Africans in Guangzhou left homeless amid rising xenophobia as China fights a second wave of coronavirus | CNN

Writer Noo Saro-Wiwa spends five months in China catching up with the lives of the African community in Guangzhou and elsewhere. We learn about why they arrived, why they stay, how they get on in life. We also learn about Noo's holidaying in China for some reason.

An unreported, unregistered community of Africans (seemingly mostly Nigerians) living in the 'Chocolate City' Xiaobei neighbourhood of Guangzhou, one of the world capitals of globalisation. The majority of these are linked to the export trade to Africa, arriving on the short visas China offer to purchase bulk knock-off goods to sell back at home. Some are small time, bringing back suitcases of clothes, some are organising shipping containers full of trainers to be sent to business contacts in Lagos. Due to China's stringent visa requirements, and the ubiquity of requiring ID to access public facilities, many of these Africans have ended up staying on expired visas, creating and living in an officially non-existent world of their own. Back-of-the-shop barbers, barracks-style male dormitories, hiding from the police - these sorts of images proliferate the book to illustrate the life many of these people now live. It's cyberpunk turned into crap reality - lots of neon lights, cheap electronics etc, but without a registration you can't board a train or access social services.

Much of the book Noo spends with people in these communities, but due to their circumstances, most of the interviewees are guarded and we never truly see behind the curtain. There is more success in meetings with people outside the underworld (African professionals, sports stars, globalised expats) but these are of less general interest for being outside of it.

One thing that sticks out in the book is how detached Noo's eye is from China and Chinese people. One sentence you will read about racist incidents she is put through by Chinese who have never seen a black person before and in the next sentence she is surprised Chinese students don't act like the 'automatons' she imagined them to be. In one incident she is angry that her candid photography of Chinese people going about their day is spoiled by the same Chinese photographing her, photographing them. This one encounter illustrates the biggest gap in the book - Noo's failure to understand the Chinese side of things. That said, this would have been no easy task.

I was mobbed by crowds of smiling parents and children requesting a photo op with me. One family thrust their five-year old boy into my arms . . . . Others pointed at my short, Afro hair and gave me the thumbs up, calling me 'Michelle Obama' and insisting on adopting a frozen handshake pose with me as if I were America's First Lady

This cultural detachment also applies to Noo's encounters with the African community themself. Saro-Wiwa is a boarding school educated British-Nigerian, and many of her conversations seem to be constrained by that middle class self consciousness so many people have. Often this comes in the form of pointless insertions of the author's judgements or views on Igbo-Yoruba ethnic tensions, the legitimacy of the Biafran state, and general impressions on Nigerian government. Sometimes these are relevant, often they are not.

Overall, an interesting look into one of the invisible worlds brought on by 21c globalisation, but one that struggles with the author's inability to decide whether they are an investigative reporter, a travel writer, or one of the people who she is writing about.

jackcommon

jackcommon

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