Chinatown | |||||||
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Chinese | 唐人街 | ||||||
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Alternative Chinese name | |||||||
Traditional Chinese | 中國城 | ||||||
Simplified Chinese | 中国城 | ||||||
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Second alternative Chinese name | |||||||
Traditional Chinese | 華埠 | ||||||
Simplified Chinese | 华埠 | ||||||
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Chinatowns |
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This article discusses Chinatowns in Africa. There are at least three major Chinatowns in Africa.
As former colonies of Europe, the coastal African nations of Madagascar, Mauritius, and South Africa were the main receiving points of Chinese immigrants from the 1890s to the early part of the 20th century. The early Chinese arrived to labour in the Transvaal gold mines of South Africa and on the Tananrive Tamatave railway of Madagascar. Many of these Chinese immigrants were exploited.
Today, South Africa remains the top African destination for first-generation Chinese-speaking immigrants.
In the capital Nairobi, there is a small pocket of Chinese businesses along Argwings Kodhek Road in the Kilimani district, near the Chaka Place shopping center. [1] There is a newer Chinatown with a larger collection of businesses on the former campus of Baraton University's Nairobi extension campus.
Madagascar has received some Chinese immigrants. In Madagascar, there are about 30,000 Chinese, the majority of them came from the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong. A Chinatown, called Quartier chinois, is located in Antananarivo.
The Chinatown or Quartier chinois is in the city of Port Louis on rue Royale. The Hakka Chinese are the dominant group among the Chinese in Mauritius. The Chinatown of Port Louis is one of the oldest in Africa. In the 1780s, thousands of Chinese migrated to Mauritius and quickly formed a small Chinatown, the "Camp des chinois", in Port Louis. [2] The Chinatown of Port Louis hosts a very popular "Chinese Food and Cultural Festival" every year, which is appreciated by Mauritians of all communities.
There is a small Chinese district, supermarket, and arch in Windhoek.
China Town, a Chinese-dominated business arena in the Ojota area of Lagos. The giant shopping centre, which sits on an expanse of land measuring 20,000 square metres, will no longer be for only economic activities. It will also help facilitate robust bilateral relationships between Nigerians and the Chinese people.
Inner-city Johannesburg has a Chinatown on Commissioner Street, but a newer Chinatown can be found on Derrick Avenue in the hilly suburb of Cyrildene. Most of the inhabitants of the Cyrildene Chinatown are recent immigrants from mainland China. [3] A Chinatown also exists in the city of Port Elizabeth with the first settlement located in the South End district of the city until the Apartheid government forcibly removed the Chinese from the district. [4] The Chinese were later removed to Kabega Park area. [5]
In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s immigrants from Taiwan settled extensively in South Africa. [6] South Africa's first Taiwan-born legislator was elected in the 1980s. After South Africa recognised the People's Republic of China in 1998 large numbers of mainland Chinese immigrated to the country. South African Chinese are dispersed throughout South African cities. During the Apartheid regime (1948–93) Chinese South Africans were classified as "Coloureds" or "Asian South Africans", while certain East Asian nationals (such as Japan and Taiwan) in South Africa were declared honorary whites and thus avoided most forms of official discriminatory laws (they could live in reserved white neighborhoods unlike native/black, and Asian-Indian South Africans), since Apartheid created a strict racial segregation system for non-white/European persons (esp. the black majority) in South Africa.
Chinatown is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.
Raymond Mphakamisi Mhlaba OMSG was an anti-apartheid activist, Communist and leader of the African National Congress (ANC) also as well the first premier of the Eastern Cape. Mhlaba spent 25 years of his life in prison. Well known for being sentenced, along with Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu and others in the Rivonia Trial, he was an active member of the ANC and the South African Communist Party (SACP) all his adult life. His kindly manner brought him the nickname "Oom Ray".
In South Africa, Asian usually refers to people of South Asian ancestry, more commonly called Indians. They are largely descended from people who migrated to South Africa in the late 19th and early 20th century from British ruled South Asia.
Mauritius is a multi-ethnic, multilingual and a plural society with a population composed mainly of four major ethnic and religious groups. It is often depicted as a "rainbow nation".
Urban Chinatowns exist in several major European cities. There is a Chinatown in London, England, as well as major Chinatowns in Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle and Liverpool. In Paris there are two Chinatowns: one where many Vietnamese – specifically ethnic Chinese refugees from Vietnam – have settled in the Quartier chinois in the 13th arrondissement of Paris which is Europe's largest Chinatown, and the other in Belleville in the northeast of Paris. Berlin, Germany has two Chinatowns, one in the East and one in the West. Antwerp, Belgium also has an upstart Chinese community.
This article discusses Chinatowns in Oceania.
Lenasia, also known as Lenz, is a suburb south of Soweto in the Gauteng province, South Africa, originally created to house Indians. It is located in Region G of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. Lenasia is approximately 35 kilometres southwest of the Johannesburg Central Business District.
Like many other communities, the older Chinatowns face certain social problems. Although Chinatowns are now generally viewed and valued as tourist attractions, their earlier reputation was that of dangerous or dilapidated ghettos and slums, sites of brothels, opium dens, and gambling halls.
Chinese South Africans are Overseas Chinese who reside in South Africa, including those whose ancestors came to South Africa in the early 20th century until Chinese immigration was banned under the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1904. Chinese industrialists from the Republic of China (Taiwan) who arrived in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, and post-apartheid immigrants to South Africa now outnumber locally-born Chinese South Africans.
Chinatown is a neighbourhood located in the area of De la Gauchetière Street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The neighbourhood contains many Asian restaurants, food markets, and convenience stores as well being home to many of Montreal's East Asian community centres, such as the Montreal Chinese Hospital and the Montreal Chinese Community and Cultural Centre.
Mauritians of Chinese origin, also known as Sino-Mauritians or Chinese Mauritians, are Mauritians who trace their ethnic ancestry to China.
Apartheid was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an authoritarian political culture based on baasskap, which ensured that South Africa was dominated politically, socially, and economically by the nation's minority white population. Under this minoritarian system, white citizens held the highest status, followed by Indians, Coloureds and black Africans, in that order. The economic legacy and social effects of apartheid continue to the present day, particularly inequality.
Commissioner Street is a major one-way street (westwards) in the Central Business District of Johannesburg, South Africa. It runs from the M31 to the R41, and is indicated as part of the R24. The Carlton Centre, the 5th-tallest building in Africa as of 2024, is located on the street, as is the southern end of Newtown. There is little evidence of Commissioner Street's exact origin, although it is known that this street played a role in the development of Johannesburg.
Group Areas Act was the title of three acts of the Parliament of South Africa enacted under the apartheid government of South Africa. The acts assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas in a system of urban apartheid. An effect of the law was to exclude people of colour from living in the most developed areas, which were restricted to Whites. It required many people of colour to commute large distances from their homes to be able to work. The law led to people of colour being forcibly removed for living in the "wrong" areas. People of colour, who were the majority at the time, were given much smaller areas to live in than the white minority. Pass Laws required people of colour to carry pass books and later "reference books", similar to passports, to enter the "white" parts of the country.
A referendum on ending apartheid was held in South Africa on 17 March 1992. The referendum was limited to white South African voters, who were asked whether or not they supported the negotiated reforms begun by State President F. W. de Klerk two years earlier, in which he proposed to end the apartheid system that had been implemented since 1948. The result of the election was a large victory for the "yes" side, which ultimately resulted in apartheid being lifted. Universal suffrage was introduced two years later for the country's first non-racial elections.
Honorary whites was a political term that was used by the apartheid regime of South Africa to grant some of the rights and privileges of whites to those who would otherwise have been treated as non-whites under the Population Registration Act. It was enacted by the then ruling National Party (NP).
Cyrildene is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa, predominantly home to Chinese people. The area is found east of the Johannesburg CBD and is surrounded by the suburbs of Linksfield, Observatory and Bruma. It is noted for a new Chinatown that exists on Derrick Avenue. This new Chinatown is now considered as the main Chinatown in Johannesburg, replacing the declining Chinatown on Commissioner Street in the inner-city of Johannesburg. It is located in Region F of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality.
Chinese people in Madagascar are a minority ethnic group of Madagascar and form Africa's third largest overseas Chinese population with a population estimated at between 70,000 and 100,000 in 2011. They are divided between local Chinese population called "Sinoa zanatany" who arrived during the french colonization, speaking mostly malagasy dialects, located in eastern and southeastern part of Madagascar and post-colonial chinese migrants speaking mostly Mandarin who live mainly in the capital Antananarivo.
The Quartier asiatique, also called Triangle de Choisy or Petite Asie is the largest commercial and cultural center for the population of Asian origin of Paris. It is located in the southeast of the 13th arrondissement in an area that contains many high-rise apartment buildings. Despite its status as a "Chinatown", the neighborhood also contains significant Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian populations.
Summerstrand is a seaside suburb of Port Elizabeth, South Africa. It is located 6 km (3.7 mi) south-east of the Port Elizabeth city centre. It is primarily a residential suburb along with shopping and business facilities. It is also home to three Nelson Mandela University campuses.
Enforced removals continued for ten years until as late as 1975. All non-whites were moved to different locations with Port Elizabeth. The Chinese people were relocated to Kabega Park, the Indians to Malabar, the Coloureds and Muslims to Gelvandale and Bethelsdorp. The Xhosa speaking peoples were shifted to New Brighton and the Red Location.