China and Africans : A Pandemic of Prejudice

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 May 2020

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Videos and images of Africans being evicted from their apartments, forced into quarantine, blocked from hotels and even being barred from a local McDonald’s in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou recently went viral on social media. Danny Vincent looks at the way the coronavirus has amplified existing tensions and says the injustices faced by Africans in China are a by-product of authoritarian rule.

Millions of Italians are enjoying their first taste of freedom, meeting loved ones after a two month long separation now that the lockdown rules have eased. But the shutdown inflicted deep wounds in a country which already had serious economic problems and the south is the hardest hit says Mark Lowen in Naples.

In Lebanon anger over a failing economy and unaffordable food has pushed protesters into the streets despite fears of infection says Abbie Cheeseman. They are calling it The Hunger Revolution.

Katie Arnold detects a rebellious mood in South Africa where a film star turned squatter is highlighting shocking disparities between rich and poor when it comes to housing and land ownership.

And Trish Flanagan gets away from it all on a deserted coastal path in the West of Ireland past the soaring Cliffs of Moher where you can sometimes spot puffins, razerbills and peregrine falcons.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:05.0	Good morning. Today they may have sung heartily from their balconies, but what now for the Italians?
0:12.0	We're in Naples, hearing what the future holds after Europe's
0:15.7	longest lockdown. They're on the streets again in Lebanon in protest and it's being called
0:21.9	the Hunger Revolution. A rebellious mood in South Africa too
0:26.6	with the shocking disparities between rich and poor highlighted by a film star turned squatter.
0:32.2	And longing for the countryside the open sky
0:36.3	we're on the wild Atlantic way in Ireland. First the pandemic seems to be
0:42.3	exposing some of the more harsh realities of our societies.
0:46.0	In China, not just the authoritarian regime, all too obvious, but the situation of its immigrant communities.
0:54.0	The southern city of Guangzhou has the largest African community in the country.
0:59.0	People from Ghana, Nigeria, Mali, among others, who started to arrive in the late 90s chasing business
1:06.6	opportunities and reputable universities. China, of course, had been establishing a presence right across the African continent.
1:15.0	There have been tensions, but now, says Danny Vincent, the coronavirus has pushed things much further.
1:22.0	Simon was given until midnight to leave. has pushed things much further.
1:26.0	Simon was given until midnight to leave his apartment. The landlord told him that the police no longer allowed him to rent to Africans
1:30.0	because of fears that a second wave of the coronavirus was spreading amongst the
1:35.8	African communities. So he packed his belongings and spent the night on the
1:40.2	streets. Hundreds of Africans like Simon, a shoe trader from Nigeria, were thrown out of their
1:46.6	flats and hotels that night and forced into quarantine centres and hospital wards where they faced repeated tests.
1:55.0	As long as you're black, you're being told to quarantine, he told me from a hospital ward.
2:01.0	Europeans and other foreigners don't have to follow the same rules.
	...

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