Africans in China: A Sociocultural Study and Its Implications on ...

1.3. Historical Overview and Literature Review

In this section, I provide a brief historical overview of the African presence in China. Africans did not just start moving into China in the 21st century. The history of an African presence in China does begin before the 21st century, but the documentation of this is scant. This history must be placed in the context of the wider African presence in Asia, which itself has not yet been the subject of sustained research. Indeed, if one were to illustrate the study of movements and migratory contacts among Africa, Asia, and the “West” (Western Europe and North America) as a triangle, the sides representing the Africa-West and Asia-West migrations would be thick, full lines, but the Africa-Asia side of the triangle would be only a thin, dotted line, as indicated in diagram 1, indicating how little research there is on this area and how much more work is needed.

Nevertheless, there are numerous anecdotal reports of an African presence in the megacities of Asia such as Tokyo, Seoul, and Jakarta (and I present a sketch of these in chapter 8). There are also descriptions (Prasad and Angenot, 2008) of indigenous groups of people in the rural areas of India and other southern Asian locations, such as the Dalits, who trace a common ancestry back to Africa.

One of the best books on the African presence in Asia is TADIA: The African Diaspora in Asia (Prasad and Angenot, 2008). This was

DIAGRAM 1. Migrations among Africa, Asia, and the West.