Welcome to Afronesia: A venture to explore African expats

Over the last 20 odd years, Jakarta has blossomed into a truly cosmopolitan and metropolitan city. The Big Durian is now home to probably as ethnically diverse a range of expats as either Singapore or Bangkok. Western bules, Arabs, Japanese and a veritable multitude of Koreans all call Jakarta their home. Not to mention the Russian and Chinese girls that apparently stalk some of the high-class karaoke joints uptown. However, there is one group of foreigners here who, despite being quite small in number, seem to occupy more column inches in Jakarta's tabloid newspapers than any other. They are the Africans, who come to Indonesia to try and earn a (mostly) honest buck by working as textile traders, footballers for local clubs, and, according to the aforementioned scandal rags, dealing in drugs.

Separating out fact from fiction where Africans in Indonesia are concerned is a pretty thorny issue, as it goes, insofar as Indonesians can be as riddled with racial prejudice and anti- black bigotry as many Westerners are. Just ask some of these Africans how difficult it can be to hail a taxi on Jakarta's streets. Despite the fact that most Indonesians share a religion with most of the Africans here, curiously atavistic and neurotic attitudes to skin color exist in this country.

Fair skin is prized as a sign of refinement and of sexual desirability in women. Doctors in Singapore are perpetually mystified by the local women who fly over and pay top dollar for various skin lightening treatments. Every day, on local TV, one can watch advert after advert for skin whitening creams featuring girls who fail in love and life due to their skin being just a shade too dark. It's a reductive/eugenic mindset through which simplistic black and white views of life are superimposed quite literally onto people's physical appearances. The stereotype tends to rule.

So, how to separate out the truth from the endless Pos Kota stories of Africans getting shot in the back by Indonesian cops whilst escaping out of Tanah Abang hotel windows with five kilos of heroin shoved up their backsides?

Many Africans in Indonesia are genuinely involved in the textile business and setup base camp in and around the Tanah Abang area, the center of the Indonesian rag trade (although the huge textile market there has now burned down in somewhat controversial circumstances). These guys often purchase in bulk and setup shop in their hotel rooms in Petamburan where other Africans can browse the merchandise in comfort.

African traders who have lived in Jakarta for a long time often act as agents or middlemen. Their proficiency in Bahasa Indonesia and knowledge of local customs and culture enables them to broker deals between local businessmen and African traders who are here temporarily on purchasing missions. An African will come up to them and say, for example "I need a load of Indonesian furniture to take back to the Ivory Coast with me to sell in my shop." The agent will help them to get a good price and to negotiate the perennial Indonesian bureaucratic paperwork nightmare in exchange for a commission fee.

Of an evening, many of Jakarta's African community like to enjoy a few beers and some music at bars around the Jl. Wahid Hasyim area, just south of Jakarta's national monument (Monas). They can also be found on the infamous backpacker strip of Jl. Jaksa.

In the course of researching this article, I ended up in a small bar called Ambassade (French for embassy, I believe) which is located near the well-known Pisa Cafe behind the Sarinah building on Jl. Thamrin. An Indonesian friend and myself were welcomed into the bar in a very friendly way. "Don't be afraid, don't worry you can come in and drink here no problem," we were told. Evidently the patrons of Ambassade are used to their favorite bar being viewed with some trepidation by passing non- Africans. Our friend proved good to his word, however, as Ambassade was an enjoyable and convivial place in which to down a few cheap beers. The customers were all smiling and joking whilst infectious African pop music reverberated around the Bintang bottles.

We took a table and straight away a guy introduced himself to us. His name was Joe. He turned out to be a member of that second group of Africans in Indonesia, namely soccer players. He told us that he was from Cameroon, as were many people in the bar (luckily, my Indonesian colleague could speak enough French to make a conversation just about viable). He turned out to be a player for local soccer club and was a colorful character who said that he liked the bar because he could relax and enjoy himself with other Africans and also listen to some of his favorite African music. He told us that he liked Indonesia but didn't enjoy the occasional to not-so-occasional heckles on the street from locals. However, he told us that he never reacted and always put on a stoic face.

Later on, after a few bottles of Guinness, we met a textile trader from Burkina Faso named More. This 39-year-old guy has been doing business in Jakarta since 1999. He told us that he bought garments from Indonesian traders and then displayed them in a boutique that he rented for Rp 15,000,000 a year, so that African traders could peruse them. He also said that he shipped a lot of garments wholesale to Africa via cargo ships. More confided that he had a wife and three kids in Africa but that they had never visited Indonesia. Instead he goes home twice a year to see them. When asked if he had a local girlfriend More told us that he didn't and that he strove to be a good Muslim.

The third category of Jakartan-Africans are usually to be found among the cheap bars and hostels of Jalan Jaksa in the center of town. The Africans on this bustling street have a bad reputation among the other Africans in this city. Why? Well, there is just the general feeling that some of these guys are not quite legit. They wear suits and rent expensive cars in order to look rich, they like gambling and are often curiously evasive when questioned about what they actually do for a living. Some will claim to be food supplement and vitamin salesmen, or in the process of setting up a health club somewhere, the name of which they have forgotten. It often just doesn't quite add up.

There's no question that in recent years, quite a substantial number of African nationals have been busted with large amounts of drugs on them. Drug smuggling/dealing is obviously an undertaking that involves great personal risk but also huge potential profits. Some Africans obviously think it's worth a try, especially as this country has a huge drug problem and relatively unsophisticated law enforcement. Picking up a newspaper at random (The Jakarta Post in fact -- usually a pretty level headed and unsalacious read), I almost immediately found a story about a Sierra Leone national who had been arrested with 31 capsules of heroin in his stomach. Apparently, he had been arrested, taken to a local clinic for an x-ray, which had revealed the capsules, and then been forced to "consume a laxative agent to induce excretion". Ulp!! Its evidently a messy business this drug smuggling although with a street value of Rp 415 million (US$ 48,886), it's easy to see what persuaded this guy to run the gauntlet of Indonesian narcotics sniffer dogs lunging at his butt.

So criminality definitely exists in the African community here. It's important, though, to remind both Westerners and Indonesians that these people represent a small minority.

In any case, I want to finish this article on an upbeat note so it's back to the soccer players. How is Indonesia going to qualify for the next World Cup? According to our friend Joe, "Indonesian clubs need more foreign players". Well said that man.

Simon Pitchforth