African bar owner Amina Lamarre Delafouchouse (right) wants to change local people's perception of Africans. Edmond Tang / China Daily

A few steps from Hong Kong's bustling Lan Kwai Fong entertainment district, the sound of Saturday night laughter and African music drifts out from a little club tucked away in a corner of SoHo's Peel Street. Inside the wood and glass-frame entrance to the Africa-themed Makumba Bar, a diverse group of people is dancing to live Afro music. The atmosphere is very much about celebrating the unique qualities of African culture - slap-bang in the middle of this southern Chinese city.

"I never knew that something like this was happening in Hong Kong," said Shirley Bolen, a regular Hong Kong customer at Macumba as well as a student of the Afro-dancing class there, recalling her first impression of Macumba with a lingering smile.

"Opening the bar is not (just) about creating a place for Africans to be together, or just for profit," says Amina Lamarre Delafouchouse, owner of Makumba bar. "It's like bringing my culture to people from all over the world, to make new things in Hong Kong, changing the way people see Africans."

Born into a political family in Cameroon, West Africa, Delafouchouse travelled to Hong Kong in 1994. After spending 11 years here, Delafouchouse decided to open a bar influenced by real African culture that would mark a change from the standard-style bars she had encountered while fully absorbing Hong Kong's entrepreneurial spirit.

Among Hong Kong's African-run businesses, Makumba is far more than just a bar. Bar-owner Delafouchouse aims to dispel Chinese "stereotypes of uncultured Africans". Her one-woman mission involves offering African drum and dance classes, art exhibitions, and Africa-related fashion shows and parties. Through running the bar, Delafouchouse aims not only to make "stiff" Hongkongers "more spontaneous," but also to "change certain discriminatory judgments towards Africans."

"African people living in Hong Kong are being discriminated (against) in everything (we do)," says Delafouchouse. "I would like to let Hong Kong people know that Africans are not about diseases, nor poverty. One thing that Africans keep is their culture and one thing they like is having fun."

The discrimination Delafouchouse mentioned could be traced back to her lack of knowledge of Chinese languages and she admits that it was very hard to get Hongkongers to accept her.

"It's just like being black and walking on the street and nobody wants to talk to you," she says. "It's painful living in a society where you try to talk to people but they say 'no, no, no' (in Cantonese) to you. What does it mean? I didn't even talk to them but they said 'no.'"

For professor Adams Bodomo, an African who has lived in Hong Kong for 15 years and has conducted substantial research on China-Africa relations, discrimination is a universal problem driven by misunderstandings, prejudices and the fears of the unknown that often stem from linguistic and cultural differences.

Bodomo feels Africans have a responsibility to understand Chinese culture, explaining that while Africans often express themselves through warm greetings, Hongkongers tend to keep their distance. Africans, says Bodomo, may consider Hongkongers to be cold or distant, but "that's completely a misunderstanding," he says.

The academic adds that black skin remains "a big disadvantage" in this unique Chinese city and that few people are willing to talk about it.

Meanwhile, Alain Ngalani, a Cameroon born martial arts master who has won three world champions representing Hong Kong after emigrating to the SAR in 2002, observed, "Racism is everywhere; no exception for Hong Kong."

"But it's a trend that the world is getting mixed; it's not about color anymore," the world champion added.

Eric Wan, a Hong Kong graphic designer who has been to the Makumba bar a lot with foreign friends, says discrimination does not really happen in Hong Kong because it is a very international city where people have become used to having foreign faces around. "Personally, Hongkongers do not talk to Africans because they feel unfamiliar rather than because they are discriminating them," Wan says.

"You can see many Africans come to Hong Kong for business or living, which is already evidence that shows Hong Kong is a city with a mixture of races," says Wan.

However, Bodomo is less complimentary on this point. "It's a shame that in the whole city of Hong Kong there is just one prominent Makumba," says the HKU professor. For Bodomo, the Hong Kong government has not been supportive enough of cross-cultural businesses like Makumba or the world-famous Hong Kong landmark, Chung King Mansions. Bodomo argues that the process of acquiring a business license is often more difficult for Africans than for Hongkongers.

Alain Ngalani, speaking as the founder and director of Impakt Academy, a martial arts club located in Central with more than 200 Hong Kong members argued that the limited number of African bars in Hong Kong may be attributable to the limited number of target customers or markets rather than the business policy itself.

"The process of setting up a business in Hong Kong is indeed complicated and demanding," says Ngalani, "but it is the same for everyone, including Africans. For me, the business policy itself in Hong Kong is fair and clear."

Despite ranking No 26 in the "off the beaten track" category among bars all over the world on the renowned travel-guide website Lonelyplanet.com. Makumba, tucked away from the main drag and surrounded by several Chinese venues, remains relatively unknown to Hong Kong society.

Nowadays only about 10 to 20 percent of the customers are from Hong Kong and only two dance students in Macumba are ethnic Chinese. However, Delafouchouse is determined to improve this situation.

An organization called Afro Diaspora and Friends Association will be established by Delafouchouse in two or three months. Its aim is to provide a platform for Africans and people who are interested in African culture to communicate and to "be together to find the solution together."

What's more, an African Dance and Drumming School is to be established. The objective is to provide Hong Kong with professional African masters.

"Administratively, the situation we've been facing is not something that can be changed dramatically within a short time," says Delafouchouse. "I just want to help Hongkongers, especially young Hong Kong people, to be open to the new world and get excited to know what Africa is all about."

China Daily

(HK Edition 07/06/2010 page6)