A photo investigation of the Chinese-sponsored apartments, highways, factories–and even entire cities–that are sprouting up in Africa at an astounding pace.
Eastern Industry Zone, a showcase Chinese project in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Ethiopian workers and Chinese management in the Huajian shoe factory in the Eastern Industry Zone near Addis Ababa, a Special Economic Zone modelled after China’s southern city of Shenzhen.
Local workers at the Huajian shoe factory in Ethiopia earn 250 RMB a month.
There are nine million bicycles in Beijing. At least one of them traveled with its Chinese owner to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The African Union building was a gift from China to Africa. Construction began in January 2009 and involved 1,200 Chinese and Ethiopian workers.
The African Union building, designed in China, made by China, paid for by China.
A welder on a construction site for the new light rail line in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The new light rail system in Addis Ababa will have 2 lines and 41 stations.
Chinese site manager on a construction site for the new light rail line in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, built by Chinese company CREC
Kilamba New City, developed by Chinese company CITIC, was designed to accommodate 500,000 people and includes 750 eight-storey apartment blocks. Paulo Moreira
China’s ‘stadium diplomacy’: a National Football Stadium for Tanzania–a gift from China to Tanzania.
For sale at the local market in Kigali, Rwanda: smartphone by Chinese company Tecno with 2 simcards, flashlight, FM-radio, camera and internet. Price: 11 U.S. dollars.
Beijing duck in Kigali, Rwanda.
Huawei keeps Kigali clean.
Advertisement, Kigali, Rwanda
Business manager Phil Otieno explains the scheme of the Lekki Free Trade Zone, Nigeria. The urban plan for the new city is designed in Shanghai.
China Civil Engineering and Construction Company is ready to start building the Lekki Free Trade Zone. When finished, the city should have 120,000 residents.
Guard at the entrance gate of Lekki Free Trade Zone, Nigeria
Welcome to Lekki Free Trade Zone, a small piece of China in Nigeria
New light rail tracks built by Chinese in Lagos, Nigeria,
Peter Soita Shitanda, former Kenyan minister of Housing, who traveled to China many times for inspiration on urban development.
Thika Superhighway, built by Chinese contractors, in Nairobi.
Beijing Road, Nairobi.
Great Wall Apartments phase 1, Nairobi.
Paulo Moreira
Light switch, Great Wall Apartments, Nairobi, Kenya
Can’t park here, Nairobi, Kenya
Chinese class, Confucius Institute, Nairobi
On the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya, a small sign points to “Beijing Road,” where a new housing development called the Great Wall Apartments looks like the concrete towers you’d find in a Chinese city.
Across Africa, Chinese developers are building highways, light rail systems, apartment buildings, and entire cities. A new photo series from the Go West Project, a think tank focused on emerging megacities, looks at Chinese influence in seven African cities.
“We know the Chinese urban model, and we also know that China’s trying to export that model to other parts of the world,” says Michiel Hulshof, a Netherlands-based urban strategist who collaborates with Daan Roggeveen, an Shanghai-based architect, on the Go West Project. “Africa’s sort of striking in that sense.”
Next to Lagos, Nigeria, Chinese developers have built a walled-off “special economic zone”–basically a separate city, with separate rules designed to attract investors–based on a model they’ve used inside China for the last 30 years. After Shenzhen became a special economic zone in the 1980s, it went from a small town of 20,000 to, by some counts, 15 million today.
Subscribe to the Daily newsletter.Fast Company's trending stories delivered to you every day
“Now Shenzhen’s the factory of the world,” says Hulshof. “And that special economic zone is now being tried out in Africa.”
Hulshof and Roggeveen visited two of the new developments, and also went to an meeting in London where a Chinese developer pitched the idea to investors. “The story is, ‘Lagos is a very dangerous, chaotic city where nothing works, it’s corrupt, so we’re going to do that completely different,'” Hulshof says. Inside a locked border, the new development will have its own airport, its own reliable electric grid, its own harbor, and even its own police force.
In another special economic zone outside Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the researchers visited a Chinese shoe factory with Chinese managers, Chinese equipment, and local workers. (Interestingly, the quality control team is Brazilian, the shoes are being made for an American brand, and are being sold to Europeans.)
