Without Africa's "Blessing"

I arose unhealthily early this morning (to say “I arose at the crack of dawn” would be a lie, for the Durban sun rises at 5:00 a.m.) and ventured downtown to meet with Blessing Karumbidza, a renowned scholar of China’s influence throughout Africa. At 7:30 – our meeting wasn’t until 8:00 – I’d already arrived at our rendezvous spot when a man in a long, colorful dress approached me and furtively asked if I needed any drugs. Playing the part all too well, I shook my head and was about to go sit elsewhere when I heard a loud cackle erupt from the supposed drug dealer – Blessing had been bluffing.

The successful practical joke was a suitably atypical introduction to an equally unique intellectual. Trained as an economic historian with a research focus on rural agricultural sociology, Karumbidza grew up in Zimbabwe but has been living in South Africa for the past decade. Last year Karumbidza had his contract discontinued at the University of Kwazulu-Natal for attempting to organize campus workers and demanding that they receive more equitable wages, but he’s managed to remain remarkably active in Durban nonetheless, conducting research and taking part in various NGO initiatives. Fluent in Zulu, Shona (his native language) and with an eloquent command of the English language, my interview with Karumbidza lasted several hours and got to the very core of my research question of how South African’s view Chinese presence and influence in their country.

Prior to arriving in South Africa, I’d suspected that perceptions of the Chinese here would be determined largely by factors such as occupation and socioeconomic background. I conjectured that while perceptions of the Chinese might take on a degree of ideological and political grounding among the higher rungs of society, among lower and middle class South African’s, direct economic impact would be the main determinant in conceiving of the Chinese influence. Karumbidza listened intently as I explained my thesis before describing his own views and research observations. He argued that because of China’s pretext for being in Africa – that it is here to help lift likewise developing nations out of poverty – and because of China’s lack of a bad track record and historical guilt on the continent, only a tiny portion of South Africa’s population would chose to frame Chinese influence in South Africa in any sort of ideological way. Unlike the West in Africa, the Chinese carry none of the historical baggage of past failures and exploitation. Thus, South African’s perceptions of the Chinese depend almost entirely on how their individual economic livelihoods have been influenced by Chinese engagement on the continent.

Recognizing this differentiation, many of the seemingly aberrant interviews I’d conducted in the past made considerably more sense. When we wrapped up the interview, Blessing provided me with an extensive list of contacts relating to my project, offering to provide an introduction to anyone I wanted. He then proceeded to personally drop me off at the SATWU (South African Textile Workers Union), introducing me to the director so that I could set up an interview. South Africa’s textile industry is currently only a fraction of what it used to be and China is largely to blame. In a number of interviews I’ve conducted, people have mentioned the crippling effect of Chinese imported textiles and clothing, and it will truly be a “blessing” to be able to meet the current director of SATWU.