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FOREWORD
The reality of globalization comes across with various faces and in different guises. It is reflected most dramatically in the fact that the world is increasingly becoming a small place, a global village, and people are being thrown together in demographic mixes which were unimaginable a few decades ago. This reality poses challenges to the human community as a whole, requiring people to raise their levels of tolerance in relation to outsiders and to learn to live together in new ways: The survival of the human race depends on it. The process of globalization as it is experienced at the person-on-the-street level is of course totally different from the way it is understood by financial houses and entrepreneurs or by politicians and people in power. But, whichever way one looks at it, globalization is here to stay and is likely to increase with time. Therefore, people’s ability to make it as agreeable as possible cannot be gainsaid.
Africa-China relations at the beginning of the 21st century have steadily assumed an increasingly variegated character. Indeed, the scope of this relationship would have been difficult to foresee only a decade ago. In considerable numbers, Chinese, driven mainly by economic