Africa Up Close

President Cyril Ramaphosa co-chairs the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Photo courtesy of the South African government via Flickr Commons. 

The narrative regarding China’s presence in most African countries has been dominated by views of the Chinese as the new colonialists of Africa, finding strategic new ways to exploit Africans and their resources.[i] However, this discourse is narrow, emphasizing state-led investments in Africa, and does not account for growing Sino-African relations at the grassroots level and socio-cultural dynamics. In East African countries such as Kenya, growing numbers of independent Chinese migrants are settling throughout the country and influencing the lives and communities of Kenyans. The implications of uncovering these stories and the cultural interactions between Chinese migrants and African publics at the grassroots levels are two-fold. First, focusing on the socio-cultural aspects of China-Africa relations expands the debate from economics and trade to determining how exactly cultural exchange can also fuel Africa’s development. Second, this analysis allows for a more nuanced understanding of the different forms of Chinese involvement in Kenya. Chinese migrants in Kenya form a distinct community. Not only are they seen in most spheres of Kenyan society, but they also assert their values and practices through different social and cultural means. The proliferation of the Chinese language, food, and work ethic, and a rise in interracial relationships are the most notable sociocultural impacts experienced by the vast majority of Kenyans, in cities such as Nairobi and more rural regions such as Kirinyaga County.[ii]