Theme: 12. ‘Africa-Asia’ in an Entangled World: Migrations, Diasporas, Creolities

A Gaze Without a Gaze: African and Chinese Getting Together in Daily Life

Roundtable Convenor(s)

• FP

  Florence Padovani

  GIS Asie, France

Roundtable Chair(s)

• FP

  Florence Padovani

  GIS Asie, France

Roundtable Participant(s)

• AD

  Abdoulaye Diagne

  Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, Senegal
• RS

  Ruihua Shen

  Morehouse College, United States
• CC

  Cai Chen

  Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
• PS

  Penglei Su

  Université Paris Cité, France
• YT

  Yann Philippe Tastevin

  CNRS and Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Senegal

This round table will be looking at Chinese people and African people interactions in daily life, we will be observing from bellow.

Since the beginning of the XXIst century a new wave of Chinese migrants come to African countries and especially Senegal. They are low qualified people who usually run their small business with relatives. This phenomenon is far from the stereotypical image of big State companies coming to Africa. These still exist but they are in decline. One of the questions we will try to understand is the relationships between African small shop owners and the Chinese. There is a competition, but also some kind of collaboration. Doctor Abdoulaye Diagne has been studying the markets where rural Africans meet Chinese entrepreneurs. In rural markets, they meet over peanuts during the weekly market days (louma). In urban markets, rural merchants buy clothing (ready-made clothes, shoes, radios, etc.) from Chinese traders, which they resell as they travel through the villages. These Chinese also employ young rural people who come to work during the dry season in their urban shops.

Chinese State companies have been building dams, roads, and other infrastructures. The division of labor between Chinese and African workers led to some tensions but eventually what are the daily interactions between them? Su Penglei will share with us his analysis of the Chinese migration in working environment in the Congolese copperbelt.

Shen Ruihua examines the Chinese perceptions of Africa through narratives of daily life by self-media influencers. These social media users are non-professional and present a diverse and complex Africa. This study will show us a less traditional gaze.

Cai Chen is studying sino-congolese couples. As young people have opportunities to meet in Africa or in China (according to the Chinese Ministry of education in 2018 81,562 Africans were studying in Chinese universities, some sources mention 500,000 Africans living in China), some of them live as couples. This ethnography of ethnoracial dynamics will show us another daily life aspect.

Yann-Philippe Tastevin focuses on the development of urban mining in Senegal. The aim is to understand how entrepreneurs, workshops, businesses and factories form networks and link up with the global trade in metals between scrap metal buyers and sellers from West Africa and Asia.