africans choose to deal with cultural stereotypes. These strategies allow the traders to keep alive their social network, to answer the requests of consumption, to anticipate the social allocations, in short to negotiate their status.