Black ghosts

China today is both a land of opportunity for Africans, South Americans and other non-Westerners blocked from commerce with most of Europe and Northern America, and an intersection of racism and prejudice. Noo Saro-Wiwa goes in search of China’s ‘Black Ghosts’, African economic migrants in the People’s Republic, who live in separate communities and are vigorously involved in the trade between the continents. Her fascinating encounters include a Ghanaian cardiac surgeon, a drug dealer, a visa overstayer, a Nigerian popstar who sings in Chinese and men married to Chinese women who speak English with Nigerian accents.