Institutional Barriers | African Community

From our interview results, one of the barriers that the Africans face in conforming to the local society is that they cannot receive adequate institutional support. Though Bodomo (2012) points out that indeed some Africans in Hong Kong do not came across as passive, helpless and in need of government assistance and some of the businessmen have indeed become wealthy and successful, our interviewees in general think that the local government and other institutions do not provide enough language or other support for them to adapt to the local environment. Not only do they think the African community in Hong Kong is insignificant and neglected, but they also cannot find any associations or social activities catering for them. For instance, they can hardly find channels to learn Cantonese and build relationships with other Africans or local citizens. Our interviewee Anthony stresses that there are rare opportunities to learn Cantonese and he agrees that the Hong Kong government did not provide enough support for Africans to find stable jobs to make a satisfactory living. Next, Ato believes that the government did not put much effort in educating the mentality of many of the traditional-minded local citizens to be more open-minded towards ethnic minorities. Moreover, all of the interviewees haven’t heard about “African Community Hong Kong”, a non-profit organization formed in 2009 aiming at providing services, programs, and consulting that satisfy the needs of the most vulnerable segments of the Africans in Hong Kong. It is likely that the association cannot reach most of the Hong Kong Africans and there are not enough social institutions catering for Africans in general.

Surprisingly, despite our interview results, we saw from the media reports that there are actually some breakthroughs in the institutional supports offered to Africans in Hong Kong in recent times. In 2012, a three-month Cantonese class was organized to Africans for free which was instructed by the police volunteers in Pat Heung, Yuen Long in order to bridge communication gap. The class widely received positive comments from the Africans and other parties. In addition, there are different sports activities held for uniting Africans and promoting social harmony between Africans and Hong Kong people. For example, a friendly football match between police and Africans students was held in 2012. Also, in early April 2013, the “United African Cup” was held in Pat Heung Sheung Tsuen Playground for Africans from different sovereign states in Africa. The details of these institutional supports are as follows.

Institutional Barriers

Cantonese Class by Police Volunteers in Pat Heung

Since its establishment in May 2012, the Volunteer Group of Yuen Long Police District has delivered a host of community services in a bid to strengthen police-community relations. The non-ethnic Chinese Community in Yuen Long is also a service target for the Volunteer Group. In a bid to bridge communication gap and enhance mutual understanding, police volunteers from Pat Heung Division (PHDIV) spent their own time teaching Cantonese to African residents. The three-month Cantonese class was held in an African dance club located in Chi Ma Leng, Wang Toi Shan. The course syllabus and materials were co-designed by the police and the African ambassadors in Hong Kong. The class mainly aimed at helping the learners to tackle communicative difficulties. The teaching formats include oral practices, group discussions, role plays etc. Africans had the chance to learn the common daily conversations and how to report crime in Cantonese. In class, both parties gained a better understanding of each other's language and culture. (Offbeat, 2012)

The class received positive comments from both the Africans and local citizens. In a TV interview (Now, 2013), an African said that he hopes to learn more and more Cantonese. Certificates were given to the students who attended 80% of the classes with a satisfactory performance. During the prize giving ceremony, one of the African students used Cantonese to conduct a thank you speech on stage. He said, “I am really thankful for the police in Pat Heung to teach us Cantonese. We’re very happy.” (Offbeat, 2012) The Africans enjoy this kind of class as learning Cantonese can facilitate their daily activities communications and more working opportunities. Besides, village representatives from Pat Heung also gave a high evaluation towards the course and they highly recommend the police to organize such courses continuously. They point out that many misunderstandings among citizens and non-ethnic Chinese are mainly due to miscommunications. In short, Cantonese classes can break the language barriers faced by Africans and enhance mutual communications and understandings, which can greatly help the Africans to adapt to the local society and increase racial harmony.

Now TV News Report: http://news.now.com/home/local/player?newsId=59874

Social Activities

Next, it is believed that sport activity can bridge the relationships between Africans and Hong Kong people or Africans from different states. Several football matches have been held. Last year, besides the Cantonese class, the police volunteers also had friendly football matches with African students, promoting sportsmanship and social harmony in 2012. (Offbeat, 2012)

Next, Lok May Ching, who married a Nigerian, set up the Wang Toi Shan Akunne African Association in 2011. She has been liaising with different organizations and associations in Pat Heung, in the hope to bride the communication gap between Africans and local citizens and to reduce the problems caused by misunderstandings. Not only did the Wang Toi Shan Akunne African Association brought Africans in Pat Heung to participate in the Yuen Long Sports Festival, it also started to hold annual football match for Africans four years ago. In the past three years, the matches were aiming to unite Nigerians in Hong Kong and there were only Nigerian participants. In early April 2013, the 4th match welcomed African from different sovereign states to join and is renamed to The United African Cup. Soccer is a national skill in Nigeria and there are currently a significant amount of African soccer professionals making a living in Hong Kong. The United African Cup was in a well-organized way. There are four teams in total and they started to practice since three months ago and they have invited a professional referee. On the United African Cup day, Yuen Long District Council member Mr. Tang Kwai-yau was invited to be the prize presenters. He points out that these kinds of activities are very effective. There is a decrease in complaints of Africans by local citizens.

Besides sports activities, Clement, a Nigerian said that Africans have began to adapt to the Hong Kong society in these few years. While there are intermarriages between Nigerians and Chinese, there have been Chinese participating in the traditional African dance celebration in Pat Heung during the new year. Clement hopes that Chinese can learn more about the beauty of African culture, food and dress. His wish is to organize a Nigerian Cultural Day in Hong Kong. (In Media, 2013)

Optimistic Future

From this, we can see that the situation is improving. However, the support is rather limited as it is restricted to the Pat Heung area where there is a relatively dense population of around a thousand of Africans. Sadly, all of our interviewees have not even heard about Pat Heung so many Africans still cannot benefit from these programmes. As Bodomo (2012) mentions, the African community has certainly grown in many places in Kowloon and Hong Kong Island as well. We suggest that the government should put more funding to organize these kinds of services and activities in a much larger scale to cater for more Africans in Hong Kong. It is also important to enhance the sustainability of such events.
Language support is of the greatest importance as being multilingual in a new city allows them to find a more comfortable sense of identity in the society. For social activities, besides football match which is already an African culture, social institutions can also organize a wider range of activities to Africans to respect Chinese culture and learn the local values in Hong Kong—such as watching Chinese opera and cooking Chinese food. The government can also introduce new policies to assist them to secure a job and to prevent discrimination in workplaces. In addition, besides providing tangible supports, educating the local citizens to be more receptive towards ethnic minorities should be the ultimate goal of the government. As a Hong Kong woman called Queenie who married an African says, negative label exists because of the lack of understanding towards ethnic minorities. (In Media, 2013) Africans can definitely adapt to the local Hong Kong more easily given a friendlier environment.

All of the above can help the immigrants to adapt to our environment and increase their sense of belonging to our city, especially to the fresh-off-the-boat. Providing more assistance to Africans will be win-win situation to both the ethnic groups and the government as Bodomo (2012) claims that by providing more institutional support, the Hong Kong government can improve their standing as international communities. We believe the future will be optimistic as institutions in Hong Kong have started to pay attention to and accommodate Africans’ needs in recent times.