In Guangzhou, the largest city in south China, approximately 20000 Africans are trying to make a life for themselves as traders in wholesale markets. Here, they hope to carve out their own piece of the Chinese economical miracle. The traders buy clothes, toys, auto parts, telephones, soccer merchandise – pretty much anything which offers the chance of a profit – and ship them to Africa. More than half of the Africans in Guangzhou are from Nigeria, others are from e.g. Ghana, Mali, Kenya, Cameroun and Gabon. But life in Guangzhou is not easy. The traders complain that Chinese authorities only issue short term visas making it impossible to turn investements in plane tickets and visa fees into a profit in the short span of time they are allowed to stay in China. As a result, the majority of the traders overstay their visas and in effect become illegal migrants. If caught by police they go to jail and will have to pay up to 700USD in overstay fees before they are released – whereafter they will be deported. It is a Catch 22 as the traders say they have to overstay to make a profit, but once they are overstaying, they have to stay even longer to make enough to pay the overstay fees. Chinese police mount freqent raids on the wholesale markets and friction between the two communities is high. Some traders point out that their homecountries offer much better opportunities to Chinese business men than the Chinese offer the Africans and that all they wish for is to be allowed to do business in a legal and orderly way. Still, thousands of Africans take their chances in China as, despite the risks and hassle, opportunities here are often better than the countries they hail from.
The story was shot for The New Yorker and since published in Le Monde2. It is available through Reportage by Getty Images.
