African unease
[ By Mohamed Guèye ]
The end of the 1990s saw many Chinese moving to Africa. These new settlers came to stay – perhaps not for good, but surely for a long time. Normally, they arrived with their families and soon set up small shops, selling products from their native country. The products they sell are cheaper than those found elsewhere. Thanks to the Chinese, many fathers can now provide their children with good clothes at a reasonable price. Many plain workers can now afford to save some money, in order to buy a bike or a toy for their kids, without being haunted by guilt for pleasing a child by depriving other family members of vital means of living.
Before the Chinese arrived, other traders sold shoes or fabrics from China – as well as electronic devices from Hong Kong or tea from Sri Lanka. Many shopkeepers were of African origin, but others had Arab or South-Asian backgrounds. The prices for their goods, however, tended to be so high that average workers in Africa could not afford them. Thanks to the Chinese, things have begun to change quickly, and many Africans’ standard of living is improving. For many households, even VCRs or DVD players have become affordable – not to mention refrigerators. Even though these products are not of the best Japanese or German brands, they work quite well. And should they break down, African repairers can do miracles.
Unsurprisingly, African merchants have teamed up with their long-established Indian or Lebanese rivals to bemoan the new Chinese competition. They accuse the latter of unfair competition, since the Chinese get their merchandise directly from the manufacturers in the People’s Republic, something the other retailers cannot do. From a consumer’s point of view, however, Chinese merchants seem God-sent. Therefore, their rivals have to be careful about how they handle the issue. On the other hand, things like locally-made saucepans or leather shoes are becoming difficult to get. Those who traditionally provided retail-markets in Africa with such goods are finding it increasingly hard to compete.
There is a long history of Asian presence south of the Sahara. And while some political leaders and businessmen may welcome that presence, not everybody does so. To a certain degree, the behaviour of some Asians is to blame. Tensions have been running so high that, during his last visit to Africa, China’s President Hu Jintao felt compelled to state that his country did not intend to re-colonise the continent. Indeed, it would make sense for other leaders to repeat that statement – particularly for those from the Middle East, Malaysia and India. To many Africans, newly-arriving Asians seem like new conquerors, coming to take over what the former colonisers from Europe left behind.
Post-colonial ties
Arabs have been living in sub-Saharan countries for decades, and many have acquired the citizenship of the country they live in. There is no country in West or Central Africa where you don’t find people of Lebanese or Syrian descent. And in the East and South of the continent, there are no countries without communities with roots in India or Pakistan. Very often, these second-, third- or even fourth-generation Africans are busy in industry and trade, often commanding monopolies of sorts in specific sectors. Their role in the economy tends to be so dominant that many governments do as these communities please.
Many Asian families have been living in Africa since colonial times. The Lebanese and Syrians, whose countries had been French dominions even after World War II, migrated to French colonies. On the other hand, people from the Indian Subcontinent found their way to British colonies in Africa. Normally, they had the citizenship of the colonial power and were thus considered welcome in its other colonies as well. Often, their families also became engaged in neighbouring countries. In any case, most were clever enough to acquire the nationality of the land they live in, and today they pursue their businesses without any legal hindrance.
In most former French colonies in West Africa, Lebanese tended to own, along with the French, a good part of the industrial units, and they had some control over the trade network. Their presence was also strongly felt in Sierra Leone, a former British colony. Before the civil war that devastated the country they were in control of the diamond mines there – and they were accordingly able to fuel the tensions by procuring arms for particular factions.
In spite of the fact that many Lebanese, Syrian or Indian families have been living in Africa for generations, they are still perceived as foreigners. Typically, they hardly do anything to change that perception. Except for very few examples of successful integration, most live in what one might call “luxurious ghettos”. They have little contact with the indigenous people, apart from those of masters with servants. Though they speak the local language and are familiar with local traditions, they do not behave as if they were part of mainstream African society. They run their own schools, and have their own special plots in the cemeteries. Inter-marriage is not heard of. Many invest a substantial part of their assets abroad, rather than in the countries where they earn their money.
When the political situation in Côte d’Ivoire became so bad that French troops started to evacuate French citizens in 2005, many ethnic Lebanese went along, thanks to their French citizenship. Some of them also had the Ivorian citizenship, but that did not make them feel any safer. And even though they are Muslims – like the majority of the Ivorian people – this community obviously did not really feel it belonged there.
Many Arab governments are assisting African countries and communities. They fund development projects and promote religious training. Saudi Arabia, Libya or Kuweit are among the most important donors south of the Sahara. Most of the time, their assistance comes in grants for projects like water utilities, energy or roads. That money need not be repaid. However, these funds mostly arrive in countries that share these donors’ religious beliefs, or who are hostile to Israel.
For predominantly Muslim countries, Saudi Arabia is one of the most important donors, spending generously on Islamic groups in Africa. The Saudis focus on promoting Islam, they build mosques, support religious schools and distribute copies of the Quran. They do so even in countries where Islam is not the dominant religion. Moreover, Saudis advocate the adoption of the strict traditions, like the veiling of women, which is spreading quickly in many parts of Africa.
The use of financial muscle for the sake of political influence, even to the extent of destabilising political systems in some countries, does not mean that Arab governments would really care about sub-Saharan people. It’s all a matter of political and economic interests. However, Saudis, Libyans, Kuweitis and Emiratis do not always share the same interests – and their African partners sometimes feel torn between the diverging interests of their Arab “friends”. In most cases, Lebanese and Syrian diasporas in Africa do not systematically leverage links to Arab countries – otherwise the Arab presence would probably be even more prominent. In a similar sense, the Indian government seems to only recently have become aware of the large and influential South-Asian diaspora. It remains to be seen whether New Delhi will attempt to take advantage of those communities – be it in political or economic terms.
Thanks to the liberalisation policies that held sway over most of Africa in the 1990s, new players came into the game. The opening of the economies coincided with China, India and to a lesser extent emerging-market nations like Malaysia, searching for new sources of raw materials for their budding industries.
Chinese influence
China, the most forceful, does not have a long experience of the African continent. Africa really only became aware of the People’s Republic in 1973, in the wake of US President Richard Nixon’s trip to Beijing. It was in that period that the Chinese started building the Tanzania-Zambia Railroad (Tazara), which allowed landlocked Zambia to break its dependency on south-bound railways under the control of Apartheid regimes in what was then Rhodesia and South Africa. Apart from that, the Chinese became known throughout Africa for the stadiums they built in many capital cities, as “gifts from the People’s Republic”. Moreover, they added to some huge and ugly “People’s palaces”, where Africa’s dictators gathered the elite of their regime, or which served as leisure places.
However, it took another 25 to 30 years until China would really play a major role in Africa, and that role is still growing. The way Chinese-owned small-scale shops are changing the retail markets is reflected in the way big companies impact on African economies. In building and public works, Chinese contractors have become serious competitors for big Western-base incumbents. At markedly lower costs, the Chinese are now building roads, bridges and various infrastructures throughout the continent.
On top of that, they have also begun to invest in manufacturing. However, while consumers are fond of Chinese entrepreneurs, those working under Chinese managers are less enthusiastic. In most Chinese-run companies, the African workforce complains about low wages as well as the neglect of labour legislation. In Malawi and Nigeria, workers have gone on strike in Chinese-owned companies. In Senegal, the Chinese management of a fish-processing company disappeared one day, leaving behind a deficit of about € 150 000. In Zambia, workers were brutally fired from copper mines because they were demonstrating for better salaries. In Guinea, the African workers of a company building a road in the capital city, revolted about the way their Chinese managers treated them, and threatened to go on strike if there was no change in that behaviour.
At the political level, Chinese influence is often not beneficial. In Sudan, the People’s Republic is supporting a particularly repressive government. Obviously, Beijing is interested in the country’s oil reserves. Because of this and similar cases, many Africans think that the Chinese are pursuing their own interests in Africa, but not primarily engaged for the continent’s development. In that sense, they do not perceive the Chinese to be any different from Arabs or Indians.
Today, companies from Asia’s emerging economies are competing with Western ones to grab African minerals. The competition for African commodities is evident even at the smallest scale. Indian industrialists go to refuse dumps, in Africa’s big cities, looking for scrap iron that they ship home. Thus, they are directly competing with small craftsmen who have that only way to acquire resources. On the other hand, Arcelor Mittal, an EU-based steel multinational dominated by an Indian investor, has secured access to ores in Senegal and other African countries.
The solidarity of the Third World, embodied in the Founding Fathers’ struggle for independence in Africa and Asia, seems a thing of the past. Today, every country is struggling for its own good, and Africans must beware that others, however friendly they may try to appear, do not exploit them, leaving them behind even poorer than before.