Noo Saro-Wiwa on “Black Ghosts” in China and the Complex Lives of the African Diaspora

Author Noo Saro-Wiwa had not spent much time in China when she heard that cities like Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Yiwu, among others, were home to large, vibrant African migrant communities. But other than some of the headlines about the diaspora population that appeared during the COVID pandemic, she didn’t know much about this faraway population.

So, she set out on a three-month odyssey through China to meet the traders and other African merchants who make up the bulk of this community to find out more about their lives and what it’s like for them to live in Chinese society.

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by Eric Olander

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