Chinatowns in Africa

Chinatown
Cover of sheet music, published in 1910
Chinese	唐人街
Transcriptions Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Tángrénjiē
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	中國城
Simplified Chinese	中国城
Transcriptions Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhōngguóchéng
Second alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	華埠
Simplified Chinese	华埠
Transcriptions Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Huábù

This article discusses Chinatowns in Africa. There are least three major Chinatowns in Africa.

As former colonies of Europe, the coastal African nations of Madagascar, Mauritius, and South Africa were the main receiving points of Chinese immigrants from the 1890s to the early part of the 20th century. The early Chinese arrived to labour in the Transvaal gold mines of South Africa and on the Tananrive Tamatave railway of Madagascar. Many of these Chinese immigrants were exploited.

Today, South Africa remains the top African destination for first-generation Chinese-speaking immigrants.

Ghana

Tema, Ghana community 6 has received a lot of Chinese immigrants and there are many new Chinese buildings for the Chinese community restaurants, shops, hotels, and casinos.

Kenya

Nairobi is a city in which recent investments from China have occurred that from 1996 to 2007, the country went from having only one Chinese restaurant to more than 40. The Chinese population in Kenya rose from "very few" to around 10,000 in that same time period.

Madagascar

Madagascar has received some Chinese immigrants. In Madagascar, there are about 30,000 Chinese, the majority of them came from the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong. A Chinatown, called Quartier Chinois, is located in Antananarivo.

Mauritius

The Chinatown or Quartier chinois is in the city of Port Louis on rue Royale. The Hakka Chinese are the dominant group in Mauritius. Its Chinatown was founded in 1944. The Chinatown of Port Louis hosts a very popular "Chinese Food and Cultural Festival" every year, which is appreciated by all Mauritians in general.

Morocco

The sole and quickly growing Chinatown of North Africa is the Quartier chinois located on rue Mohamed Ben Ahmed Lekrik in the Derb Omar district of Casablanca. Many immigrants in Casablanca's Chinatown engage in the wholesale apparel businesses, selling fair-quality products at low prices.

Nigeria

In 1930, colonial Nigeria's census showed four Chinese people living there.^[1] Hong Kong investors began opening factories in Nigeria as early as the 1950s. By 1965 there were perhaps 200 Chinese people in the country. By 1999, that number had grown to 5,800, including 630 from Taiwan and 1,050 from Hong Kong.^[1]

South Africa

A street scene of the Chinatown in Cyrildene, Johannesburg.

Inner-city Johannesburg has a declining Chinatown on Commissioner Street, but a newer Chinatown can be found on Derrick Avenue in the hilly suburb of Cyrildene. Most of the inhabitants of the Cyrildene Chinatown are recent immigrants from mainland China.^[2]

In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s immigrants from Taiwan settled extensively in South Africa.^[3]:427 South Africa's first Taiwan-born legislator was elected in the 1980s. After South Africa recognised the Peoples Republic of China in 1998 large numbers of mainland Chinese immigrated to the country. South African Chinese are dispersed throughout South African cities. During the Apartheid regime (1948–93) Chinese South Africans were classified as "Coloureds" or "Asians", while certain East Asian nationals (such as Japan and Taiwan) in South Africa were declared honorary whites and thus avoided most forms of official discriminatory laws (they could live in reserved white neighborhoods unlike black, and Asian-Indian South Africans), since Apartheid created a strict racial segregation system for non-white/European persons (esp. the black majority) in South Africa.

References

External links

• Antananrivo Chinatown Gallery Some photos of Antananrivo's Chinatown
• Johannesburg Chinatowns
• My Johannesburg: The original Chinatown, interview with Ufrieda Ho, Aug 20 2011.