Current Magazine

“The dream that you hoped for, the better
job, better life is not there. It’s just a dream
that is nowhere to be found in Asia,”
being caught by the police with expired
visas. Several detail struggling to
get enough water and food in one of
the most developed cities in China.
There were also examples of people
coming together. Ceesay helped orga-
page, “Gambians Nightmare in China” detailing the frustrating
and dangerous situations that he and other Gambians in situations as him, by asking each to contribute 5 yuan (about
nize food supplies for a group of 20 Gambians, all in similar
China found themselves in. Now, his story along with those $0.75) a day for food supplies. Africans from other countries
of other returned Gambian migrants, is the basis of a new also showed solidarity.
website called Uturn Asia, done in collaboration with migration
researchers, Heidi Østbø Haugen and Manon Diederich, says Østbø Haugen.”They shared the food and water some-
“The solidarity of West Africans never stops to amaze me,”
from the University of Oslo and the University of Cologne. one had money to buy, and African cooks of other nationalities
“The project came about because they had a strong wish gave them left-overs after their informal restaurants closed.”
to warn others against coming,” says Østbø Haugen. “They It’s unclear whether the project will do much to change
thought they could do so more effectively as a group than as what Østbø Haugen calls the “combination of desperation
individuals, as individual accounts of failure are often written and hopefulness” that motivates many to emigrate. Several
off as attempts to justify ineptness.”
of those interviewed for the project went on to migrate “the
On the website, Ceesay and others detail the full circle, back way” to Europe, as in by crossing the Mediterranean,
or U-turn, they completed: the decision to leave home — a a dangerous sea journey that killed 4,000 migrants last year.
calculus that often involved taking on heavy loans and families
spending years of saving or selling off their few assets — China but decided to go to Europe instead. He died during
One of the interview subjects considered moving back to
optimism replaced by desperation as they ran out of money the crossing, according to Østbø Haugen.
in China, and humiliation as they tried to scrabble enough Despite years of arguing with his younger brother and
money together to go home.
describing his own experience in China, Ceesay’s younger
“The dream that you hoped for–the better job, better life– brother also left home for Europe two weeks ago, traveling
to Libya where Ceesay last heard from him. By Lily Kuo,
is not there. It’s just a dream that is nowhere to be found in
Asia,” Ceesay says.
photos by Alex Lee
Ceesay’s warning is for other African communities, many
of whom have had similar experiences. “What happened to
them has happened to Africans of other nationalities earlier,”
says Østbø Haugen, “but their desire to prevent others from
ending up in the same situation is unique.”
In fact, China’s African population may already be shrinking.
(Researchers say the concentration of Africans in Guangzhou
better known as “Chocolate City” is dispersing.) Estimates
for the number of sub-Saharan Africans in Guangzhou
range from 150,000 long-term residents, according to government
statistics last year, to as high as 300,000 — figures
complicated by the number of Africans coming in and out of
the country as well as those who overstay their visas.
As China’s economy slows and stricter visa requirements
have been put in place, researchers say more African migrants
are opting to go home. Others experience everyday
racism like taxi drivers who won’t pick them up.
The Gambian accounts on Uturn Asia depict a hard life for
Africans in China. They describe living in cramped apartments
where they have to take turns sleeping because there aren’t
enough beds. Many spent their days hiding inside, afraid of
26 CURRENT FALL 2017