Pressure piling on Malawi Govt to arrest and expel racist Chinese nationals

Pressure is piling on Malawi’s Ministry of Homeland Security to launch a manhunt for all Chinese nationals deemed to be racist and staying in Malawi without valid documents.

This follows revelations that a racist Chinese, Lu Ke, shot a video in which he insulted the intelligence and humanity of Malawians. Ke, also known as Susu, shot a series of videos in which Malawi children were told to chant: “I am a black monster and my IQ is low.”

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as the Centre for Mindset Change (CMC) and Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) have described the video as outrageous.

Through their separate petitions addressed to the Minister of Homeland Security, Jean Muonaowauza Sendeza, CMC Executive Director Phillip Kamangirah and his CDEDI counterpart Sylvester Namiwa are demanding that the Malawi Government should verify if all the Chinese residing in Malawi have valid documentation warranting their stay in Malawi.

“We and all well-meaning Malawians find such act not only an insult to the people of Malawi in particular but also demeaning to humanity in general,” reads the letter Kamangira has written to Sendeza.

A BBC Africa Eye documentary says the videos were shot at Njewa in Lilongwe and the unsuspecting children were paid half a dollar a day while the said Chinese National would sell the videos to fellow Chinese nationals in China at an exorbitant price.

Kamangira emphasized that what the Chinese national did was an infringement on the rights of innocent children.

“We would like to give our sincere gratitude to BBC for exposing this evil that seems to have taken roots in Malawi for some time based on the warm-heartedness of the people of Malawi. We further wish to thank all Malawians of good will for the information shared and urge them to check on their children to avoid such breed of a generation that looks down upon itself. We call upon the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Welfare to continuously and diligently champion the safeguarding of the rights of all Malawian children from any kind of exploitation,” he says in the letter.

On the other hand, CDEDI Executive Director Sylvester Namiwa said he believes the video recording incident is just a tip of an iceberg, pointing to the fact that some Chinese nationals could be staying in the country illegally and indulging in criminal activities.

Namiwa challenged Sendeza, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon. Nancy Tembo; and the Trade and Industry Minister Mark Katsonga, with the help of the Immigration Department, the Malawi Police Service and the Malawi Trade and Investment Centre, to immediately commence a roll call to track and trace all the Chinese nationals in the country.

“The move is to ascertain the status of their stay and to verify if indeed what they are doing in the country is tallying with the purpose of their coming into the country, as per the documents authorizing their entry and stay in Malawi,” he says in his letter.

He adds that Chinese staying in Malawi illegally, and those that are doing contrary to what they came to Malawi for, should be given 48 hours to leave.

“CDEDI would like to believe that the relevant government authorities are doing something over this outright insult, not only to Malawians but the black community in the world. All eyes across the globe are now on Malawi anxiously waiting upon the authorities to take action on this nasty incident,” he says.

The Chinese Embassy in Malawi says it has also noted “with great concern the video Racism for Sale circulated in the social media. We strongly condemn racism in any form, by anyone or happening anywhere.”

“We also noted that the video was shot in 2020. It shall be stressed that Chinese government has zero tolerance for racism. In the past years, China has been cracking down on such unlawful online acts and achieved tangible results. We will work with the Malawi side and see to it that this issue be properly addressed,” reads the statement the embassy posted on its Facebook page.

Meanwhile, National Police Deputy Public Relations Officer, Harry Namwaza, has confirmed law enforcers have commenced the investigation.

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