Dunia P. Zongwe, lecturer at the University of Namibia, recently wrote
a review essay of China’s Second
Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building an Empire in Africa by
Howard French. A summary of the review is below; the full version can be found here.
Edited
Excerpt from "It Takes More Than a Million
Migrants to Build a Continental Empire"
Rich in facts, poor in logic. This phrase perhaps most
tellingly describes China’s Second Continent, a book authored by Howard
French on Chinese migrants in Africa. In it, the author argues that Chinese
migration to Africa exhibits imperial patterns of the past and that it is
likely to repeat those patterns in the future. Written in a limpid and elegant
style, graced with interesting interviews, fascinating stories, vivid
descriptions and profound insights, China’s Second Continent is quite an
informative book, which is in itself a good reason to read it. No doubt the
book would have been much better if it had done away with its main thesis and
the author’s attempts to prove it. This review essay examines the way that the
author built his argument.
Howard French’s thesis is flawed on two levels. On a
general level, the evidence presented by the author of China’s Second
Continent does not prove his thesis. It has failed to establish that
Chinese migrants dominate local populations, or that Africans have lost or are
losing the ability to resist. It has also failed to provide clear historical
precedents for the author’s prediction that the ‘unquestionably peaceful’
migration of Chinese nationals to Africa will, without militarism, be the cause
of imperialism. On the contrary, several counterexamples defy this prediction. The
evidence is neither internally consistent nor broadly representative of the
multifaceted relationships between Africans and Chinese migrants. In essence,
the book’s methodology is ill-suited to its own purposes while the hearsay and
the anecdotes on which it heavily relies are not generalizable to a wider, future
universe.
On a basic level, the problem with French’s thesis is
definitional. His notion of ‘migration’ is undefined and erroneously based on
race; his definition of ‘imperialism’ is ambiguous and unscientific. Despite
the absence of a common understanding of who is a ‘migrant’, the author does
not define this vital notion; instead, his definition is based (contrary to
normal practice) on race, not nationality. Furthermore, since – in French’s
vision of things – ‘imperialism’ can happen in any way, it will happen, anyway.
Since French’s definition of ‘imperialism’ is not grounded, it can be implied
that his ‘prediction’ is not scientific. It cannot be empirically tested (or
refuted, for that matter) and, consequently, people should not regret that the
Chinese migrants in Africa will become ‘imperialists’ in the world imagined by
French.
[1] Lecturer, University of Namibia. J.S.D. (Cornell);
LL.M. (Cornell); Cert. (Univ. Montréal); LL.B., B.Juris (Univ. Namibia). I am
grateful to the participants at the mini US-Africa Summit held on Nov. 6, 2014
at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University.
Their questions, comments and criticisms informed this review essay’s final
substantive section ‘It takes billions to build African economies’. In
particular, I thank Horace G. Campbell for suggesting that I write a review of China’s
Second Continent. I am also indebted to Joëlle Bergeron, Deborah Bräutigam,
Horace Campbell and Mamoudou Gazibo for their critical and constructive
comments on earlier drafts of the essay. The views expressed in this review
essay do not necessarily reflect those of the people who commented on the essay
and the participants at the Summit. I am solely responsible for the contents of
this review essay and its failings, if any.
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