When African students in China fled their cities amid racist cries against ‘black devils’ from Chinese students marching in the streets
- This lesser-known slice of Chinese history was sparked by a fight between African and Chinese students at a university in Nanjing in 1988
- Ken Kamoche, who brings the events to life in his novel Black Ghosts, explains how he learned ‘what it was like being chased out of town in fear of your life’
On Christmas Eve 1988, a group of African students from Hohai University in Nanjing, in eastern China, attempted to enter a college dance. They were asked to show their IDs and to register their Chinese girlfriends. When they refused, a fight broke out that escalated into stone-throwing riots; 11 Chinese and two Africans were injured.
By December 26, at least 130 African students had gathered at Nanjing’s main railway station, attempting to flee, while a thousand Chinese students marched in the streets yelling racist slogans against “black devils”.
Within a week, similar incidents were being reported in other cities, including Wuhan, where a dozen African students were kept in isolation after an attack by several hundred Chinese students. In a New York Times report, a government spokesman said they were “on a special holiday trip”.
This lesser-known slice of Chinese history provides the background for Ken Kamoche’s novel Black Ghosts, which tells the tale of Dan Chiponda, who travels from his village in 1980s Zimbabwe, southern Africa, to Nanjing to study engineering.
There he encounters Kabinga from Rwanda, Diallo from Guinea, Chinese women whose breasts are compared to various fruit (mango, pear, lemon) and shower comrades. These, less titillatingly, are Chinese students who merely wish to use the superior washing facilities in the foreigners’ dormitories.