These con men, like many of the convicted drug mules and dealers, have often entered the country on student visas, which are easy to obtain and rarely attract follow-up checks. As a result, local prejudice is running high against Africans generally.

Malaysians rarely bother to make distinctions between Nigerians and Ghanaians, Kenyans and Tanzanians. The press, politicians and the public refer to them as “Awang Hitam”; the rough translation “black guy” fails to convey the expression’s pejorative edge.

Recently, an upscale condominium development in Petaling Jaya, a city near Kuala Lumpur, tried to ban Africans from renting apartments within the complex. After negative publicity, the developers backed down, but it is an index of how intense the loathing has become in some quarters.

The increasingly entrenched nature of anti-African sentiment was encapsulated in last year’s widely read editorial in one of the country’s most influential Malay-language dailies, Utusan Malaysia. Titled “Malaysia Can Do Without ‘Pak Hitam”’ (a variation of “Awang Hitam”), it summed up a prevailing view of Africans in Malaysia: that all the stories were the same, and all the stories were bad. It went on to list the social problems caused by Africans, from serious crimes like drug trafficking and online fraud to gathering in large groups and “colonizing residential areas.”

It is in this last grievance that a clash of cultures becomes clear: Africans are accused of rowdiness, drunkenness and harassing local girls — all of which represents the antithesis of the behavior expected in a conservative Asian country. Afraid to challenge these African immigrants because of their physical size, large numbers and “coarse character” — according to the editorial — Malaysians watched as their neighborhoods were overrun by “Pak Hitam.”

Many Malaysians argue that the sheer number of offenses committed by Nigerians and other Africans justifies their jaundiced blanket view — though actual figures are hard to come by. According to a Nigeria-based nonprofit organization, the Legal Defense and Assistance Project, there are 132 Nigerians serving sentences in prison in Malaysia, with several on death row — but the project was able to gather data from only two of the country’s seven maximum-security prisons.

Whether or not there is a crime wave caused by Africans, many Malaysians definitely have a perception that one is happening. And this is feeding deep-rooted prejudice. I once witnessed a local woman on a train holding her nose when sitting next to a passenger of African appearance.