China-Africa Expert Lina Ayenew in Beijing - notes of her presentation

On the evening of February 20, Ethiopian author Lina Getachew Ayenew presented her book “The complete beginner’s guide to China-Africa relations” in Beijing’s “The Bookworm” bar and reading space. The place was packed and people like me, who on short notice didn’t make a reservation, were lucky to still get in before the last seat was taken. The great interest proved to be worth it, as the presentation in form of an interview by Cameroonian Joseph Olivier Mendo'o, PhD-student for international relations at the prestigious Peking University in Beijing. The crowd, interestingly, was very diverse with about a third Chinese, a good third African, and almost a third other foreigners.

There was a lot of valuable thought coming from the presenters, of which I only recorded a fraction with special relevance to me personally. I share it here for those interested in the topic, fully aware that other viewers may have taken very different key points with them:

Lina started with some excellent advice on how to write a book: Do a bit every day! Don’t aim for the big shot in one go, but keep at it and force yourself to consistency.

What Lina described as a big trend in China-Africa relations recently is that so many students are coming to China. Before nobody knew anything about China, except that all consumer goods were made there. But now, everybody knows somebody who is studying in China. All these students will be China savvy in 5 years, so African understanding of China is growing rapidly. Directly addressed at African students in the crowd, Lina went on asking: “Will you push the narrative further? Will you negotiate better for your country? How good is the education, does it help your career?” Yes indeed, questions with much further importance than only for African students themselves. Everyone should be interested in these questions, as they are very relevant for the long-term development of Africa and Africa-China relations.

When talking about being asked the question whether China was “good or bad” for Africa – a question Lina basically laughs away when asked, because the answer obviously is: it isn’t that simple – Lina made a side-note which for me as a European was of great importance and interest: To call China’s activities in Africa “colonization” is not just wrong in the eyes of many, it is actually offensive to many Africans, because it denies the horrible, unspeakable crimes committed during the real colonization, when Europeans committed genocides and enslaved shocking numbers of Africans over centuries. I have always known about such crimes, but I now realized, how similar this period of time is to how Europeans see the holocaust: it’s such an incredible crime, that no other crimes must even be compared to it. This is my interpretation of her words, mind you, as she didn’t speak about Europe at all.

Lina’s point was, that before people would just say China is good for Africa, or China is a threat for Africa, while now the discussion has become much more nuanced, as we talk about debt trap, effectiveness, different types of investment, and similar tangible, concrete and nuanced questions of China in Africa. In the past people talked about China bringing workers to Africa, now everyone talks about how Chinese investments create so many jobs for Africans.

About China-Africa research, the modest author mentioned almost incredulously how some people suddenly refer to her as a China-Africa “expert” (baituo, Lina you are, after five year’s researching the topic). And she went on how currently this whole field of research is still very broad: China – Africa, while she is hoping in the future it will be much more specific and detailed, e.g. research on the Ruanda-China fibre-optic cooperation, detailed both in fields of cooperation and in specific African regions or countries. At this point Joseph pointed out, how “we all work hard to push the narrative”, to inform the world about what is really happening between China and Africa.

A bit later Lina told some stories from the time when she went back to Ethiopia for some time. She recounted how Chinese companies instantly wanted to hire her “because I said ni hao so well”. She then realized how big the need for mandarin speakers was in Ethiopia, which gave her the idea to write the first textbook to learn mandarin directly from the Ethiopian native language Amharic.

After the introduction, questions from the audience were accepted, the first being about the debt trap and alleged predatory lending practices by China: after all the IMF and World Bank have become very reluctant to lend money to African states. So how should Africans deal with it?

Lina in essence said: Africa needs systems to keep borrowed money in Africa. It shouldn't leave within a short time, as it happens today. So these systems include a range of aspects, like accounting reliability, political transparency, fight against and systems to prevent corruption and many more.

My question was: As a European, when talking with Europeans I notice that most know very little about China and even less about Africa. So should Africa care about influencing European narrative?

Lina’s answer was in short: Generally sharing of true information is good and everyone should be sharing. China's engagement in Africa has renewed global interest in Africa (India, Japan, Russia...) which is good for Africa to have choices with whom to cooperate in what. While I fully agree with her, I have still my question that I can formulate more precisely in writing: how dangerous is the crass anti-China narrative coming from Europe for the China-Africa relationship? Whether Europeans care about China-Africa is up to Europeans, but as former colonialists and due to geographical proximity, European countries still hold a large influence in most African countries. Does this influence help Africans to mitigate risks of cooperation with China, or does is simply hurt the good relationship with China – or does it have little effect on the China-Africa relation after all? I will follow up on this question in the future.

The next question got Lina quite excited: what about the importance of women empowerment?

I shorten a lot here: This topic is very important to me. I think it of utmost importance to have empowerment through education. Such education and empowerment should be including everyone in society, it is not for women against anyone. But it is important to create understanding of women's special role in raising a family, physically, financial, and the opportunity cost of caring for a baby in an age where men will set the basis for their future career. For men getting a child is a very strong motivation to work harder, to earn more in order to care for the child, for the family; for a women getting a child makes me feel I can't leave home, I want to work but it emotionally pains me to leave my beautiful baby. So also a support system to help women with raising a child is very important.

A next question was: which industry in Africa is growing fastest?

The very honest answer was: I don't know. Having researched 5 years I am still a generalist and there are so many things that I don’t know. Interesting is how a vast majority of important research about China in Africa is done in the US and in Europe, while investing companies are from China and many other places, and Africans only have limited influence on how these facts are interpreted, even lack communication among ourselves. Many of us meet other China-interested Africans here in China for the first time.

A further important question: do African companies also moving into China or just the other way around?

Answer: There are African traders. Lina knows some entrepreneurs setting up companies in China, but not many yet. Most of them are in the Pearl Delta and trade Chinese goods to Africa. She hopes there will be more African entrepreneurs and companies coming to China, but currently there seem to be very few.

I agree with both her assessment and her wish for the future. Looking at the stages of economic development though: How many Chinese companies have really established a foothold in Europe or the US? In recent years more and more have been coming, from cars to high-tech to cellphones. But for the first 30 years of rapid economic development (since the Reform and Opening Up policy starting in the early 1980s) China basically only exported goods, while Western companies built up subsidiaries in China. Africa should learn from that period of China, and also force foreign companies in relevant industries to work with local Joint Venture partners, so ensure there is a knowledge transfer in exchange for market access. This is starkly opposed to IMF recommendations, but history of China shows it was the best possible decision in the interest of the Chinese.

The last question was about changes Lina has seen in Ethiopia in the last thirty years? – By a person who used to work there some 30-40 years ago.

Infrastructure was a main topic of cooperation with China and so Lina would also tell a memory related to infrastructural changes: To go to school she had to go for a long time by bus, it was so far away to go to school and if you missed that one bus you could basically go home again and the parents would not be happy about it. Now this location is actually part of the city! Other changes: education has improved a lot, also health care, reduction of HIV, protection of women etc. In school we learned we had 50 million people, and now we have 100 million, so we have to do a lot more.

For me personally it was a fascinating first glimpse into what I call “Africa from a Chinese perspective”: not the victim of us Europeans, not the never-moving-forward, poverty-stricken, corrupt, underdeveloped poor continent, not the place of endless draught, civil wars and humanitarian aid to no avail, but a vastly diverse continent of almost boundless economic opportunities just waiting to be discovered, invested in, and successfully developed. It wasn’t just the speech and the content, it was the whole audience, the many Africans in the room who beamed with pride and support for “one of their own” despite the fact that most of them came from totally different countries and cultures. I have felt this cultural openness and tolerance between peoples of Africa, which is so lacking in Europe. I have seen young, highly educated Africans not looking for a way to get out of Africa, but for a way to make something of Africa. And I have seen Chinese who are open to engage with people from completely foreign countries and different cultures, Chinese who care about Africa way beyond raw materials or any other clichés. A big thank you goes to Lina for taking her time and to Joseph for moderating the whole event, and of course to the organizers of the following quiz and the sponsors and their prizes. The evening was very inspiring and last but not least I want to thank the Social Enterprise Kente&Silk for organizing the event. I hope we will hear much more about you in the future!