Four months ago, I flew from London to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and then onto Lilongwe, Malawi. On the flight from Ethiopia to Lilongwe I was thoroughly confused as to how many Asian people there were on the flight. In fact, I was so confused that I double checked with the flight attendant that this flight was indeed heading for Malawi and not Beijing. She confirmed that we were heading south, not east.
That was my first personal experience with the Chinese presence in Africa.
Everything I describe from here onwards isn’t based in any statistics or reports (though I’m sure that they could be found somewhere); it’s based solely on the personal and business experiences of people that I have met in the last four months. These are all people whom I trust, but I want to be clear that I’m not presenting facts here, just opinions and here say. Take it for what you will.
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to a vast amount of natural resources. Minerals, metals, timber, oil – you name it, it’s here. As colonial powers have, over the last 60 years, withdrawn or been kicked out of sub-Saharan African countries, so too did the monopoly the colonizing powers had over those resources. In principle, a positive effect of ending colonization. However, very little of the infrastructure remained. And due to the lack of education, lack of finance and general instability, these countries have found it very hard to build up their own infrastructure to profit off of these resources. While many Western companies have set up shop in sub-Saharan Africa, there has been an overwhelming influx in Chinese business in the last few decades.
Due to the lack of local education, it is not unusual in the slightest for foreign corporations to bring in their own labor for management positions. However, in the case of the Chinese, they tend to bring in their workers across the range of jobs, from managerial to laborer. In many cases, extremely few jobs go to the local people meaning that the local economy doesn’t benefit from the extraction of natural resources. Many of the contracts that are given to Chinese companies are the result of corruption and bribes – while this is nothing new in this part of the world, and certainly not something that Western world can proudly declare to have avoided, but the scale of the Chinese domination of the natural resources is enormous. According to one person, almost all of the natural resources in Northern Malawi, mostly minerals, are Chinese owned. The same is true in Central Mozambique. According to an NGO worker who has been all over Africa, these are just two of many examples. Just to wave the hippy-green flag for a second, these companies obviously don’t adhere to any sort of environmentally friendly practices. Nor do they clean up after themselves after a spill, leak or the closing down of a mine. There is very little, if any, regulation to ensure protection to either the workers or to the environment. The minerals or natural resources are then shipped to China for processing. The government sells them the land, gets a handy bonus, and then gets out of their way.
An interesting aspect of the Chinese labor, as was described to be by another NGO worker, was that the Chinese often bring convicts from China to work in the mines in Africa. Once their ‘contract’ is up, they are simply released… in Africa. Good deal, right? (Cut to a bunch of Australians in the 1800s nodding their heads). In fact, a separate unrelated person told me that recently, there was a planeload of Chinese people refused entry to Nigeria because of their criminal status.
It’s not all bad though, I suppose. There is a lot of infrastructure being built by the Chinese which is sometimes used by others. For instance the Maputo airport is Chinese built (there are signs in Chinese as well). Roads are built, and trade has almost certainly increased.
In terms of straight up illegal activity, the Chinese presence is more marine-based. I have spoken with two groups of people – one, a dive instructor in Malawi who worked on anti-whaling vessels headquartered in Cape Town; and the other a group of South African anti-pirate military men who attempt to patrol the Mozambican coast (Mozambique doesn’t have the resources to do it themselves, and illegal trafficking of goods and people that arrives or leaves Mozambique by water often starts or ends up in South Africa over land). Both groups pointed to a huge amount of illegal fishing and whaling that the Chinese practice in the waters around Mozambique and South Africa. Shark fins, a traditional delicacy in China used at weddings, are hugely sought after meaning that shark numbers have been steadily decreasing. Many sea animals are regarded as good for virility. Others are sought as ostentatious goods signifying one’s wealth and standing. Whatever the original reasons, there is a large demand from China for these products, and as China doesn’t enforce (or have) laws against illegal fishing, it’s a perfect market. Whaling has become particularly sophisticated; the diver gave me an example of the method of capture. A first vessel will seek a shark or a whale. Once they’ve found it, they will track it using sophisticated technology. However, this vessel doesn’t have any gear on board to kill or store the animal. Thus, when the anti-whalers or the anti-pirates come, they find them empty handed. However, nearby there is the vessel with all the hunting gear. However, they aren’t committing a crime either, at this point, because they haven’t done anything. However, the anti-whaler/pirates can’t be there forever, therefore as soon as they’re gone, the hunting vessel swoops in and kills the animal, while the tracking vessel leaves the area. The hunting vessel brings the dead whale on board cuts it up, and hands it over to a third vessel – a shipping and transportation unit – that deals in legitimate trade. The shipping vessel then heads back to China. It is hard to stop and search these vessels as they make it to international waters quite quickly, and in addition the illegal merchandise is usually quite well concealed. Pretty good, huh?
I want to make clear at this point that I have no prejudice against the Chinese. I’m sure many of these activities that are devastating to the local population and wildlife would be undertaken by others and that the colonial powers were engaged in similar or worse practices. A joke that is sometimes made (often by me, sometimes by others) is that China and Coca Cola own half of Africa. China doesn’t have a monopoly on illegal activity either - huge amounts of drugs are smuggled through Mozambique from Asia because the water borders are so porous. The drugs make their way to South Africa, into Europe, or across the continent to be shipped again. Human trafficking is an enormous problem in Mozambique, which acts as a ‘source’ country. People are exported for prostitution or forced labor. I had to do quite a lot of research into human trafficking for my work with STC, so I’ll be writing up a post on that at some point as well. However, I was surprised by the sheer size of Chinese presence here, and wanted to share some of what I have learnt. If anyone has any additional or contradictory information, I’d love to hear it!
Thanks for reading!
