French Talks Chinese Africa Diaspora
At a recent event organized in part by the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, Howard French, a former Africa and China Bureau Chief for the New York Times, discussed the experience of the Chinese diaspora currently remaking infrastructure and culture in Africa.
“Continents in Motion: How Today’s China – Africa Encounter Came About and What it Means for the World” was the title of the 2015 Bradford Morse Distinguished Lecture, a series organized by the African Studies Center, one of the Pardee School’s affiliated regional studies centers. For this year’s lecture, the African Studies Center partnered with the Pardee School, the Center for the Study of Asia, and the African Students Organization.
In his remarks, delivered to a large crowd at the Colloquium Room at the BU Photonics Center, French discussed the political and cultural changes that led to the upsurge of Chinese immigration to Africa.
“Currently, officials estimate that there are 1 million Chinese immigrants to Africa. In my research, I found anecdotal evidence indicating the number is much larger,” French said. “In tracing the story of China’s diaspora community in Dakar, Senegal, I saw patterns in the narrative that would prove true time and again.”
In French’s telling of the narrative, which is expounded further in his recent book China’s Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa, the migration boom began in the mid 1990s with an initial wave of guest workers traveling to Africa to work on infrastructure projects like stadiums.
“When that first ‘generation’ of Chinese workers came to Africa, they had the same preconceived notions that a lot of people do – that it would be hot, dangerous, and full of wild animals,” French said. “Instead, as anyone who has ever been to Dakar knows, it’s a very pleasant climate, with lots of green and unworked land, a sky that’s blue every day. After coming from a crowded place like Hunan Province in China, it seems like a wonderful and promising place.”
Many of those guest workers remained in Africa after their projects were completed, building businesses and lives in Africa.
“Suddenly, there are pictures of the good life in Africa flooding the social media networks of Chinese people. The emulation effect kicks in, and people struggling in China decide they can make a go of it in Africa as well,” French said. “Africa became a shortcut to prosperity.”
On the political side, the Chinese government was going through a process of economic liberalization, and looking for a trading partner region that would be a market for the goods from its growing manufacturing industry.
“As the Chinese saw it, Africa was a perfect location for their outward globalization,” French said. “It’s a growing continent; its population is expected to double by the end of the century. And Western Europe and the U. S. are preoccupied with Eastern Europe and the Middle East, regions devouring huge amounts of economic and policy bandwidth. In Africa, there was, literally, room to grow.”
From Africa’s perspective, the relationship is also beneficial.
“Africa is urbanizing faster than anywhere else in human history,” French said. “China can provide them the tools, material, and manpower they need to build their growing infrastructure.”
French is an associate professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where he has taught both journalism and photography since 2008. French contributes often to a variety of publications, including The Atlantic and The New York Review of Books, and occasionally reviews books for The Wall Street Journal. He is also a frequent public speaker. Learn more about him here.