(We Make Money Not Art) Chinese Wild West, a collaboration between photographer Paolo Woods and journalist Serge Michel, follows China's industrial neo-colonialism in African lands.
As they explain: To quench its thirst for oil, its hunger for copper, uranium and wood, Beijing has sent out its state companies and its adventurous entrepreneurs to conquer Africa.
For the 500.000 Chinese who have emigrated to the 'dark continent' there is the promise of a 21st century Wild West. Some have struck gold and run large conglomerates that span whole regions of Africa, others are still selling their cheap goods on the burning hot roadsides of the poorest countries in the world.
For the Africans, the arrival of the Chinese is perhaps the most important event of the forty years of independence. The Chinese do not look like the former colonialists. They build roads, dams and hospitals and win over the people. They speak neither of democracy nor transparency and they win over the dictators.
Woods and Michel conclude their presentation of the work with these words: These are rare images: Beijing wants to keep a low profile for its conquest. But though it remains largely unexposed these photographs portray a phenomenon, a new dimension of globalization, that threatens to leave the West behind.
Rest of images here.
Mrs. Wood in her immense restaurant, the 5 floors, 1500 seats Golden Gates of Lagos. The senator, Anthony Mogbongubola Soetan (on the left of the Champagne bottle) has come here to celebrate his 70th birthday in the company of about 300 guests, all members of the Nigerian elite.
Passengers on the train that goes from Lobito to Cubal. This is the only working stretch of the southern railroad system that used to connect Angola to RDC and Zambia. The Chinese holding company CIF is supposed the restore the railroad system that is one of the lifelines of the country but has been late and bugged down with scandals.
The lunch break for the workers of the Bacongo site where the Chinese company WIETC is constructing two storey luxury villas. They are paid $3.50 a day, but spend $1 for a manioc dish in this restaurant and half a dollar for public transport. They complain that they can be fired for the smallest mistake “the Chinese bosses treat us as slaves. If we a commit an error they hit us with sticks” says Ansel sitting in the foreground left. Milandou, sitting in the center, has lost his thumb at the circular saw: “the Chinese did not even give me medication. The ones that are seriously injured get fired”.
Workers for TEC, a Chinese construction company, are welding rails. They are completing the railroad that goes from Luanda to Malanje. This stretch is running near the very busy Luanda harbor on one side and the infamous Boavista slum on the other.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Chinese Wild West.
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2 comments:
Hotep Nikki
As-salaam alaykum
These articles always leave me frustrated because it seems that the presumption is that Africans really are "fuzzy wuzzies," or some other type of ignorant victims.
Why is it that any international business done with Afrikan people is reported and photographed in the West as a step toward inevitable failure?
Djere Dief, Aho, Rahmat
Maryam
it leaves me frustrated as well. the writing that precedes the images is pretty bad.
but, i thnk that it's good to be aware of these portrayals even though they are largely skewed in relation to reality.
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