Africa -China Review Africa -China Cooperation and Transformation
Relationships between Africa and China have been traced to times even before most African countries got independence. An example, is the Chinese-African People’s Friendship Association (CAPFA), founded in April 1960, and aims at enhancing mutual understanding and friendship between the Chinese and African people, promoting the exchanges and cooperation between China and Africa, safeguarding world peace, and promoting common development.
On average people spend between 22 – 25 years of their life in an education institution of one form or other to graduate with their first degree and longer if they are to study for further degrees. It is this environment therefore, where the youth are open to experimenting lots of things including developing social relationships. Quite several people still have friends that were developed during this time when they were in schools.
As Stacey Goodman who is an Artist and educator from Oakland, California put it, “teaching through relationships, when done well, recognizes the human stories of the learners themselves (they are not blank slates), as well as that of the teacher. It is an approach that embraces our complex identities, biographies, and the stories we bring that serve to humanize the subjects we teach’’.
We currently have many African students going to China to study in a wide range of Universities and Technikons which have come out to be among top institutions in the world, an indication that China’s contribution in this regard is highly appreciated. Gonondo Jean of the Institute of Educational Research, Zhejiang Normal University wrote in Journal of Education and Practice Vol.8, No.10, 2017 that, ‘Foreign students are not only interested in studying in developed countries like USA, England, France etc, but also in developing countries like China, South-Africa, Cameroon etc. In the particular case of Africa and China, even though there are very few studies on Chinese students studying in Africa, but on the other hand, day after day, there is an increasing number of studies on African students in China (Bodomo, 2014)’’
It is from the above approach that I think the education relationship between China and Africa should be taken a step further. Mandarin has been introduced into the Education curriculum of a few African countries and in other cases taught privately by private institutions. This is because of the growing relationship between China and Africa and the need to smoothen that relationship through removal of language barriers.
China has become the largest African trading partner, therefore, there is more and more need for Africa and China to understand each other beyond trading. It is very comforting for a Chinese trader to come to Africa and be able to communicate in Mandarin with an African trader. Likewise, it is comforting for an African trader to go to China and be able to meet a fellow trader able to communicate in his language and be able to understand his Africa cultural ethos.
To enhance this interaction for example, Uganda’s education ministry in December 2018, was planning to add Mandarin language lessons to its secondary school curriculum at 35 schools with future plans to roll it out to more educational institutions as resources become available. This is in addition to other International languages that have always been taught e.g German, French, Arabic and Latin to mention just a few. In 2019, Makerere University in Uganda indicated that it would be offering a Bachelor of Chinese and Asian Studies program in collaboration with Hanban (a Confucius Institute established in 1987 for teaching Chinese as a foreign language). According to Prof. Oswald Ndoleriire, the Ugandan Director of the Confucius Institute at Makerere University, “the main objective of the programme is to provide learners with certified proficiency in Mandarin and competence in understanding its linguistic, cultural and literacy aspects.
In addition to language and intercultural competence, the programme will expose learners to the intricacies of the fastest growing region in the world, and their application to the Ugandan context.” Kenya and South Africa are other African countries that offered mandarin as elective subjects in their secondary school curriculums. South Africa introduced Mandarin to 44 public schools by September 2018. It is this sort of interaction that can build trust which eventually translates into more business. Business is built on nothing more than mere trust, without trust there is no business.
China has many Confucius Institutes in Africa which by 2019 were estimated at around 53. These are however, housed at affiliated universities in the host African country and are designed to foster Chinese language learning and promote the understanding of Chinese culture. Being housed in host Country institutes has not given them the Chinese Identity that is necessary to advance that China-Africa relationship that is required.
China has in the past supported and is still supporting several mega construction projects in Africa, such as the new headquarters of the African Union and rail system in Addis Ababa, hydro power plants and oil refineries in Angola and Nigeria, or Zimbabwe’s international airport and many more and therefore relationship with China is still required and needs to be developed more than it currently is.
China has supported the construction of many rural elementary and secondary schools across the African continent, has provided learning materials and equipment to African universities and has also supported and sponsored teacher development. This is what needs to be taken a step further by introducing what we may call a Chinese school model which would admit both African and Chinese students in an African country to study together.
Having Chinese education institutions on the African continent would balance the equation rather than the current trend where African students have to find the institutions only in China, and this will help African students to interact with their Chinese piers from a tender age up their University or Technikon graduations. Secondly, exchange programs between Chinese and African schools and universities should be promoted for the students to have the cultural and environmental integration for a better understanding of each other. In my view this arrangement would cement Africa-China relationship that has been created for decades.
George Nsamba is a commentator on African affairs and specialist in risk management and auditing based in Johannesburg South Africa
