I'm a black monster. I'm a black monster. I'm a black monster. I'm a black monster.
I'm a black monster. I'm a black monster. I'm a black monster.
I'm a black monster. I'm a black monster. I'm a black monster. I'm a black monster.
I'm a black monster. I'm a black monster. I'm a black monster.
I'm a black monster. I'm a black monster. I'm a black monster.
I'm a black monster. I'm a black monster. I'm a black monster. I'm a black monster. I'm a black monster.
I'm a black monster. I'm a black monster. I'm a black monster. I'm a black monster.
I'm a black monster. I'm a black monster. This video was released in February 2020 on a Chinese social media account called, get this, Jokes About Black People Club.
Within days it had more than 4,000 likes and a ton of comments. Some people were laughing. Others were outraged. The word they're using is haigui, which could be translated as black monster or black devil.
But really, it's the Chinese equivalent of the N-word. The controversy even got picked up by Western media and sparked a worldwide debate about anti-black racism in China. And today, what I found on the internet was so disgusting and I just can't keep this to myself.
But for me, this wasn't just another online discussion. I was living in China at the time and had experienced these attitudes first hand. In the end, the internet moved on.
But I couldn't get it out of my head. Where was it shot? Why was it made?
Who was it who took a bunch of young African kids, happy, excited kids, and made them chant something so demeaning? Those questions sent me on a journey into an industry that is exploiting kids across Africa. I was shocked by what I heard along the way.
But in the end, I found my answers. Why are you filming this video? I'm Renako Salina, a writer and journalist. Although I'm now based in London, I lived in China for several years, studying Chinese and working in Beijing. I loved it there, but I didn't always feel welcome.
As a black woman in a country with a tiny black population, I experienced countless instances of racism. Sometimes indirectly, but often right in my face. And I soon realized I wasn't the only one.
I wasn't new to racism before China. It's a global problem. But I'd never been anywhere that made it quite so difficult to speak out.
I felt Black people in China needed a space to unpack these experiences. So I decided to take a risk. I created Black Liberty China, an online space and website to start that conversation.
Hello, dajia hao and welcome to another episode of the Black Liberty China podcast. One of my guests is Wadamaya, a Ghanaian who's built one of the most popular YouTube channels in the whole of Africa. Wadamaya, like me, used to live in China and speaks Chinese. In February 2020, he used his platform to make a scolding denunciation of the low IQ video. How on earth would you allow foreigners to come into your country?
to exploit your own people and at the same time insult the entire black people of this world. Wadamaya joined the podcast via Zoom. When my friend sent me the video, listen, I was heartbroken, you know. I was very angry.
as an African, but I speak and understand Chinese. So I felt like I was the right person to speak against it since I had the platform just to share the word across the world that, yo, these people are actually taking advantage of Africans. living in Africa. What would you say to people who say, oh, it's just one video, doesn't matter, let it go, forget about it? This is not just one video, it's millions of videos that one of them just came out.
We need to address these issues for the world to know that this is what is happening and it needs to change. Wadamaya's right. This isn't just one video. The low IQ video is part of a massive industry.
In China, over the last few years, it's become a thing to send personalised greeting videos via social media and messaging apps. Happy birthday. Good luck in your exams.
Congrats on your wedding. These videos typically sell for anything between 10 and 70 US dollars. For some weird reason, videos featuring Africans have become especially popular. Sometimes it's groups of young muscle men.
Other times it's women in fancy dress. Often it's kids, usually standing around a blackboard, shouting these greetings in Chinese. The content can be innocent enough. You might even think they're cute. But some of them are...well...
In this one, for example, the producer gets the kids to promise they'll always stay in Africa. In this one, a patriotic song about the glory of China. They're made to sing, yellow skin and dark eyes are the most beautiful.
In quite a few of them, we see girls dancing in obviously sexualised ways. Teenagers. And sometimes even younger kids. It's important to say not everyone in China thinks this is OK. I asked Chinese journalist Wan Yuansong for her take.
The country itself is very polarised. You have people, the vocal critics, saying the whole thing. is wrong. You also have people supporting those kind of video filmings.
To the customers, this is a very good business. It's actually helping the local people, promoting the relationship between China and Africa. But what actually happened behind the curtain is unknown in China.
We want to know what's actually happening. Despite the debate in China, the industry continues to grow. The most popular videos get millions of views.
Some are even used by celebrities like Joker Xue, a huge pop star in China, to feature on the big screen as part of stadium concerts. This guy has 56 million followers on Weibo, a site like Twitter. That's the context in which this clip, the low IQ video, exists. But despite all the heat and fury this clip generated at the time, no one was ever able to figure out who made it.
Do you know where it was taken? I know it was taken in a country in Africa, but I don't know the exact country. If we were able to find exactly where the video took place, exactly who took the video...
I'll be so happy to see that you guys actually find out the person who was actually doing this. I mean, I cannot go that extreme, but if you can do it, that would be amazing. I teamed up with my friend and colleague Alion Le Roy who specialises in this kind of forensic digital investigation. We knew that to uncover who made this video, which we called Video Zero, we had to find out where it was shot. When you see the video, it's very zoomed in.
You could see some buildings, some trees. But those were very generic features that you could find in any village across Africa. I'd already found video operations of this kind running in lots of African countries.
But one of the first journalists to report on the Low IQ video had been told, by good sources, that it was filmed in Malawi. We decided to take a closer look. But wait, we've got to stop a minute. It's still Malawi.
There are thousands of villages like this in Malawi. We need more crews. So we started the painstaking process of downloading and logging hundreds of videos from across Chinese social media that featured similar things.
Children holding these placards, holding these blackboards, you know, saying these words they don't understand. We found two videos amongst them that actually tagged a location and that location was called Kamwendo. An area in the west of the country. This area borders Zambia. So we thought we've got it.
Alléon then was able to geolocate a football pitch that we saw in some of these videos. We looked around the football pitch. And although it matched the video that we had with the tag to Camuendo, so that was right, we couldn't find any of the features that we saw in video 0 actually in that village.
Brinaco went back to all the video we had to go. And then we came back. get another breakthrough.
And that's a sign in just one of these videos for a company called Shabri Building Solutions Limited. I'll never forget the name. This company, it didn't have a massive profile online, but we were able to speak to an ex-employee by searching for them on Facebook. And they told me, this is Njerwa Market.
They brought us back to the capital, Uyghur Way, to an area that's called An Xiehua. But then the next problem is there are scores of villages across this area that could potentially be the location. Again, we deep dive into all of this footage, pouring through it.
And one video strikes me in particular, and that shows us some pits, sand pits, just outside of the village. went on the satellite imagery, looked around NJ1. After, I think it was a couple of hours, boom, we found some pits. Alléon then looks closely at the buildings, the positioning of them, the proximity of the buildings to trees, the angle. Every building, every tree was a perfect match.
We've got it. This video, the video that seemed to epitomize everything that's wrong with this industry, was shot right here. My name is Henry Muhango.
I am an investigative reporter based in Malawi. I have worked with BBC Africa Eye to expose human rights abuses, corruption and violent crime in my home country. Runako was aware of my work here and asked me to help with her investigation. When she showed me the low IQ video, I was shocked. The children shouting those demeaning words were Malawians.
It happened under our nose, hidden in plain sight. Amazingly, Runako had managed to find out exactly where this was filmed. She sent me the coordinates, so I set off to find out more.
The village is perfectly located to do business discreetly. It's tucked away in the longest countryside and connected to the motorway only through detours. I quickly made friends with a local guy called Moyo and he told me that an individual had been filming in the village for years, waving himself into the fabric of the community. But he was not the only one. Other Chinese filmmakers had also been spotted in the wider Njiwa area.
The situation was more complex than both Runako and I had thought. She made the journey to Malawi so we could join forces and get to the bottom of it. I knew where we could start the next day. Nako and I set off to Njiwa market to find out what the locals made of the filming.
Several of them mentioned one man in particular. What's his name? Susu. They said Susu was holding some sort of glass. He's trying to impart a bit of his Chinese culture into them.
I just know that they come teaching China language only. Some believed the videos were being made for charity. But the children didn't seem to be learning Chinese.
They failed to speak. And there was more. We were told that the children had begun attending the so-called Chinese classes instead. of their regular school. The residents'worries were not unfounded.
After receiving a tip-off about Susu's filming schedule, I arranged for a colleague to go undercover. She posed as a schoolgirl and wore a secret camera. This was the first time we had a chance to see the filmmaker in action and up close. This recording was made at 9am on a Wednesday.
A direct clash with the timetable of the nearby school, confirming the residents'fears. This industry, these videos are taking these kids out of school. The Njiwa residents had told me one of the reasons why the children preferred Susu's classes was that they were getting paid to attend. In this separate recording, we can see the children receiving some notes and arguing about it. I was told that Susu was paying them less than half a dollar a day.
I have lived in a village just like this. I know the difference that even this small amount can make. I can also understand how some parents could have high hopes that a white foreigner might offer their children a chance for a better future.
But I didn't understand Susu. What was he doing here? Why was he using us Malawians for his videos? I wanted to find out more.
And Runako knew where to start. His online presence seems to suggest that he's been here for at least six years. The villagers had a name for the man making the films. They called him Susu.
It sounded like the Chinese word shu shu meaning uncle. But is this man, Susu, the same man I'd been tracking online? And most importantly, is he the man who made the low IQ video?
I showed Henry the findings of my forensic analysis. I'd looked at hundreds of blessing videos posted on Chinese social media and noticed at least two different accounts that were regularly posting videos from this village. The content suggested the accounts belonged to the same person. Selfies and vlogs gave us a glimpse of their possible owner, a man in his 20s.
Among the posts, there was a single photo of a national ID card. We finally had a name to work with. Lu Ke. The name Lu Ke led us to a Facebook profile.
A profile that had just 14 friends. One of them was a journalist from Sweden. So I called him.
The journalist told me that he had interviewed Lu Ke in 2017 as part of a TV news report on Chinese traders in Malawi. I watch TV. The break was very beautiful.
Malawi is beautiful. So I'm from China, come to Malawi. The clip was filmed not in our village, but in a town called Kamwendo, a hundred kilometres away.
near Malawi's border with Zambia. I already knew this place, Kamwendo. It's the town I'd seen in all Luka's older videos.
The one with the football field. At some point, three or four years ago, he moved from here to Lilongwe. I'd watched hundreds of these videos looking for clues to the man's identity. And then I remembered. In one of these clips, Luka was in the car.
is talking to a young child, and he asked that kid to call him by a nickname. Susu, the man Henry had found in the village near Ndewa, and Luka, the man I'd been tracking online, appeared to be the same guy. This was progress, but we still couldn't prove he was the man behind the low IQ video. We needed to get closer to him.
him and we knew just the person to help us. This is Paul, a Chinese journalist specialized in undercover filming. He agreed to help us find out more about Susu posing as a businessman who wanted to commission some video adverts for his chocolate brand. Paul managed to set up a meeting. Henry and I watched the footage, excited to find out more about the man we'd been tracking for months.
Paul had to... to tread carefully, so he started with some general questions about Susu's video-making business. When was the peak? My peak record? I shot 380 videos a day.
How much a day? 380 yuan. 380 yuan a day?
200 yuan a day? 76,000 yuan. That's about it.
That's about it. Paul asked how many trees were involved in the filming. This lucrative shoot had to be It hadn't happened in Ndewa, Susu said. Earlier on in the conversation, he let the location slip. As soon as I heard this, I knew that he was talking about Kamwendo.
It was time to pay a visit. Kamwendo is a trading post near the Zambia border. In this area too, Susu had found his way to a remote village. We wanted to talk to the kids he'd used as his stars and to find out if they'd shared in the profits that Susu boasted about. Henry had been told that here too, the kids had been paid up to half a dollar a day.
I was keen to speak to the family of one young boy in particular. He was a prolific performer in Xu Xu's videos, known across Chinese social media as Xiao Gula. He was a cute kid, such a natural performer that he became a poster boy for the industry. Even now, you can see him giving the thumbs up in adverts for Chinese blessing videos.
It didn't take long to find Xiao Gula and his mum. She invited us inside, out of the rain. The boy's real name is Bright.
He's now six. Do you remember how old you were when you started taking the videos? Four. Four.
And what do you remember about taking the videos? I wanted... I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital. I'm going to go to the hospital. I'm going to go to the hospital. I'm going to go to the hospital.
Can you tell us anything about Shushu? What was he like? What was his character, his personality? I was very scared. I was scared because I was a child.
I was scared because I was a child. I was scared because I was a child. I was scared because I was a child. I was scared because I was a child.
I was scared because I was a child. I was afraid that I would be killed. I saw that.
I was afraid that I would be killed. I was afraid that I would be killed. I don't know what I'm going to do with my life.
I don't know what I'm going to do with my life. I don't know what I'm going to do with my life. I don't know what I'm going to do with my life. I don't know what I'm going to do with my life.
I don't know what I'm going to do with my life. I don't know what I'm going to do with my life. I don't know what I'm going to do with my life. When you saw that he was in the village and he wanted to make videos with Bright, what were your expectations or hopes? I was told that I was going to be a widow.
I was told that I was going to be a widow. I was told that I was going to be a widow. I was told that I was going to be a widow. And do you know how much money they were making from these videos?
Our investigation found that in just one day they were able to film 380 videos right here in the village. And they earned tens of thousands of American dollars. I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital. I'm going to go to the hospital. I am a woman.
I am a woman. I am a woman. I am a woman.
I am a woman. I am a woman. I am a woman.
I am a woman. I am a woman. I am a woman.
I am a woman. I am a woman. I am a woman.
I am a woman. I am a woman. I am a woman.
I am a woman. I am a woman. I am a woman. I am a woman.
I am a woman. I am a woman. I am a woman. I am a woman. I am a woman.
I am a woman. I left Kamwendo disturbed by how Bright had been exploited, but not surprised. I'd watched hundreds of videos that Shushu had filmed in these villages. Again and again, he'd used these kids to create a picture of African poverty. A picture that allows him to be the hero and saviour.
Paul had told me that Shushu was kind of a misfit. Someone who had come to Malawi as a migrant worker and never really acquired any status within his own diaspora community. But here, in the village, surrounded by African kids... he could be a king.
In one video, he even has the children washing his feet. It's a social media performance in which the kids, real kids like Bright, are used as poverty porn to elicit sympathy back home in China. As extras to boost his status.
and as commodities that can be made to sing and dance for profit. We'd learned a lot on our trip to Camuendo, but we still couldn't be sure that Shusu was the man behind a low IQ video. Paul, our undercover operative, had met Shusu for a second time.
Hello. We sat down to watch the footage, hoping to learn more. This time, Paul asked if Xuxu could shoot adverts for chocolates featuring a female model. Xuxu said it wouldn't be possible. Do you know?
But not in Malawi. There are no beautiful women in Malawi. Susu seemed to think he could get anyone to join, even the waitress. The attitude is anyone will do. Who cares?
Paul dropped the suggestion of working with a model and moved the conversation onto doing business in Malawi. As she Su Su had a specific warning about some black people in particular. Considering that he was supposedly in Malawi to teach Chinese, I found this particularly ironic.
But Su Su wasn't dead. I feel like I'm at a loss for words. A complete loss for words, Henry.
How could he say this so openly? Su Su's videos are often crudely patriotic. Followers back home are made to think he's helping Malawi in the name of China.
In reality, his racism is an insult to the many Chinese people who don't share his views. And it's the exact opposite of the image China seeks to promote in Malawi and across the African continent. Chinese officials often refer to African countries as China's friends and equals. A tour around Ilongwe gave me the chance to appreciate just how visible China's presence has become. And another one there too.
And just how much money China has spent to support its diplomatic rhetoric. The Chinese government has sponsored several high-profile projects, including this state-of-the-art stadium. It was built with a 70 million dollar loan.
This hotel is the first five star hotel in Malawi. This five star hotel was funded with a 90 million dollar loan. This is the new...
And this building, the Parliament, was free. A gift from China to Malawi. Yeah, look, China aid right on the building there.
Yeah, yeah, sure. I could see for myself China's presence in the city. But I wanted to better understand how it was perceived locally. We invited a group of people from China to Malawi. group of Malawian professionals to join us for a chat.
But when the Chinese came in, I think there was that quick injection of infrastructure. In some ways, it was kind of an enticement, because it was kind of like a new friendship. So, you know, maybe China also wanted to impress in some ways.
You know, in Malawi, I think we have people who are not being employed. So, they're coming in of Chinese shops. Malawians are getting the employment from the Chinese. So I think it is really improving the lives of Malawians out there.
I would say it's a 50-50 situation. They're taking up business that are supposed to be done by locals, which is a very big problem, which is not supposed to be the case. Putting politics and business aside, I asked my guests how Chinese migrants and Malawians interacted at the individual level. To me, I regard them as our development partners, people who are friendly, who can interact with each other. with them.
But there was some tension too. So I think on the part of individuals, some of these Chinese, they don't abide by the laws. There has been reports about harassment between Chinese to a Malawian employee.
Many of them, like beatings and then low wages. As the two communities become closer, a mix of customary hospitality, misunderstandings and poverty seems to have created fertile ground for the blessing video industry. You know, when they are seeing these Chinese coming, these are people that probably they didn't... even know if they are going to have food on that particular day. So I would say this business, it is thriving because of the fact that they are dealing with people that are not knowledgeable and also that are poor.
This analysis fitted perfectly with what we knew about Susu. Everything about his business depended on the poverty of the kids in Ndjawa. But had he gone so far as to make those kids racially insult themselves on camera in the low IQ video?
It was time to ask Susu directly. Paul had arranged another meeting. Henry and I were anxious to see the footage. Do you want to dance?
This is a very difficult dance. I have filmed so many videos, thousands of videos, I don't know what kind of videos they are. Whether it's advertising, birthday parties, wedding parties, all sorts of difficult questions.
I've filmed it all. From the beginning to the end. There was a famous one.
It was a big hit. It was in the group chat. It was in the group chat in Tibet.
It was you. It was funny. I saw it and I knew it.
It was really popular. It was a long time ago. I'm not sure if I can get it out.
I'm sorry. This one. This is mine. This is yours. He said this was mine.
He said this was mine. Request video? Yeah, he's just looked at it and he said on screen, this was mine.
This is yours. Oh, this is mine. Hold on, hold on. He says, and then he says, oh, no, no, no, no, this is not me.
It was my friend. He said the friend from Fujian, it looks as though he'd let a secret slip. He says it so excitedly, and then suddenly he reverses and he says, oh, no, no, no, this was a friend who took it. This is a video of a person who took it.
This is a video of a person who took it. I think it's funny. This is wrong.
I suggest you delete it. Because it's in the group. I know.
I suggest you don't leave it on your phone. Don't show it to the people. Otherwise you will be attacked by them. They can't understand.
I suggest you delete it. But it's in the group. I know.
I have deleted it everywhere. He knows it was a controversial thing. Why is he getting worried? He's not the one who did it. Despite Shusu backtracking on the low IQ video, his racist views were there for all to see.
I felt the time had come to confront him, but I didn't want it to be just my words that he'd be hearing. Walking around the village near Ndewa with just a still photograph, Henry, incredibly, had managed to find some children who recognised themselves in the low IQ video. We showed them the video and asked them to point themselves out. That's you? Wow.
Ah. I'd stared at that video so many times, wondering what happened to those children. It was surreal to have them in front of me.
We sat with one of the fathers and one of the grandmothers to tell them why their children were really being filmed. These videos earn him quite a bit of money. Over the years, this man has been able to earn millions of kwacha just filming children from your village.
Yellow pouch. I was told that I was going to be sent to the hospital. I was told that I was going to be sent to the hospital.
I was told that I was going to be sent to the hospital. I was told that I was going to be sent to the hospital. I was told that I was going to be sent to the hospital.
I was told that I was going to be sent to the hospital. I am a businessman. I am a businessman. I am a businessman. I am a businessman.
I am a businessman. I am very happy. I am very happy that I am able to live here. I am very happy that I am able to live here.
I am very happy that I am able to live here. I am very happy that I am able to live here. I am very happy that I am able to live here.
I am very happy that I am able to live here. I am very happy that I am able to live here. I am very happy to be able to go to the If we do decide to approach this man, is there a message that you'd like us to give him?
This father's message for Susu couldn't be clearer. It was time to deliver it. So is this him over here, Henry?
Yeah, sure. So we're here in the village. I think you can speak to him in Chinese. Hello, hello. I'm a...
Hi, I'm a... This is a reporter from the UK. We are reporters from a British radio company. Can I wear a mask?
Yes, you can. I can wear a mask too. I'm wearing a mask too.
We heard that you were going to film here. It's okay, you can wear a mask first. Brother, what's your name? My name is uncle All the children in the village call you uncle, right? Yes Why are you making these videos?
Why are you making these videos? Because I want to spread the message Chinese culture, music, and dance. This place includes Chinese characters, Chinese words, Chinese songs, and dancing. When you arrived in the countryside, you told them that you wanted to teach these children Chinese. But these children could not understand.
They could understand. You taught them for a long time, but they didn't understand a word. No. You have to answer these questions.
You know? You have to answer these questions. You have to answer these questions.
You know, it's because they go to school for half a day, you know? Half a day, right? They go to school by themselves, then they come back to China to study more.
So can you make money by making videos? I can't make money. Really?
Yes. So why do you make videos? I like it. I like the feeling of being with them. If I say I have a family, how can you answer?
Those who make money are agents, that is, those who are in China. I asked why the locals were under the impression he worked for a charitable organization. I said I work at a charity, but I'm not working at a charity.
This is his slander. Oh, you know, it's a misunderstanding, isn't it? This is a misunderstanding.
They said you have beaten children in the past. Beat children? When they were young.
Yes, I didn't. You didn't, did you? Yes, this is a misunderstanding. Why do you think they would say that? This is a misunderstanding.
Misunderstanding, it's all a misunderstanding, isn't it? Some people may have mistaken. So who beat them?
Who beat them? Maybe someone else beat them. Maybe someone else. But I didn't beat them.
Ask these kids. I didn't beat them. And you have to use these kids.
Do you know? This is a tax. Do you know? This is right?
I didn't tax them. Many of the Malawian people are very friendly. I know.
I like them very much. But there are a few people who are misbehaving. They are misbehaving. It means that they have a sense of rejection towards the Chinese.
There are a small group of people But most of the Malawians are very friendly Because we heard you tell us that you don't like these people And we saw the video you made Let these kids say I am a black man with a black shirt Did you shoot this? This is not my video That's not my father's video But this is shot in this countryside Who shot this? Tell us Tell our audience You've returned to China? Yes, I have. So you didn't say that most black people don't have conscience?
I said most people love Chinese people. But you said before, we have already seen, we have a religion, so you can say the truth. I said the truth, I was serious.
You didn't say that most black people don't have conscience? I didn't say that. I didn't say that.
You didn't say that there is no black person who is a thug? I didn't say that. You didn't say that? I haven't said it before. Really?
Yes, I'm sure. I haven't said it before. You haven't said it before. Black people who can speak Mandarin are the worst and most dangerous black people?
No. Really? Yes. Are these cute children you have brought home very expensive? Do you think I'm expensive?
No, no. So I like them very much. Five years ago, I once worked for a Chinese man.
But when I was working, I gave them work. When I was a child, there were three black workers at home. The workers stole things when they were doing things.
So I was brainwashed by him. He told me this was five years ago. But you also said two weeks ago. I didn't say it two weeks ago.
So you think I'm intelligent because you don't tell the truth. I already told the truth. Okay. Okay, basically, he's admitted some things.
He's admitted having opinions that were not very kind about black people and about Malawian people. Yes. But he said this was five years ago. And he's denied everything that we have seen in video of him saying.
He's denied it, basically. He also denies making the video that we believe he made. So it just feels like this isn't productive anymore.
He's not going to admit anything else. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. Oh, you know, there was a confusion.
I'd spent so long poring over Shushu's videos, fretting over what was happening behind the scenes. Now I knew. But as I prepared to leave Henry, this discovery felt bittersweet. Sweet because, together, Henry and I had exposed one of the worst examples of the racism that we all face, on the continent and in the diaspora.
Bitter because we both knew that this was bigger than Shushu. As I looked across my country, I thought about all the people down there who were still struggling with poverty. Many of them assumed that foreigners have come to help.
Susu exploited that good faith. He came to Malawi and betrayed our children. We had disrupted one operation by one man in one village.
But I only had to turn on my phone to see that this industry was going global. Somewhere on these apps and websites, somewhere on this continent, there were other shushus, other brides, other kids being exploited for the profit and entertainment of people far, far away.