2 - Chinese Muslims and Religious Encounters in Dakar's "Chinatown"

Religious encounters between Chinese and African Muslims are a rarely explored topic. This paper investigates these interactions in the Chinatown of Dakar. Chinese Muslims from Kaifeng City, Henan Province first arrived in Senegal in the 1980s as employees of a construction company. In the following decades, they started their wholesale business and brought more family members to Dakar. However, their Muslim identity has remained largely unknown among scholars studying the Chinese community in Dakar and among local Muslims. For the Chinese Muslim businesspeople in Dakar, Islam —shared by both them and Senegalese Muslims— provides opportunities to connect with their Muslim brothers and sisters in a foreign country. Yet, differences in religious practices, coupled with racial prejudice, have the potential to create misconceptions and rifts between them and other Senegalese Muslims.