In the early days of South Africa … well, not the really early days, but some time in the 19th century or early 20th century, a fairly large number of Chines people were imported as workers/slaves. One of the reasons to do this was to break the indigenous workers’ efforts for reform. It failed, and the Chinese became of no special use to the Apartheid government or the mining corporations, so they were sent back. All of them.Nonetheless, there are some 200,000 or so “ethnic Chinese” living today in South Africa. Now, I do not really know for sure who these people are or how they got there, and I’m not totally trusting that they are really “Chinese” … in South African English, the word “Chinese” means “Asian.” But whatever, there they are.The reason I’m even mentioning this is because of this fascinating news story that has come out today from the BBC: Continue reading The Black Chinese of South Africa →