In my last post I noted how, for years, children across Africa have conspired to chant “white person! White person!” at the sight of a foreigner. A change, however, may be afoot.
From Anonymous:
In Lesotho, the word for white man would seem to be “chinese! chinese!”
From Gwen:
In Monrovia, I would periodically get ‘China Girl’ (I’m a white woman). Although my favorite was ‘Disco Lady’.
From kifimbocheza:
anonymous and gwen beat me to it and confirmed the trend. the penetration of africa by china has also reached my neighbourhood, where “mzungu!” has been replaced by “mchina!”.
I’d love to be called ‘disco lady’
Might we have inadvertantly discovered a new barometer for shifts in global power and influence?
4 Responses
mchina literally means Chinese in Swahili. That’s all…
In many places in northern India they still call whities “Angrej” – English.
welcome to dar, codrin! My lovely next door neighbour is Chinese.
chinese are my favourite expats. they learn the language, discover how things work and all make a buck. You have to respect them.
Absolutely hilarious. People called me disco man here in Kampala as well. It’s really funny. But that happens because I wear a pretty funky shirt. The words that are China-related – priceless. I am traveling to East Africa where I’m doing research on the consequences of Chinese Investment. I’ll do a lot of research in Dar es Salaam. There’s a real China Town over there. I’m honestly excited about it.