Dr Edith Phaswana, Acting Director of the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute (TMALI), was among a group of African scholars and experts who visited the newly established China-Africa Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) from 1 to 12 July 2019.
In April 2019, the China-Africa Institute was inaugurated in Beijing to set up and enhance China-Africa studies, people-to-people exchanges and mutual learning between the Chinese and African civilisations.
The recent two-week visit was intended to strengthen the exchanges and cooperation between academia, research institutes and think tanks in China and Africa. The nine African universities that participated are the University of South Africa, the University of Botswana, the University of Namibia, the University of Zambia, the University of Zimbabwe, the University of Lagos (Nigeria), the University of Makeni (Sierra Leone), Makerere University (Uganda) and the Open University of Tanzania. Delegates also attended the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in June 2019.
According to Phaswana, this visit was relevant for TMALI as an institute of Unisa as it established an Africa-China research desk. "The desk is coordinated by Dr Paul Tembe," she said.
TMALI seeks to partner and collaborate with other universities on the continent interested in documenting knowledge about Africa-China relations, and aspires to be a hub of knowledge about cooperation between China and Africa. It also organised seminars and colloquiums in the past three years on Africa-China relations
Moreover, TMALI recommended five South African students from previously disadvantaged backgrounds to study towards their master’s degrees in China as part of the people-to-people exchange. These scholarships are fully funded by the Chinese government.
Phaswana said that to preserve knowledge on this cooperation, two manuscripts were produced to recognise knowledge producers located in Africa. "Our locus of enunciation is important for us after experiencing centuries of misrepresentation in the field of knowledge production," she said.
Phaswana said the current generation of Africans are prepared to speak for themselves, quoting the adage "nothing for us without us" as their mantra. "I think the Fallist movement (#FeesMustFall) in South Africa has made it clear to the international community that if Africans cannot tell their own stories, someone will step in and tell it," said Phaswana.
Speaking about China, Phaswana added that Chinese universities had the opportunity to present their strategic plans to African scholars who might go back to their countries and continue to work in silos. "China has laid its path clear and open for everyone," she said. "It is incumbent upon us as African delegates to take advantage of this opportunity and work in a more coordinated manner as the network has already been established."
African scholars were exposed to the lack of proper coordination of African universities in this relationship with China. "Unlike our Chinese counterparts, African universities operate in a fragmented manner and this include South African universities," said Phaswana. "South Africa, in particular the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), can learn a lot from its Chinese counterpart, CASS. During this visit delegates were able to interact with various think tank groups, universities and government departments, and learnt about Chinese history and culture," she said.
Going forward, Phaswana said that African delegates are already anticipating challenges as their respective governments might not make resources available to strengthen this collaboration "If this happens, African scholars will again be spectators and wait for handouts from China to host another seminar," she cautioned
Delegates explored several think tanks, research institutes, universities and government departments in China including the North-West University of Political Science and Law, China Executive Leadership Academy, Rural Development Institute, Communication University of China, International Poverty Reduction Centre in China, the Department of African Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and many others.
"The highlight of this visit was the drafting of bilateral agreements with each university on a variety of joint research projects and publications in the field of humanities and social sciences, which are yet to be signed by our institutions," said Phaswana.
On the last day a seminar was held where delegates presented individual papers based on their research areas to the faculty at CASS. The seminar was important as it marked the achievement and outcomes of the visit, and demonstrated the feasibility of future cooperation with Chinese intellectuals.
* Submitted by the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute
Publish date: 2019-07-29 00:00:00.0