China and Africa: brothers in Communism and Capitalism
A Tanzanian newspaper, The Guardian had a bizarre headline today: the Prime Minister suggested that "we must change and teach our children the Chinese language up to university level due to the fact that development has shifted to China". The article continued with promises "to provide the schools with electricity to enable students and teachers to improve their education performance". Don't you just love this bureaucratic language use?
A lot has been written about the Chinese invasion in Africa recently. And now the development comes from there, if we listen to the Tanzanian Prime Minister!
Actually, the phenomenon is not new at all. Though I was a bit surprised too to read in dusty Tanganyika Standard newspapers from 1964 (been working in the library of the Dar es Salaam university) that China, together with East Germany, were the only countries Zanzibar accepted to receive development aid from. Ideology was the main reason: Zanzibari Revolutionary Government didn't trust other countries because it suspected the imperialistic plots and was afraid of losing its 'self-reliance' (the main concept President Julius Nyerere used in his Arusha declaration, 1967, and even before that - see for example http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-nye.htm.
Anyway, China gave interest-free loans to African countries already in the 1960s, at the same time as Western countries borrowed money only with a good interest (six percent or so). The consequences of that "aid" we all know...
I still don't have a proper opinion on whether it is good or bad to have China strongly in Africa. I suppose the only thing I don't wish is that they would import their conceptions of environmental issues - Africa has enough problems as it is. We'll see. But it does seem to me that many Africans have had enough of Europeans and Americans mingling in their business. It is time to head East!
A lot has been written about the Chinese invasion in Africa recently. And now the development comes from there, if we listen to the Tanzanian Prime Minister!
Actually, the phenomenon is not new at all. Though I was a bit surprised too to read in dusty Tanganyika Standard newspapers from 1964 (been working in the library of the Dar es Salaam university) that China, together with East Germany, were the only countries Zanzibar accepted to receive development aid from. Ideology was the main reason: Zanzibari Revolutionary Government didn't trust other countries because it suspected the imperialistic plots and was afraid of losing its 'self-reliance' (the main concept President Julius Nyerere used in his Arusha declaration, 1967, and even before that - see for example http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-nye.htm.
Anyway, China gave interest-free loans to African countries already in the 1960s, at the same time as Western countries borrowed money only with a good interest (six percent or so). The consequences of that "aid" we all know...
I still don't have a proper opinion on whether it is good or bad to have China strongly in Africa. I suppose the only thing I don't wish is that they would import their conceptions of environmental issues - Africa has enough problems as it is. We'll see. But it does seem to me that many Africans have had enough of Europeans and Americans mingling in their business. It is time to head East!
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