Chinatown | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chinese | 唐人街 | ||||||
| |||||||
Alternative Chinese name | |||||||
Traditional Chinese | 中國城 | ||||||
Simplified Chinese | 中国城 | ||||||
| |||||||
Second alternative Chinese name | |||||||
Traditional Chinese | 華埠 | ||||||
Simplified Chinese | 华埠 | ||||||
|
Chinatowns |
---|
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.
A Chinatown is 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.
Johannesburg is the most populous city in South Africa, classified as a megacity; it is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demographia, the Johannesburg–Pretoria urban area is the 26th-largest in the world in terms of population, with 14,167,000 inhabitants. It is the provincial capital and largest city of Gauteng, which is the wealthiest province in South Africa. Johannesburg is the seat of the Constitutional Court, the highest court in South Africa. Most of the major South African companies and banks have their head offices in Johannesburg. The city is located within the mineral-rich Witwatersrand hills, the epicentre of the international-scale mineral, gold and (specifically) diamond trade.
Raymond Mphakamisi Mhlaba 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 and multi-language society; it is also a plural society with its population mainly composed of four ethnic groups and four major religious groups; it is often depicted as a "rainbow nation". The island of Mauritius did not have any indigenous population; historically, it was characterized by successive waves of European colonization and multiple immigrations. Under the French rule between 1715 and 1810, slaves were imported on the island from mainland Africa and Madagascar; slavery was only abolished in 1835 due to the British commitment to end slavery. Indian migrants from Pondicherry first started to arrive in Mauritius under the French rule in 1736; The 18th century also saw one the earliest influx of Chinese migrants into Mauritius, who mostly came from Fujian. Under British rule, more Indian migrants came to Mauritius following the emancipation of the slaves in 1835. From the 1800s, Chinese migrants from Southern China arrived in Mauritius, first as indentured labourers and later as free merchants. Since 1860, Hakka immigration started and continued until they became the dominant group of Chinese in Mauritius at the beginning of the 20th century. The co-existence of Mauritians of Indian, African, European, and Chinese ancestry eventually led to a sharing of values and cultures, a collective participation in festivals, and an increased understanding between people of different ethnic backgrounds. Mauritians from different cultural backgrounds are very distinct from each other, and it is also highly unpopular to encourage the dissolution of cultural boundaries in Mauritius. Presently, the Mauritian society continues to be culturally and linguistically French-dominated.
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 part of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. Lenasia is approximately 35 kilometres southwest of the Johannesburg Central Business District and 45 kilometres south of the Sandton Central Business District.
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 in Montreal is located in the area of De la Gauchetière Street in Montreal. 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 Center.
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. Apartheid was characterised by an authoritarian political culture based on baasskap, which ensured that South Africa was dominated politically, socially, and economically through minoritarianism by the nation's dominant minority white population. According to this system of social stratification, white citizens had the highest status, followed by Indians and Coloureds, then Black Africans. 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 the R24. The Carlton Centre, the 2nd-tallest building in Africa, 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 color from living in the most developed areas, which were restricted to Whites. It required many people of color to commute large distances from their homes to be able to work. The law led to people of color being forcibly removed for living in the "wrong" areas. The majority that was people of color, were given much smaller areas to live in than the white minority who owned most of the country. Pass Laws required people of color to carry pass books and later "reference books", similar to passports, to enter the "white" parts of the country.
White South Africans generally refers to South Africans of European descent. In linguistic, cultural, and historical terms, they are generally divided into the Afrikaans-speaking descendants of the Dutch East India Company's original settlers, known as Afrikaners, and the Anglophone descendants of predominantly British colonists of South Africa. In 2016, 57.9% were native Afrikaans speakers, 40.2% were native English speakers, and 1.9% spoke another language as their mother tongue, such as Portuguese, Greek, or German. White South Africans are by far the largest population of White Africans. White was a legally defined racial classification during apartheid.
Honorary whites was a political terminology 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.
The Congress Alliance was an anti-apartheid political coalition formed in South Africa in the 1950s. Led by the African National Congress, the CA was multi-racial in makeup and committed to the principle of majority rule.
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.