Abstract
When discussing the new presence on the African continent of Chinese nationals who have arrived since the early 2000s, the many clusters of Chinese entrepreneurs across Africa present a paradox. In most cases, the Chinese in Africa today do not fit the characteristics typically ascribed to ethnic Chinese groups outside China. Their lack of ethnic or national solidarity and social cohesion, culminating in the widespread absence of community (cf. China Q 199:707–727, 2009; Haugen and Carling, Ethn Racial Stud 28(4):639–662, 2005; Lam 2015a), defies conventional wisdom about overseas Chinese. The Chinese in Ghana, who have arrived as individual entrepreneurs and in substantial numbers since the turn of the millennium, are no exception in this general picture found across the African continent. They form a highly concentrated trading cluster in Accra, the country’s capital and economic center. Chinese economic activities in trade have concentrated at the periphery of Makola Market, which has served as the main site of commerce. Though this pattern of spatial clustering has made the Chinese and Chinese commercial activities highly visible, most Chinese are dispersed across middle-class residential areas of Accra and neighboring Tema, and their isolation both from each other and from the local population presents challenges for ethnic formation and integration.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
In this chapter the term “migration” refers to movements of people between places in general and does not imply factual or intended permanent spatial relocation.
- 2.
Unless otherwise stated, all information provided in this chapter is based on participant observation and statements shared by the great majority of informants. Information that cannot be regarded as representative of the whole sample is attributed to individual informants; names are fictitious in order to safeguard interviewees’ anonymity. This data collection was part of two larger research projects on Chinese-African interactions in Ghana , Senegal and China, starting in 2011 and finishing by mid-2017. The research project, Entrepreneurial Chinese Migrants and Petty African Entrepreneurs: Local Impacts of Interaction in Urban West Africa (2011–2013), was conducted in close collaboration with my colleagues, Laurence Marfaing and Alena Thiel. The project West African Traders as Translators between Chinese and African Urban Modernities (2013–2017) was conducted with Laurence Marfaing, Alena Thiel, Kelly Si Miao Liang and Jessica Wilczak. Both projects were generously funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of the Priority Program Adaptation and Creativity in Africa—Technologies and Significations in the Production of Order and Disorder.
- 3.
It has to be emphasized that the Ghanaian authorities only record flow data (entry/exit statistics); no stock data are recorded. Although information gathered during fieldwork suggests that there are substantial numbers of undocumented Chinese operating in a legal gray zone (mostly visa overstayers who entered the country on tourist visas), publicized estimates often serve political purposes and tend to be inflated.
- 4.
Particularly entrepreneurs from Fujian tended to incorporate friends and trustworthy partners into their kinship networks, establishing virtual kinship ties with persons without family relations. This practice seems to be particularly advantageous if family enterprises aim to expand and diversify their scope but lack specific expertise and/or capital.
- 5.
Referring to Chinese migrants across Europe, Christiansen (2013: 149) suggests the existence of world-spanning communities based on “Fellow-townsman relationships, virtual kinship, fledging solidarity of those sharing similar conditions or speaking the same dialect or at least Mandarin, and a moral grid of shared purpose, altruism, sacrifice, and co-ethnic compassion.” In view of the fact that the Chinese migrants whom Christiansen referred to mostly originated from Zhejiang Province (or Fujian Province in some cases), and regarding the high degree of intraethnic fragmentation and competition where other Chinese groups are present, it remains rather doubtful that this claimed community has ever extended beyond family and virtual kinship networks.
- 6.
South Africa , it has to be noted, is an exception. This country has one of the longest continuous interactions with China on the African continent and the Chinese, and it has one of the oldest, most layered and complex presence of people of Chinese origin and descent within the continent (cf. Park 2009).
References
Christiansen, F. (2013). Ethnic Chinese in the European Economy: Risk and the Transnational Ethnic Enclave. In C. B. Tan (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of the Chinese Diaspora (pp. 141–155). London/New York: Routledge.
Dobler, G. (2009). Chinese Shops and the Formation of a Chinese Expatriate Community in Namibia. The China Quarterly, 199, 707–727.
Douglas, M. (1966). Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge/Kegan Paul.
Eade, J., & Swallnow, M. (1991). Introduction. In J. Eade & M. Swallnow (Eds.), Contesting the Sacred: The Anthropology of Christian Pilgrimage (pp. 1–29). London: Routledge.
Giese, K. (2013). Same-Same But Different: Chinese Traders’ Perspectives on African Labor. The China Journal, 69, 134–153.
Giese, K. (2016). Partenaires en affaires et employeurs: commerçants chinois, facilitateurs de micro-innovations sociales en Afrique de l’Ouest. In K. Giese & L. Marfaing (Eds.), Entrepreneurs africains et chinois, Les impacts sociaux d’une rencontre particulière (pp. 179–206). Paris: Karthala.
Giese, K., & Thiel, A. (2014). The Vulnerable Other – Distorted Equity in Chinese-Ghanaian Employment Relations. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 37(6), 1101–1120.
Giese, K., & Thiel, A. (2015a). Chinese Factor in the Space, Place and Agency of Female Head Porters in Urban Ghana. Social & Cultural Geography, 16(4), 444–446.
Giese, K., & Thiel, A. (2015b). The Silent Majority – The Psychological Contract in Chinese-Ghanaian Labor Relations. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 26(14), 1807–1826.
GIPC (Ghana Investment Promotion Centre). (2011). Top 10 Country Investors Classified by Sectors, received personally on February 2, 2011 in Accra.
Gu, J. (2011). The Last Golden Land? Chinese Private Companies Go to Africa. Institute of Development Studies. http://www.ids.ac.uk/files/dmfile/Wp365.pdf
Hastings, D., & Wilson, T. M. (1999). Borders: Frontiers of Identity, Nation and State. Oxford: Berg Publishers.
Haugen, H. Ø., & Carling, J. (2005). On the Edge of the Chinese Diaspora: The Surge of Baihuo Business in an African City. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 28(4), 639–662.
Ho, C. G.-Y. (2008). “The ‘Doing’ and ‘Undoing’ of Community: Chinese Networks in Ghana.” China aktuell. Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 37(3), 45–76.
Ho, C. G.-Y. (2012). Living in Liminality: Chinese Migrancy in Ghana. PhD dissertation, University of California at Santa Cruz.
Lam, K. N. (2015a). Chinese Adaptions: African Agency, Fragmented Community and Social Capital Creation in Ghana. Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 44(1), 9–41.
Lam, K. N. (2015b). Conceptualizing Chinese State-Owned Enterprises in Africa: Double Embeddedness and Localization in Ghana. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Faculté des Sciences sociales et politiques de l’Université de Lausanne.
Lam, K. N. (2017). Chinese State-Owned Enterprises in West Africa. Triple-Embedded Globalization. New York: Routledge.
Park, Y. J. (2009). A Matter of Honour: Being Chinese in South Africa. New York: Lexington Books.
Sautman, B., & Yan, H. (2007). East Mountain Tiger, West Mountain Tiger: China, the West, and ‘Colonialism’ in Africa. Baltimore: Maryland Series in Contemporary Studies.
Szakolczai, A. (2000). Reflexive Historical Sociology. London: Routledge.
Thomassen, B. (2009). The Uses and Meanings of Liminality. International Political Anthropology, 2(1), 5–27.
Turner, V. (1969). The Ritual Process: Structure and Antistructure. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
Turner, V. (1977). Frame, Flow and Reflection: Ritual and Drama as Public Liminality. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 614(December), 465–477.
Van Gennep, A. (1909). Les rites de passage. Paris: Emile Nourry.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Giese, K. (2017). Chinese Traders in Ghana: The Liminality Trap, and Challenges for Ethnic Formation and Integration. In: Zhou, M. (eds) Contemporary Chinese Diasporas. Palgrave, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5595-9_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5595-9_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-5594-2
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-5595-9
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)