China Safari

Combining comprehensive historical perspectives with local in-depth investigative journalism, the book focuses on Beijing's much talked-about (and often criticized) expansion in the “dark continent.” China's operations mark a distinct departure from past colonial rule — Michel and Beuret are the first to point out the transition of allies in Sub-Saharan countries' from Françafrique to Chinafrique — and modern humanitarian aid efforts alike. So what makes this international relationship so different in the eyes of Africans? Quoting Claude Alphonse N'Silou, the minister of construction and housing of Brazzaville, Congo: “The Chinese build things and the Europeans don't.”

Currently, of the over 750,000 Chinese residents on African soil, a good percentage are government-deployed workers assigned, for roughly US$500 a month, to erect factories and buildings, lay locomotive railroads and water pipelines as well as construct hydroelectric dams and other basic infrastructure. The locally employed workers are paid even less, approximately US$4 per day. To find out exactly what life is like for the Chinese diaspora of Africa, China Safari stumbles upon worker inequality, xenophobia and dangerous working environments amidst Chinese President Hu Jintao's declaration of friendship, equality and peaceful coexistence with the African nations.

In the sunny safari, Chinese workers toil 24/7. They nonchalantly dig around landmines, acquiescent in the fact that their deaths will result in hefty compensations for their families, who they see once every two years. They are forbidden to touch African women — such conduct will result in immediate firings and deportation — and there are apparently not enough Chinese prostitutes to go around. Kidnappings and deaths by bands of rebels are everyday realities. Acrimonious sentiments abound as the Chinese are labeled inhumane in their treatment of local workers and domestic dogs while Africans are seen as “lazy.”

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