Chinese in Zambia - Straight through Africa | VPRO Documentary

Forty years ago, the Chinese laid a train track through Zambia. Bram Vermeulen travels through the African country by train to discover how the relationship between these countries is now.

Zambia and China are old friends. When the African country became independent in 1964, the Asians were the first to queue to lend a helping hand. Communist China, itself still poor, took the lead in the construction of a railway that ran through Zambia and neighboring Tanzania to the port city of Dar es Salaam. Of course, that was not only out of kindness; the Chinese saw trade opportunities in the area.

More than forty years later, it turns out that the railroad ran into a grandiose failure that cost China a lot of money - you can read more about this in this story by Sean van der Steen, with beautiful photographs. However, the Chinese presence in Zambia has become indispensable, Bram notes. He comes across them along the train route. For example, Chinese people run a copper mine, breed chickens on a large scale and have large factories.

Zambians work on this economic activity, under Chinese bosses. Not everybody is happy with that. Bram visits a village where an explosives factory has exploded. The Chinese owners had not taken it so closely with the safety regulations. The incident is illustrative of the working methods of Chinese in Africa: care for the employees is subordinate to the profits. Also in a copper mine, it appears that the working conditions are far from ideal, and that employees openly complain about their low salary.

De opzichter van de mijn beklaagt zich op zijn beurt over de arbeiders: hij vindt Zambianen maar onhandig en lui. ‘We trainen al vele jaren Zambiaanse arbeiders. Er is een groot verloop onder het personeel. Ze gaan naar andere bedrijven zodra ze vaardigheden hebben verworven.’

Het zijn trouwens niet alleen Zambianen die met de arbeidsomstandigheden in hun maag zitten. Chinees personeel, dat letterlijk niet mag klagen, doet tegen Bram toch een boekje open. Het leven op een afgesloten compound, ver van familie en vrienden, bestaat bijna geheel uit werk en verplichte culturele activiteiten. Van integratie is geen sprake.

Maar het is niet allemaal kommer en kwel. Ondernemende Zambianen vertrekken naar China en komen soms steenrijk terug. Een man die met een Chinese partner een textielbedrijf begon, leidt Bram rond door zijn grote huis. Zambianen kunnen in eigen land niet op tegen de Chinese concurrentie, zegt hij, en daar zou de overheid iets aan moeten veranderen. Het zou volgens hem veel helpen als buitenlandse ondernemers net als in China verplicht zouden worden een Zambiaanse partner in de arm te nemen.

De vicepresident van het land erkent dat er problemen zijn. Chinese boeren verdringen de Zambianen, er wordt gesjoemeld met werkvergunningen, alle winst verdwijnt naar China. Werken is alles wat de Chinezen doen, zeven dagen per week, en ze eisen hetzelfde van hun Zambiaanse personeel. De oude communistische vriend heeft feitelijk kapitalisme in zijn puurste vorm in het land geïntroduceerd.

Episode 5. A trail of Chinese

Forty years ago, the Chinese built a railway through Zambia. Bram Vermeulen travels the country by train in order to discover how relations between the two countries currently are.Director: Doke Romeijn and Stefanie de Brouwer
© VPRO October 2014

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