{UAH} Dealing with Chinese racism

Professor Makau Mutua, the maverick Kenyan academic, columnist and chair of Kenya Human Rights Commission, drew praise and consternation in equal measure recently when he called on the Kenyan government and people to treat the Chinese the same way Chinese racists treated Africans in the last few weeks in Guangzhou city in Guangdong province.

Although we should applaud China for supporting many projects in Uganda and Africa, recent events proved that there is more than meets the eye in our dalliance with the Asian dragon.

Human Rights Watch in recent days released a report saying black Africans faced terrible forms of racism in China as that country combats the coronavirus disease pandemic.

So, have the Chinese been nice all along and only become racist due to Covid-19? Mutua should know better because in Kenya they actually have a case of a Chinese manager who was deported from the country for referring to President Uhuru Kenyatta as a "monkey" and a Chinese restaurant in Nairobi had to be closed for refusing to serve blacks!

Prof Mutua said: "Kenya should retaliate by publicly and loudly expelling a good number of Chinese citizens to register its anger over the Chinese forced evictions, or ethnic cleansing, of Kenyans in Wuhan. This is the only way to teach the Chinese a lesson. Then Kenya must start unwinding its unconscionable enslavement."

For years, China and African leaders have promoted the narrative that China was Africa's best friend, without questioning Beijing's motives for seeking a foothold on the continent.

So it is no longer some Europeans and white Americans that are stereotypical racists but China has joined the list, in the worst possible fashion.

The Chinese government and their embassies in different African countries have been trying to do damage control but racist actions are difficult to wish away with diplomatic pronouncements.

I do not support the views by many that Africans should discriminate against Chinese. Let us respond to the abominable behavior of Chinese people and officials in Guangzhou, by showing them that we will not treat Chinese the way they did to Africans.

Hilda Mukiibi,

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"When a man is stung by a bee, he doesn't set off to destroy all beehives"

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