Zambia’s Chinese Connection

About this episode

In the last two decades, an unprecedented wave of Chinese investment and migration to Africa has transformed many economies on the continent. But this has also provoked a storm of controversy, as some criticize the situation as exploitative neocolonialism. Others defend this migration as development assistance and an act of solidarity between regions jointly victimized by European colonialism.  In this episode, anthropologist Justin Lee Haruyama takes us to Zambia, where Chinese investment is bringing two cultures together in the country's mines. Justin speaks with local Zambians and researchers on Chinese migration to examine the complicated impacts Chinese activity is having in Africa today. Justin Lee Haruyama is a British Columbia–based writer, researcher, and anthropologist. He is a fellow with the American Council of Learned Societies and incoming assistant professor at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis, and has received grants and fellowships from the National Science Foundation, U.S. Fulbright Program, and Wenner-Gren Foundation. Justin’s research examines the controversial presence of Chinese migr