Reversing the Lens: Africans in China, Chinese in Africa
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Since the 1980s, I have been aware of Chinese migrants in places like Nigeria and Ghana.
You see them. Not in one place, but everywhere, in small, steady ways. In markets. Walking along the roadside. Sitting quietly in hotel lobbies. Riding motorcycles. Sometimes accompanied by a local assistant, sometimes moving about on their own.
Over the years, their presence has become part of the landscape.
You see them working on large infrastructure projects such as roads, highways, and overhead bridges. You notice Chinese lettering on shipping containers. You see Chinese-owned shops, restaurants, and commercial spaces like the China Mall in Accra.
They are not fully integrated, for the most part. Many keep to themselves, as communities often do in unfamiliar places. But they are undeniably present. Living. Working. Building lives.
And like any presence of this scale, it is layered.
There are opportunities and partnerships. There is trade. There are also tensions around issues like illegal mining (galamsey), fishing practices, and the exploitation of natural resources such as timber.
Both realities exist at the same time.
Over time, you also begin to notice quieter shifts. Intercultural relationships. Marriages. Children of mixed heritage. Life, in all its complexity, finding its way forward.
And so, for many years, I observed all of this without questioning it too deeply.
It was simply part of the rhythm of everyday life.
Reversing the Question
What happens when we reverse the lens?
If Ghana and many parts of Africa are open, welcoming, and relatively accessible to foreign entrepreneurs and migrants, what happens in the opposite direction?
What is the experience of Africans who move to China?
Is the welcome the same?
Is the openness mutual?
Is the ease of building a life comparable?
A Book That Made Me Pause
That question stayed with me.
So when noted Nigerian travel writer, Pelu Awofeso, mentioned the book Black Ghosts: A Journey into the Lives of Africans in China, #CommissionsEarned, on LinkedIn, I was immediately intrigued and I bought it without hesitation.
Reading it has been like stepping into a totally different world.
Through her explorations and writing, neighborhoods in China come alive via markets, apartment blocks, and gathering places where African migrants live and work. Her descriptions are so vivid that I often feel as though I am walking alongside her.
There is even a place informally known as “Chocolate City” in Guangzhou – a reference that, in many parts of the world, signals a concentration of Black life and culture.
I had never imagined such a place existing in China.
And yet, there it is.
What I Noticed
What struck me most was not just the setting it was the atmosphere too.
As I read, I could feel the tension in certain moments. The uncertainty. The careful navigation required to live in a place where your presence can feel precarious. Or is unlawful.
It made me reflect more deeply on contrast.
Because while Chinese migrants in Ghana may face challenges, they are, on the whole, able to establish businesses, move about with relative freedom, and build visible lives.
The experience described in Black Ghosts suggests something more complicated, and at times definitely more constrained and inhospitable for Africans in China.
A Quiet Reflection
And so I found myself returning to a thought I have long held:
On the whole, Africans are among the most welcoming, accommodating, and hospitable people in the world.
Not perfectly. Not without tension. But broadly, and consistently.
Reading this book has not given me all the answers.
But it has sharpened the question.
And sometimes, that is where understanding begins.
