Chinese Marching Towards Africa

In reading this article found in BBC News/Africa - China in Africa: Developing ties, it brought some memories back to me.

What triggered my old memories? This article mentioned that Chinese migrants are venturing into Africa land getting involved in the agriculture, construction and trading businesses. True statement. In Khartoum of Sudan, there is a convenient store that I will usually shop for chinese food/products.

In the construction sector, my company contracted two China construction companies as our subcontractors. Besides this two companies, there are quite a number of China companies involved in the same sector. Why are they in Sudan?

The Chinese migrants are flocking into Kenya, Uganda, Ghana and Senegal too where agriculture is the main focus.

I remembered while walking in Khartoum city centre, the Sudanese sitting nearby would shout "Chinese, Chinese". I just smiled. At another corner, one or two other Sudanese would say the same thing and I would reply "Malaysie, Malaysie" (that's how they pronounce Malaysia).

Even in my office, the Sudanese cannot comprehend that I came from Malaysia. One guy was so sure that I'm from China, not Malaysia. Why did he think that way? He was more confused when I pointed at a Malaysian Indian colleague and said that he's from Malaysie too. To which my Sudanese colleague said "He's from India".

To them, Sudanese people are generally with the darker skin complexion and almost everyone looks like that. They just cannot understand how come an Indian and a Chinese can be a Malaysian. It was real hard to convince them.
Tags: Africa, Sudan, Khartoum, Chinese Migrant