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>Before last year, Richard Ochieng’, 26, could not recall experiencing racism firsthand. Not while growing up as an orphan in his village, not while studying at a Kenyan university. Not until his job search led him to Ruiru, at the edge of the capital, Nairobi, where he found work at a Chinese motorcycle company. His new boss, a Chinese man his own age, started calling him a monkey. It happened when the two were on a sales trip and spotted a troop of baboons on the roadside, he said. “‘Your brothers,’” he said his boss exclaimed, urging Mr. Ochieng’ to share some bananas with the primates.
>It happened again, with his boss referring to all Kenyans as primates. Humiliated and outraged, Mr. Ochieng’ recorded one of his boss’s rants, catching him declaring that Kenyans were “like a monkey people.” After his video circulated widely last month, Kenyan authorities deported the boss back to China. The episode has resonated with a growing anxiety and set off a broader debate. As the country embraces China’s expansion in the region, many Kenyans wonder whether the nation has welcomed an influx of powerful foreigners who are shaping the country’s future — while bringing racist attitudes with them.
>It was a particularly explosive claim because during the train’s maiden voyage, with President Uhuru Kenyatta on board, two Kenyan women drove the train to much fanfare. In interviews, several drivers agreed that only Chinese drivers operated the train, describing a range of racist behavior. “‘With uniforms on, you won’t look like monkeys anymore,’” Fred Ndubi, 24, recalled his supervisors saying. Mr. Ndubi, who has since left the railroad, said his family had sold about a quarter of its land so he could afford the training needed to become a train operator.
>One manager, Liu Jiaqi, 26, loomed particularly large. Whenever pay came up or something went wrong, Mr. Liu turned on his subordinates. When Mr. Ochieng’ left a sales brochure in the car and had to retrieve it, Mr. Jiaqi began crowing, “This African is very foolish.” But the most painful, he said, were the monkey insults — the kind of dehumanization used to justify slavery and colonization. Mr. Ochieng’ protested, but the comments did not stop. The rant that he recorded came after a sales trip gone awry. Mr. Ochieng asked his boss why he was taking out his anger on him.
>“Because you are Kenyan,” Mr. Jiaqi explained, saying that all Kenyans, even the president, are “like a monkey.” Mr. Ochieng’ continued that Kenyans may have once been oppressed, but that they have been a free people since 1963. “Like a monkey,” Mr. Jiaqi responded. “Monkey is also free.”
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