Chinese Africans: Neo-Colonists?

A new wave of Chinese immigrants are coming to Africa, up to 750,000 of them so far. Many of the new wave immigrants are poor farmers looking for better land and more opportunity. Others are shopkeepers and traders, sensing a chance to fill a neglected niche.

They are settling all over the continent, in rural and urban areas, and are involved in agriculture, construction and trade.

This latest wave of Chinese migrants - thought to total up to 750,000....in the last 10 years are going for economic, not political reasons....They are part of China's bid to secure raw materials and markets for its manufactured goods, but they are also carving out their own opportunities.

Chinese farmers have already started moving to Africa, according to Liu Jianjun of the China-Africa Business Council, which helps Chinese firms find business opportunities in Africa....Mr Liu has personally sent several thousand Chinese people to Africa over the last few years from his home city of Baoding in Hebei Province.

His organisation mainly focuses on setting up agricultural companies, which he calls "Baoding Villages"...These Baoding farmers are working in Kenya, Uganda, Ghana and Senegal, growing crops with African partners and then turning them into food products.

"Chinese migrants or former labourers on construction sites are opening shops, using their contacts to get cheap goods from China," he says...As an example, he cites the provincial town of Huambo in central Angola, which had no Chinese shops seven years ago...Five years ago there were five and now there are more than 20, says Mr Alden, who has just written a book called China in Africa.

Unsurprisingly, many Chinese migrants themselves say the chance to earn more money is the main motive for leaving their country...Chinese worker Lu Shaoqing, who is helping to build sports stadiums in Angola, says he left his wife and seven-year-old daughter in Beijing for a number of reasons..."I came here because I wanted to see Africa, and Angola is under reconstruction at the moment so I came to help with that," he says.

But he admits the 700-odd Chinese workers in his company have the chance to earn up to three times as much as back home in China.___BBC

Most Chinese immigrants are actually migrants--in Africa for a few years to earn a cash bundle, then back to China. Some sense a longer opportunity, and will likely settle for a longer time. Tropical disease, tribal warfare, and other hazards abound on the dark continent.

In the 19th century, the British imported workers from colonial India. Those Indian workers who settled in Uganda were driven off by Idi Amin in the 1970s. Over time, the same thing may happen to Chinese who settle permanently in troubled multi-tribal sub Saharan nations.

The blatantly obvious need for experienced and disciplined market leadership in most African countries suggests that if a country can find prolonged peace, prosperity is possible with the proper cadre of market savvy traders in place.