Made in China is present in every corner of Africa, from trains to cell phones to motorcycles to clothes, and now even handbags are catching the non-drifting wave.
In Tanzania and Kenya, Chinese handbags are found all over the streets, which make Chinese people who are new to the country feel very friendly.
Red Bull, Lulu, Cerebral Platinum, Six Walnuts, Want Want, and many others are well-known. Want Want”, famous and unknown trademarks can be found here, and the Tanzanian people in the market have a handful of them, colorful and mixed with black, so people are dazzled.
Those words and logos that are household names in the country appeared on the handbags and were carried by their black friends on the streets.
If the flight jet lag hasn’t been reversed at this moment, you might mistake yourself for still being at Guangzhou Baiyun Airport.
Chinese handbags have become the standard shopping bag in Africa.
There are Chinese handbags of all colors, probably because they are closer to the equator, and black people are especially fond of the highly saturated color handbags, which have a radiant visual effect under the hot sun.
It’s no exaggeration to say that you can make a rainbow out of Chinese handbags on the streets of Africa.
The bright and vibrant colors combined with the puzzling Chinese characters on them reveal a mysterious air of oriental aesthetics, just like the preference of some Chinese for clothes with English letters printed on them in earlier years.
It’s hard to believe that domestic bags have risen to prominence overseas in this way, with handbags printed with Chinese characters even becoming a standard for some fashionistas to wear.
Eladius, who lives in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s largest city, runs a hardware store and deals with Chinese businessmen all year round, and has tattooed a Chinese character – “Shuai” – on his hand, and is known as Little African Shuai.
He has three big boxes of Chinese handbags at home, some of which he bought and some of which were given to him by his Chinese friends, ranging from “Hengshui Laobaijian” to “Men’s Health Hospital,” covering a wide range of industries in China.
Of all the bags, his favorites are “Gadobao” and “Wanglaoji,” of which he has more than a dozen at home, and sometimes he can’t tell the difference between the two brands.
Every day he carefully chooses what to wear when he goes out, and which color bag goes with which pair of pants, after a lot of careful deliberation.
On a domestic travel forum, a backpacker from Guangxi sincerely asked why there are so many Gadobao and Wanglaoji bags in Tanzania.
“Do you dare to believe that the commercial war between Gadobao and Wang Lao Ji has reached Africa?”
Immediately after that, someone posted a picture of Woqi Zheng herbal tea, “Maybe our black friends are more afraid of fire?”
The truth is that handbags are graded in Africa just like matsutake mushrooms.
The brighter the color, such as red, the more popular and expensive they are.
Unlike in China, where the bags go unnoticed, most of the bags that come into Africa are labeled as noble.
In Kenya, a bag can be sold for as much as 500 shillings, which is equivalent to 1.4 yuan. People don’t just give away handbags with Chinese characters on them because they have to be bought with money.
More than one netizen slapped his thighs after learning about this source of wealth.
“I really did not think that domestic bags are so popular in Africa, the streets are full of selling domestic bags, looking at these various handbags, and then think of every time I threw into the trash can is really a big loss, I should have known that they are all saved up and exported to Africa.”
In Africa, selling non-woven handbags is a sought-after business.
In the food market in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, you can often come across people carrying a bunch of handbags, without them, you can’t even carry home ten potatoes when you go to the market empty-handed.
Vendors selling handbags know very well that in order to be competitive in the market, they have to go to the Chinese to get the goods, because Chinese handbags are cheap and reliable in terms of quality.
As Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya and several other countries have introduced policies to ban single-use plastic bags, handbags have become a hot necessity.
Chinese businessmen who have a lot of money have long been aiming at this blue ocean, and have seized the opportunity to sell handbags from China to Africa.
Africa leads the world in plastic bag bans, with 34 out of 55 countries (nearly 62%) now banning or taxing single-use plastic bags. According to National Geographic, 31 of these countries are in sub-Saharan Africa – the poorest region in the world.
Hassani, who carries a “Manling Porridge Shop” bag on the street, sells coffins in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, and every time he sells coffins, he puts the money into the “Manling Porridge Shop” bag and then takes it to the bank to store it.
Neighbors ask him why he doesn’t put the money in his wallet, but he says it’s called “darkness under the lights”, and that no one would steal a handbag with Chinese characters on it because they’re all over the street.
He’s been stopped many times for this bag by Chinese people with cameras, who he describes as being as excited as if they’ve never seen the world.
He’s also asked questions like whether he likes China or not, and he’s had to lie about it for the cameras, but he actually chose this bag simply because it’s common and sturdy.
In Africa, the presence of Chinese characters on a handbag is the equivalent of a certification of sturdiness and durability.
Some people can’t read, but when they can vaguely sense a graphic resembling a Chinese character appearing on a tote bag, it’s the right thing to buy.
Xiao Shuai has a tote bag that says “Original Wine” on it, and it’s been with him for eight summers. Every time he goes swimming in the river, he throws his swim trunks and towel into the bag.
Xiao Shuai says that since the ban on plastic bags, the river has become much cleaner, and he doesn’t get slapped in the face by a plastic bag floating in the water.
Hassani, a coffin seller, says Kenyans are the biggest beneficiaries of the plastic ban, with the infamous “flying toilets” popular in the Kenyan capital Nairobi in the past, where people used to defecate directly in plastic bags, tying them up and tossing them around after pooping.
The Guardian reported in April 2018, local residents reflected, after the implementation of the strictest ban on plastic, “flying toilet” behavior basically disappeared, more people chose to pay for public toilets in the community, after all, these 5 shillings a time or 100 shillings a month of family services, than the use of plastic bags to accept the fine is much less.
He patted the Manling Congee Shop tote bag in his hand, which now costs money and no one would want to carry shit in it.