While the world reels under the Covid-19 pandemic and the socially and economically disruptive measures taken to combat it, there has been much controversy around the extent to which it has stoked prejudiced sentiments.
US president, Donald Trump, came in for criticism for having referred to it as the Chinese virus. Amnesty International, for example, produced a message reading ‘Calling it the Chinese virus is racist.’
However reports from China suggest that the pandemic is spurring another form of prejudice. Africans living in the southern city of Guangzhou have allegedly been targeted by both the authorities and members of the local population, who fear that they might be carrying the virus.
This comes as a number of cases of the virus have been linked to the African community in Guangzhou’s Yuexiu district. China has also directed attention to the influx of the disease from abroad, with a number of such cases being from Africa. Attention has also been garnered by reports of Nigerian nationals who defied quarantine regulations, resulting in a need to trace, test and quarantine 1 000 people who may have had contact with them.
This appears to have triggered the eviction of Africans living in Guangzhou from their homes, or refused rooms in hotels and service in restaurants. Online videos appear to confirm this – one showed a fast food restaurant showing a notice in English stating that ‘black’ people would not be allowed. Africans have also reportedly been on the receiving end of online abuse. Others have been subjected to confinement in their places of residence. There are also allegations of prejudicial and discriminatory treatment by state agencies.
A community group called the All African Community in Guangzhou said that China was ‘at war’ with Africa. It was quoted in the Financial Times as saying: ‘The inhuman treatment, hatred, and outright discrimination of Africans that is currently going on in Guangzhou, China is beyond expression.’
Several African governments, as well as the African Union Commission, have protested about the state of affairs. The Chinese government said that it treated all people equally, but said it would address ‘reasonable concerns and legitimate appeals’.
It has been noted that the mistreatment of Africans in China could be damaging to China’s diplomacy around the outbreak. It has sought to downplay the origins of the pandemic and its own missteps in dealing with it in its early days, while also providing support in combating it abroad, and attempting to deflect criticism by accusing its detractors of prejudice.