Black Zimbabweans cracking Shanghai

“Hey Rod … how you doing, man?” comes the affectionate voice at People’s Square metro. I turn in surprise to see Cleto standing there, that familiar, huge grin on his face with all the perfectly white teeth, a pretty black woman next to him.

It is amazing how in Shanghai, a city of ostensibly 20-million people, fellow foreigners keep bumping into each other. The reason is simple: we go to the same ex-pat hangouts for western food and booze, and we use the same transport, which is the subway. Many Chinese will not use the relatively cheap subways (three to five RMB a trip) preferring the buses, which will take twice as long, but it is always only one to two RMB for as far as you like.

Cleto’s companion turns out to be his wife, Blessing, who at long last he could afford to get out of Zimbabwe, now he has more or less established himself. He teaches English and sometimes has a tough time of it because he does not have the obligatory, white, European face the Chinese want. But once he convinces the school or the agency to let him do a presentation, he usually gets the job.

I have met a few Zimbabweans over the years trying to crack China. Usually I meet them in passing and they are here on “business”, usually the export/import variety of course. I am too polite to ask them how on earth they can afford to do any import/export given the ridiculously impoverished nature of their currency and economy. I admire them, feel for them.

Cleto and I bump into each other from time to time. We advise each other on job opportunities; there are sharks out there.

The amazing thing is that his wife Blessing, after two years, is completely fluent in Chinese! It is an unbelievably difficult language to learn, particularly the pronunciation. Cleto supported her last year while she learned Mandarin full-time and he worked. She passed at the university with flying colours and was awarded a bursary to do an MBA — the degree will be entirely taught in Chinese! That is miraculous and she is clearly a dedicated, unbelievably bright person. After four years of being here (and okay, I have not put in a huge amount of effort as I work mostly full-time) my Chinese is barely at the intermediate level.

Cleto and his wife are fine, upstanding Christians, have all the right values and are extremely responsible in their efforts to crack China for themselves and their children who have at long last joined them from Zimbabwe. They are hoping to get that permanent residence status which Shanghai is soon going to make easier for foreigners to acquire (see my Displaced South Africans: Fish discover water last ).

They are more displaced than Marion and I. We have options with our EU passports: perhaps England where we have family, anywhere in the EU, and our best option is still New Zealand, where we stayed once for two or three months, as the family there can now sponsor us in with permanent residence. Cleto and Blessing Mhuru have scant options. They have had to make China work. And they have.

Whenever I see Cleto I always smile back at that huge, friendly, infectious grin of his. I do not have his faith but admire and respect him for his and how it has helped him and Blessing crack China. Zimbabwe has lost a lot of valuable people, the most precious resource, more so than South Africa.