"Quite the jowl ey, China?"

Nothing is safe from slang and cultural relativism, not even nationhood. China is no longer a term reserved for the emerging super power. According to many South Africans “China” is your friend and seems to be a term of endearment. Gathered around a fire in the hazy heat of a Mozambican sunset, a Capetonian noted, “This is a quite a jowl ey, China?” I did a double take not quite sure he was addressing me. “China?” I asked. And quickly responded “No, no I'm an American, I'm not from China.” I soon learned China is not only a country in Asia but is interchangeable with mate, dude or brew (brew being the term known to the rest of the of the English speaking world as bro or brother).

While the South Africans may use the words China and friend interchangeably, let there be no mistake, the Chinese are not your friend. Their presence is strong in the South Eastern quadrant of the African Continent but they are not here to make friends, they have about 1,324,655,000 back in their own country. They are here like many before them to capitalize on Africa's abundant natural resources.

Where I might say the Asians have lost the plot on capitalism, the Africans glanced once at the introduction and decided it was not for them. Unfortunately for the African continent capitalist enterprise, blind ambition and the eager, insatiable pursuit of wealth was well received by the Asian Tigers. The Chinese in particular have really caught on hook, line and sinker and in Mozambique they have been hooking, lining and sinking an astonishingly large portion of the fish population.

The Chinese, Japanese and most of the world have developed an insatiable appetite for fish and the oceans are not producing at a rate to keep up with the pillaging. Mozambique in particular has become a target. Minimally enforced regulation and a coast line twice the size of California hosting a large percentage of the world's shark population has wet the Chinese pallet. Shark fins being the most sought after item. Why shark fins? Well, Shark fin soup of coarse! It is considered an aphrodisiac, a delicacy and is a high ticket item amongst the upper echelons of Chinese society. As a result Sharks are being fished out at an unprecedented rate.

In exchange for roadwork the Mozambican government recently licensed fishing rights to Chinese companies. This exchange may sound like a good idea for infrastructural development but corruption has bludgeoned any such benefit. What the Chinese are licensed to catch and what they in actuality catch are two distinctly different figures. When your enforcing body is paid next to nothing, anything under the table will quickly turn an eye blind and in ports up and down the coast of Mozambique it has!

China is not doing anything unique in the grand scale of history. Like many nations before them they are capitalizing on the majority of African governments' failure to control or regulate the exportation of natural resources. In recent weeks China has pushed Japan to the back seat and nestled them selves in as the world's second largest economy. After watching first hand the environmental exploitation of the African continent and particularly the coast line of Mozambique I have a new insight as to how this once developing nation is edging themselves, ever so quietly, into the next hegemony.