African students in Wuhan stuck on their campus
Audio 02:27
The campus of Wuhan University, Hubei Province, China in April 2020. AP - Sam McNeil
By: Stéphane Lagarde Follow
6 min
Health measures are being stepped up in China, following the appearance of epidemic foci, particularly in the north of the country.
In order to stagger departures and avoid the circulation of the virus, the school holidays for the Lunar New Year have been brought forward by one month.
Except for foreign students and especially African students, forced to stay on campus.
Report from Wuhan.
Publicity
"
Usually, we went out, the year before the Covid, but there with the Covid, they closed the door definitively, they even built a new wall
", describes Touka, a Chadian master's student in international relations in Wuhan.
The accesses to the China Normal University in Wuhan have been walled up to better control entry and exit: the world after is definitely not the one before, in the capital of Hubei as in the rest of the country.
With the pandemic, foreign students who left for the Lunar New Year holidays last year still haven't returned.
Touka confirms this: “
life is different, between 2020 and 2021. For example, in my department, 50% of my classmates are in their country, we are in the classroom and they are online.
Before we were 500-600 foreign students in two buildings, now we are barely 100 students.
We are really bored, because a lot of our friends are not there, there are only studies and social networks.
Life is not the same as before ...
"
Life and business are not the same as before either for this Yemeni grocer whose small shop is very popular, especially by Muslim students in Wuhan.
The latter risk finding themselves confined to campus again for the Lunar New Year holidays, which brings back bad memories to Ken: “
We stayed practically 5 months in our rooms, and the school supplied us morning, noon, evening.
At one point, they gave us permission to go out once a day.
It was in Wuhan, this is where it started and we wondered if we had contacted him or not ... Especially since the Chinese do not tell everything that is happening in their country, suddenly we do. was learning through the media and it was really scary.
"
►
Read also: Coronavirus: the daily life of African students stuck in China
For this Congolese student, as for Touka, today the fear has passed.
Wuhan city is the safest in the world, they say.
The epidemic is under control, construction sites have resumed all around the university.
And to avoid any further risk of the virus spreading, the
Chunjié
holiday
- the spring festival - has been brought forward this year.
Chinese students and teachers can return to their home provinces; foreign students, on the other hand, must stay on campus.
"
We will manage ourselves, the cards for the washing machines, for the hot water and all, they will give that to the students
," explains Touka.
It's Covid self-management so we will be on campus, there will be security people, each week, a professor will take care, but it is always the students who will self-manage.
We already have experience, we've been in the Covid for twelve months!
"
Twelve months in the Covid ... To compensate, for these foreign students who sometimes feel discriminated against in their travels, the university has planned billiards, table football, ping-pong tables for these long, very long holidays confined to the lunar new year.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
China
Youth
Africa
Expatriates
On the same subject
Coronavirus: in Beijing and Shanghai, a reopening of high schools under high surveillance