90450 - China In Africa

Learning outcomes

Combining the fields of migration studies and labor studies, the course introduces the students to social issues connected with the Chinese presence in Africa and African presence in China. At the end of the course the students will be able to understand and critically analyze the strategies and agency of the different actors. As a large part of the course will rely on visual tools, the students will also acquire the ability to critically analyze visual documents.

Course contents

Chinese in Africa and Africans in China

NOTICE The course is organized with a part of lectures taught online on MS TEAMS (20 hours) and another taught in presence (20 hours). The number of students allowed in class is determined on the basis of class capacity and by the health and safety provisions on pandemic emergency. In case more students want to attend classes in presence than permitted by the rules, a system of shifts will be organized so to allow students to participate.

Chinese in Africa and Africans in China

The relationship between China and African countries is at the center of heated debates with Chinese investments, infrastructure construction, job creation and raw material appropriation in Africa often portrayed in binary terms: China is either pitched as a predator and the new imperialist power in Africa, or else celebrated as a friend offering to the African counterpart a ‘win-win cooperation’. The pandemic is further complicating the situation.

Making also use of images and videos, the course will offer a nuanced discussion of the many facets of the Chinese presence in Africa, presenting the distinctive features of Chinese capital and pointing at the crucial role played by the Chinese state, Chinese provincial governments, and Chinese large and small firms in the context of a specific Chinese form of globalization.

At the same time, the course will delve into the issue of African agency by discussing the action of African states, and agency enacted by African elites and the populace in relation to the Chinese presence and activism on the continent.

The cases of Zambia, Ethiopia, and other African countries will be used to discuss claims of ‘Chinese exceptionalism’ in labour relations and issues of land grabbing.

Finally, the course will deal with the growing presence of African small entrepreneurs and traders in China, discussing the opportunities and constraints they face and their perceptions of China in the context of China’s evolving narratives on Africa. Racist attitudes towards Africans in China, particularly evident during the pandemic, will be the starting point for discussing how China deals with issues of racialization.

Besides, the course also offers an introduction to visual sociology as a tool that enables the students to elaborate sociological interpretations of the audio and video materials proposed by the instructor.

GUEST LECTURERS

Igino Gagliardone, University of the Witwatersrand, ‘China’s role in the Politics of Technology in Africa’ (provisional title)

Mariasole Pepa, ‘Rethinking the political economy of Chinese-African Agricultural Cooperation: The Chinese Agricultural Technology Demonstratin Centers’ (provisional title)

Other guest lecturers may be invited

Readings/Bibliography

1. VISUAL SOCIOLOGY

√ Ferguson, T. (2013) 'Using Visual methods in Social Science Research' in Social Research Methods, Oxford University Press: Melbourne.

√ Harper, Douglas (2002) “Talking about pictures: a case for photo elicitation’, Visual Studies, 17 (1), 13-26.

2. INTERSECTIONALITY AND RACISM IN AFRICA-CHINA ENCOUNTERS

√ Roberto Castillo (2020) “Race” and “racism” in contemporary Africa-China relations research: approaches, controversies and reflections, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 21:3, 310-336

√ Anita Kalunta-Crumpton (2019) ‘The inclusion of the term ‘color’ in any racial label is racist, is it not?’ Ethnicities, 1-21.

√ Hochman, Adam (2019) ‘Racialization: a defense of the concept’ Ethnic and Racial Studies, 42 (8), 1245-1262.

√ Yoon Jung Park (2020) ‘Playing the China card or yellow perils? China, 'the Chinese', and race in South African politics and society’, Asian Ethnicity, 21:4, 464-483, DOI: 10.1080/14631369.2020.1780113

√ Chun Han Wong et alii (2020) African Countries Complain of Racism in Chinese City’s Pandemic control’ WSJ, https://www.wsj.com/articles/african-countries-complain-of-racism-in-chinese-citys-pandemic-controls-11586808397

VIDEOS

The Qiaobi ad, + Coloreria italiana: What Women Want + Coloreria italiana Colored is Better

√ Storyville - When China met Africa

3. CHINA, AFRICA AND THE PANDEMIC

√ Chiponda Chimbelu, ‘Covid-19 pandemic to transform China-Africa relations’, 08/06/2020,

https://www.dw.com/en/covid-19-pandemic-to-transform-china-africa-relations/a-53724530

√ Eric Olander, ‘China: Africa to have priority access to COVID-19 vaccine’

https://www.theafricareport.com/40016/china-africa-to-have-priority-access-to-covid-19-vaccine/

√ Feng, Jiayun, (2020) ‘Chinese cartoon depicts rule-breaking foreigners as trash to be sorted’, 6 April, Supchina

√ Petition to the Association of Asian Studies against racism (2020)

4. CHINA IN AFRICA

√ Shinn, David H. (2019) ‘China’s Economic Impact on Africa’ in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics, 1-19.

√ Shinn, David H. and Joshua Eisenman (2020) ‘Evolving Principles and Guiding Concepts: How China Gains African Support for its Core National Interests’ Science Direct, 64 (2), 271-288.

√ Parker, Sam and Gabrielle Chefitz (2018) Debtbook Diplomacy, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

√ Brautigam, Deborah (2020) ‘A critical look at Chinese debt-trap diplomacy: the rise of a meme’, Area Development and Policy, 5:1, 1-14.

√ Scott Wingo (2020) ‘The Rise and Fall of the Resource-backed Loan 2/18/2020 PART 1 AND PART 2

https://www.ccpwatch.org/single-post/2020/02/18/The-Rise-and-Fall-of-the-Resource-backed-Loan

Sanne van der Lugt (2020) ‘Six Persistent Myths about China-Africa Relations’, Spectator, https://spectator.clingendael.org/nl/publicatie/six-persistent-myths-about-china-africa-relations

√ Ezeanya, Chika (2012)’Tragedy of the new AU headquarters’, 2 pp.

√ Abdou Rahim Lema and Samu Ngwenya, 2020, ‘China’s Role in Regional Integration in Africa: The Case of East African Community’, Stanford International Policy Review, https://fsi.stanford.edu/sipr/content/sipr-lema-and-ngwenya

VIDEOS

√ Empire, the new scramble for Africa

√ Talk Africa, Industrializing Africa, 25 min (CCTV News)

5. CHINESE TRADERS AND PRIVATE INVESTORS IN AFRICA

√ Botchwey, Gabriel, Gordon Crawford, Nicholas Loubere, Lu Jixia (2018) ‘South‐South Irregular Migration: The Impacts of China's Informal Gold Rush in Ghana’ International Migration, 310-328.

√ Hausermann, Heidi, Janet Adomako, and Maya Robles (2020) ‘Fried eggs and all-women gangs: the geopolitics of Chinese gold mining in Ghana, bodily vulnerability, and resistance’, Human Geography.

√ Heidi Østbø Haugen (2018) ‘Petty commodities, serious business: the governance of fashion jewellery chains between China and Ghana’, Global Networks 18/2, pp. 307-325.

VIDEO

√ China's African Gold Rush

6. CHINA AS A MODEL FOR AFRICA

√ Tang, Xiaoyang (2020) ‘Co-evolutionary Pragmatism: Re-examine “China Model” and its Impact on Developing Countries’, J’ournal of Contemporary China, 1-18.

√ Kapchanga, Mark, (2020) Africa may learn from China’s political path to revitalize its own development plans’, Global times, May 25.

7. LABOR AND MANAGEMENT

√ Carlos Oya (2019), Building and Industrial Workforce in Ethiopia’, SOAS, https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/31451/

Ching Kwan Lee (2014) The Specter of Global China, New Left Review, Sept-Oct, 29-65.

√ Chin Kwang Lee (2017) The Specter of Global China. Politics, Labor, and Foreign Investments in Africa, The University of Chicago Press: CHAPTER 3: ‘Labor Bargains: Regimes of Exploitation and Exclusion’, pp. 57-92.

√ Chin Kwang Lee, The Specter of Global China. Politics, Labor, and Foreign Investments in Africa, The University of Chicago Press, 2017,: CHAPTER 4, ‘Managerial Ethos: Collective Ascetism versus Individual Careerism’, pp. 93- 122.

√ Nyasha Chingono (2020) ‘Shooting of Zimbabwe workers by Chinese mine owner shows 'systemic' abuse, watchdog says’, https://www.e-mc2.gr/el/news/shooting-zimbabwe-workers-chinese-mine-owner-shows-systemic-abuse-watchdog-says

√ ‘Ethiopia booming business underpaid workers’ 2017, 4 pp

VIDEOS

√ Chinese companies move production to Africa

√ Al Jazeera Ethiopia-China 2018

√ Chinese companies boost Ethiopia manufacturing industries 2018

8. DEVELOPMENT AID

√ Robert Wyrod (2019) ‘In the General’s Valley. China, Africa, and the Limits of Developmental Pragmatism’ Sociology of Development, 5 (2), 174-197.

√ Pepa, Mariasole (forthcoming) ‘Rethinking the political economy of Chinese-African Agricultural Cooperation: The Chinese Agricultural Technology Demonstration Centers’

√ Paul Kadetz [https://chinaafricaproject.com/author/paul-kadetz/] (2020) ‘Health Diplomacy or Health Dependency: A Critical Assessment of China’s Health Aid to Madagascar’ https://chinaafricaproject.com/2020/07/21/

9. AFRICAN AGENCY

√ Chipaike,Ronald and Paul Henri Bischoff (2018) ‘A Challenge to Conventional Wisdom: Locating Agency in Angola’s and Ghana’s Economic Engagements with China’, Journal of Asian and African Studies, 1-16.

√ Ana Cristina Alvez and Sergio Chichava (2019) ‘Neo-partimonialism and extraversion in China’s relations with Angola and Mozambique: is Beijing making a difference?’ in New Directions in Africa-China Studies (edited by Chris Alden and Daniel Large), Routledge.

√ P´adraig Carmody & Peter Kragelund (2016) Who is in Charge? State Power and Agency in Sino-African Relations’ Cornell International Law Journal 49, 1-23.

10. LAND GRABBING

√ Sassen, Saskia (2013) ‘Land Grabs Today: Feeding the Disassembling of National Territory’, Globalizations,10 (1) 25-46.

√ Cotula, Lorenzo (2013) ‘Land Grabbing in Africa’ 4 pp

√ Cotula, Lorenzo (2016) ‘How investment treaties protect land grab deals’ 3 pp

√ Der Spiegel, (2009) ‘Foreign Investors Snap up African Land’

√ Chelwa, Grieve (2015) ‘The land grabs in Africa you don’t hear about’, 3 pp.

VIDEOS for LAND GRABBING

√ Africa Land Grab: New Century, More Colonizers

√ Land grabbing in Africa: 21 Century colonialism, 35 min  

11. AFRICANS IN CHINA

√ T. Tu Huynh (2015) ‘A ‘Wild West’ of trade? African women and men and the gendering of globalisation from below in Guangzhou’, Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, pp. 1-20.

√ Heidi Ostbo Haugen (2018) ‘From Pioneers to Professionals: African Brokers in a Chinese Maturing Marketplace’, African Studies Quarterly, 17/4, 2018, pp. 45-62.

√ Lan Shanshan (2017), Mapping the New African Diaspora in China, Chapter 2: Chinese Internet Representation of African Migrants in Guangzhou’, pp 45-71

√ Lan Shanshan (2017), Mapping the New African Diaspora in China, ‘Conclusion: China as a Ley Site of Transnational Racial Knowledge Production’, pp. 185-200.

VIDEOS

√ Africans in China

√ The Guangzhou Dream Factory 1:05 h

√ African business in China, Witness

√ Some African students narrate their experience studying in China, 3 min

√ African migration from Europe to China, 50 min

11. FURTHER READING

√ Maneri, Marcello (2020) ‘Breaking the race taboo in a besieged Europe: how photographs of the ‘refugee crisis’ reproduce racialized hierarchy, Ethnic and Racial studies.

√ Hidefumi, Nishiyama (2019) ‘Racializing surveillance through language: the role of selective translation in the promotion of public vigilance against migrants”, Ethnic and Racial Studies.

√ Carlos Oya, 2018, Labour regimes and workplace encounters between China and Africa, SOAS. AC.UK/ IDCEA, 34 pp.

√ Xu, Xiuli & Li, Xiaoyun & Qi, Gubo & Tang, Lixia & Mukwereza, Langton (2016) ‘Science, Technology, and the Politics of Knowledge: The Case of China’s Agricultural Technology Demonstration Centers in Africa’ World Development, 81(C), 82-91.

√ Kwerr Ampiah (2019) ‘Themes and thoughts in Africanists’ discourse about China and Africa, in New Directions in Africa-China Studies (edited by Chris Alden and Daniel Large), Routledge, 2019.

√ Chin Kwang Lee (2017) The Specter of Global China. Politics, Labor, and Foreign Investments in Africa, The University of Chicago Press: APPENDIX: ‘An Ethnographer’s Odyssey: The Mundane and the Sublime of Researching China in Zambia’ 2017. 

√ Paul M. Barrett and Dorothee Baumann-Pauly (2019)Made in Ethiopia: Challenges in the Garment Industry’s New Frontiers. 

√ Bräutigam, Deborah, & Tang Xiaoyang. (2009). ‘China's Engagement in African Agriculture: “Down to the Countryside”’ The China Quarterly, 199, 686-706. doi:10.1017/S0305741009990166

Teaching methods

Lectures and discussions in class, including watching and discussing images and videos. Students are strongly encouraged to present in class.

Assessment methods

Students attending classwork will

1. make presentations to the class and stimulate the classroom discussion on one or more papers included in the readings list and other papers agreed with the instructor;
2. write a final paper (3000 words) - agreed with the instructor - on one of the topics addressed in class. A topic not included in the readings list – and the relevant bibliography- can be agreed with the instructor. Student initiative in articulating themes, connecting different texts and visual materials, proposing videoclips or other visual products linked to the topic of the course will be positively evaluated.

Students not attending classwork will take an oral exam on the readings and the videos of the course. Questions will aim at testing the student ability to critically address the proposed issues and build an argument with an appropriate language.

For both students attending and not attending classes, the assessment will take into consideration:

1. Proper knowledge of the subjects
2. Ability to critically analyze and connect concepts, images, and themes
3. Competences in the use of appropriate terminology

Teaching tools

Readings are complemented with videos and images. Two guest lecturers have been invited, others may be invited.

Office hours

See the website of Antonella Ceccagno