https://www.scmp.com/rss/327089/feed Ismail is a British-Somali journalist. He has written for The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The New York Times, Prospect, The Atlantic, NPR and The Nation, among other places. He is an Ochberg Fellow at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University Journalism School and an associate at the Cambridge Migration Research Network (CAMMIGRES). en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com On a hot afternoon in Palermo’s Ballaro market, Bengali shopkeeper Anwar Hussein Ahmed places a handful of okra into a plastic bag for an African woman in an elegant yellow head wrap. The streets near his store, in the heart of the market, are a swirl of human activity. The air is heady with the aroma of Sicilian culinary staples such as arancini (risotto balls) and fried sardines. Ahmed, however, peddles ingredients unheard of in a traditional Italian kitchen. Mafia ‘boss of bosses’ suspect... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/2180712/how-10-asian-shopkeepers-took-sicilian-mafia-palermo-and-rebuilt-their?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/2180712/how-10-asian-shopkeepers-took-sicilian-mafia-palermo-and-rebuilt-their?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 05 Jan 2019 12:45:30 +0000 On a sticky afternoon in a dark classroom at the Confucius Institute in Dakar, first-year students repeat after their teacher in Mandarin: “Where is the canteen?” The ensuing wall of sound pervades the classroom in the Senegalese capital, which is equipped with Chinese books, posters and a whiteboard covered in Chinese characters. Their teacher, Koumakh Bakhoum, spent three years at Dalian University in China’s Liaoning province mastering Mandarin before returning home in 2016 to teach at the... https://www.scmp.com/education/how-mandarin-and-confucius-institutes-are-conquering-africa/article/2146787?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/education/how-mandarin-and-confucius-institutes-are-conquering-africa/article/2146787?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 18 May 2018 09:15:00 +0000 On a sticky afternoon in a dark classroom at the Confucius Institute in Dakar, first-year students repeat after their teacher in Mandarin: “Where is the canteen?” The ensuing wall of sound pervades the classroom in the Senegalese capital, which is equipped with Chinese books, posters and a whiteboard covered in Chinese characters. US alarmed by China flooding Africa with much-needed money Their teacher, Koumakh Bakhoum, spent three years at Dalian University in China’s Liaoning province... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/2146368/how-mandarin-conquering-africa-confucius-institutes-and-giving-china-soft?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/2146368/how-mandarin-conquering-africa-confucius-institutes-and-giving-china-soft?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 May 2018 11:15:30 +0000