Chinese merchants tread warily in Uganda
While meeting huge demand for cheap goods, they are targets of resentment and extortion
The last time men posing as immigration officials showed up at Wei Kun's shoe store in the Ugandan capital of Kampala, the Chinese trader forked out US$1,000 in bribes to prevent his business from being closed.
"I have many, many problems. It's very difficult to make money here," Kun said as he waited for customers.
Yet Kun's perseverance in the face of such obstacles, including rising hostility toward local merchants, is a measure of how profitable it is for Chinese merchants to run small businesses in Uganda - and the rest of Africa. Over the past 10 years, Chinese industrial giants have invested billions across Africa, and there has been an accompanying explosion of petty retailers opening small shops from Senegal in the west to Algeria in the north, Zimbabwe in the south and Uganda in the east.
China's direct investment in sub-Saharan Africa jumped from practically nothing in 2002 to US$18.2 billion in 2012. According to the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Africa, there are about a million Chinese living in Africa, mostly engaged in commercial work.
Inexpensive Chinese goods have long been popular in Africa, and in the last decade Chinese merchants have started eliminating middle men and setting up retail outlets of their own.
"The price undercutting will chase us out of the market," said Issa Sekitto, spokesman for the Kampala City Traders Association, which counts 400,000 formal members.
"Because the Chinese are importing directly from home, they can also afford to bring in junk," he said, accusing them of importing inferior goods - which the Chinese deny.