From: Prof. Amin Alhassan (PhD), Director-General, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, Accra
As China welcomes its 75th anniversary, I join many other Africans to wish the Government and the citizens of the People’s Republic of China a great celebration.
Since the launch of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2000, so many initiatives have been carried out in Africa within the framework of Chinese conception of modernization. Not to be confused with the Euro-American modernisation, what the Chinese approach to Africa’s modernisation entails is more about actions in solidarity and not in tutelage. It is one that entails a win-win scenario, not one that is based on integrating African economies into the periphery of Euro-American economies.
The Chinese story in Africa is one that is celebrated across the continent. It is therefore not surprising that African leaders continue to take seriously President Xi Jinping’s gestures of friendship and solidarity. The heavily attended September 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation is the strongest statement yet of the growing success of the Chinese concept of modernisation.
Africa’s previous experience of modernisation was what Europe introduced in the form of bilateral and multilateral arrangement, otherwise known as development partnership. However, increasingly, this relationship with Europe and North America simply turned out to be an exercise in a neocolonial arrangement. China’s modernisation is a clear departure from the neocolonial arrangements that masqueraded as modernisation and development.
It is clear that the focus of Chinese modernisation initiatives in Africa is mainly infrastructural development, less about cultural assimilation, and they stress mutual benefit. This is why African leaders are embracing China.
One of the reasons why China resonates powerfully in Africa is that its current leaders know how it is to be a Third World country as in one generation, they have helped to transform a once peasant and rural economy into a global giant that is standing on a par with the United States. Just under 75 years, China has moved from being a developing country to an unavoidable global pacesetter in economic transformation. This is why China is attractive to Africa.
Euro-American modernisation was about teaching and directing. Chinese modernisation is about sharing experiences. The fact that China’s modernisation is not based on external exploitation of colonies, but based on internal mobilisation, meritocracy, and efficiency, has made China a great example for African countries to learn from. The Chinese experiment in modernisation is appealing to Africans because of the affinity of being a developing country that has gained developed status.
The Chinese influence in Africa is seen as a growth of Chinese soft-power on the continent. Thus, there are countries that work through acts of mal-information, to off-set the communication of the China narrative in Africa. The Chinese narrative stands up in sharp contrast to the Euro-American narrative, which has in recent times simply been unmasked as a neocolonial project. More needs to be done to build communication and media bridges across the continent to ensure that the right story is told. China Media Group is already doing a lot of work building partnerships with other African media houses. The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation has one such partnership with CMG.
The task of mainstreaming the Chinese narrative of modernisation in Africa may require much more than what has been done so far. CMG and their collaborating partners will have to intensify their work through regular engagement to take stock of what has been done and what needs to be done.
The practice of journalism as we know it in Africa today is one of the products of Euro-American modernization. Thus, the newsrooms in Africa might be staffed with mainly Africans, but the journalism practiced is Euro-American centric. How can we re-set African Journalism to be African? This is where we in Africa need to share in the Chinese experience to understand how they did it.
The number of Chinese stories written from Chinese and African perspectives needs to be looked at as part of expanding the collaboration between China and Africa. Joint media production, experience sharing and capacity building need to be intensified.
We at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation are excited to join CMG to celebrate its media event in Abuja, Nigeria, “Written in the Sky: My China Story.”
