People from across Africa have been sharing troubling videos of their experience living in China over the past month, with multiple clips going viral showing Kenyans, Nigerians, Ugandans and others being attacked or refused service in cities like Guangzhou amid unfounded suspicions that African residents have COVID-19.

Multiple people from across Africa have shared similar stories of immediately being contacted by Chinese government officials after posting videos of their negative experiences to social media.

BuzzFeed and Atlanta Black Star have spoken with a number of African nationals living in Chinese cities who reported the same story. They faced open discrimination because they were Black, took video footage of the situation and were later visited by police officers who demanded they remove the content from the internet.

A new video has emerged showing a pregnant woman and her partner being turned away from a maternity hospital in Dongguan.  

According to the Atlanta Black Star, a Ugandan couple identified only as Derrick and Daisy went to Dongguan Nan Hua Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital on March 29 for an ultrasound but were turned away when they tried to enter.

Derrick, a kindergarten English teacher, explains in the video that they were turned away from the hospital because they were "foreigners," and the nurse at the door can be seen running in and out twice before asking them to leave.

“So they want to say foreigners are not allowed in the hospital. This is what I expected them to say. Foreigners cannot be let inside the hospital,” Derrick said in the video. 

Part of the reason the video has gained steam online is because of the rapid response from the Chinese government.

Chinese officials quickly found the couple and had them record a questionable follow-up video where the two Ugandans can be seen thanking the Chinese government for its help.

Many people in the comments questioned why the Chinese government would phrase the tweet the way it did, implying that the treatment the couple received was justified because they had allegedly overstayed their visas.

In the heavily edited 31-second video shared to Twitter by the Chinese Embassy in Uganda, Derrick and Daisy are seen thanking the Chinese government for taking them to another hospital and for taking them shopping after the ultrasound.

"We are thankful for the government services and hospital services. We have come here for medical care. We have tested everything, the blood. We have done all the things we need. They are actually taking us for shopping. We are very happy. Happy for the government services. Our baby is safe and we are happy for now," Derrick said in the video.

A number of comments suggested that the couple's statements seemed forced, and in another video interview with Atlanta Black Star, the couple explained in more detail what happened.

Derrick said that the Chinese government contacted him after the first video went viral and brought his wife to another hospital. He shared audio from a recording where you can hear a Chinese government official explain that they wanted the couple to shoot the video that was eventually shared by the Chinese Embassy Twitter account.

The shopping trip described in the video ended up being fake as well. After being brought to a mall, Derrick told Atlanta Black Star that government officials left them to pay for everything and provided no assistance. 

Days later, government officials contacted the couple again asking them to release a video saying the initial incident was a misunderstanding. 

“They first asked me to put it off internet, which I told them not in position to do ’cause it’s everywhere now. They then took us to another hospital and we got a free pregnancy scan. After they ask me to thank the government and deny what happened to us previously and we just call it a misunderstanding. I refused to deny that fact so they edited the original video and turned the blame on me for not understanding what the nurse was telling me,” Derrick said.

He shared an audio recording of a Chinese official calling him again demanding the couple make yet another video denying that the first incident happened at all.

"Would you just say that the Nan Hua female hospital incident maybe was a misunderstanding," the Chinese official asks the couple.

"I'm not going to do that. The world has already seen this. It is the truth of the matter. You people don't want us here. You just want to cover it up and put a good image out there but you know what happened," he told Atlanta Black Star.

After that, the government official stopped answering their calls. It is unclear where the couple is now, and Derrick subsequently told Atlanta Black Star reporters that he had been charged with sedition. 

Another Ugandan, only identified as Darasa, spoke to BuzzFeed about a situation where she was denied entry to a 7-Eleven and other businesses because she is Black. She told the news outlet of a harrowing situation that has worsened over the past few weeks. 

Darasa initially flew to Guangdong in February for business but was forced into quarantine, which she said she had to pay for herself. The situation deteriorated, and she was thrown out of the hotel with other African nationals, eventually being denied entry to other hotels. There are no flights back to Uganda at the moment, so she told BuzzFeed she was effectively trapped.

She was able to find lodging with other Africans, but securing food became its own challenge as the treatment they experience continued to get even worse.

"The 7-Eleven employees locked the door as Darasa approached and began spraying disinfectants, she said, only cracking it open wide enough to spray disinfectant around her feet. The McDonald's nearby also wouldn't allow her inside, nor would the supermarket," BuzzFeed reporter J. Lester Feder wrote on Wednesday. 

Like Derrick and Daisy, Darasa posted to Facebook about her treatment and was quickly visited by two Chinese police officers who threatened her and told her to delete the video after taking photos of her.

Despite efforts to get them out of the country, there are still hundreds effectively stuck where they are because most flights have been shut down and the business that brought them there has evaporate due to the global economic contraction.

As more Africans have been stranded in China, more videos of harassment and abuse continue to leak out.


Chinese embassy officials across Africa have been working hard to dispel concerns governments on the continent have about the treatment of their citizens. They have hired a number of Kenyan and Nigerian experts to speak out in favor of China and downplay the videos of African nationals being beaten or turned away from businesses.

But the videos have done little to stop the steady stream of outrage that has grown over how Africans have been treated in China.

A McDonald's in Guangzhou was forced to apologize after a store put up a sign banning all people of African descent, and dozens of videos have been released showing Black people being thrown out of their apartments or barred from public spaces.

The situation has gotten so bad that Ugandan musician and opposition politician Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, announced via Twitter that he's working with Atlanta Black Star founder Neil Nelson to airlift Africans out of China as soon as possible.

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