Al Jazeera English aired a documentary about Chinese immigrants in Senegal yesterday, on the channel’s current affairs program The Witness. The documentary, called The Colony, was made by Brent Huffman and Zhou Xiaoli. It focuses on two Chinese families operating small businesses in Dakar, Senegal’s capital, and the Senegalese reaction to Chinese neighbours and Chinese competition. Huffman has a blog, which has some behind the scenes photography. In a press release about the documentary, he is quoted as saying:
“You can feel the anger in the air,” says Huffman, recalling the murder of a Chinese businessman by Africans. “There’s tension, like something terrible is going to happen, and the Senegalese won’t just stand by and let this happen forever.”
Youtube is inaccessible in China, so the video embedded above won’t display without first connecting to a VPN or proxy server.
Iain Manley
Iain studied journalism at the University of Cape Town, where communists were skinny professors who wore tweed. He arrived in China in 2007, at the end of an overland journey from London, documented at his overland travelogue. His first book, about the pirates, prostitutes and opium peddlers of old Singapore, was published last year, just before he left China, to travel back to South Africa, overland.
To get in touch, follow him on Twitter at @iainmanley
or send an email to manleyiain@gmail.com.
It is so sad. There are no bad guys – just people getting by, doing what they know how to do best, & not understanding the effect of their actions on other people.
don’t know what to say
will china one day to build military / police base in africa to protect its people?