Even as
China increases its footprint in Cameroon through its language institutes and
companies, locals are divided on how these facilities are impacting their
lives. While youth welcome them as cultural bridges and windows of opportunity
for jobs, critics feel they will only serve China’s own interests in the long
run. What is most worrying is a growing feeling that these language schools may
make local youth lose their moorings, confidence, belief and identity
YAOUNDE (Cameroon)—Learning Chinese language and culture has become a
passion among Cameroon’s youth. Most of them admire Chinese people for their
hard work and adherence to traditions and values.
The will to win and excel like them is drawing thousands to the Chinese
Confucius Institute set up in this West African country in 2007.
The institute has drawn over 10,000 learners so far, the highest number
in the continent, according to Yu Guoyang, director of the institute.
It is part of the University of Yaounde II’s International Relations
Institute of Cameroon and is co-chaired by the varsity’s rector and the rector
of China’s Zhejiang Normal University.
Yu says many of the students come to the institute for the pleasure of
learning something new and also to get jobs in companies set up by China in
Cameroon and elsewhere.
According to Professor Ibrahima Adamou, rector of the University of
Yaounde II, China is making great strides in the field of research.
“Currently, it has the highest number of certified inventors. If we have
to be like Chinese, we need to learn their language which is a catalyst to
their scientific and technological riches,” he said.
Asia Times met some of the students to seek their views.
“I admire China. The Chinese were once oppressed by foreigners but they
held on to their ancestral beliefs and culture and today they are the world’s
giant in many aspects. They are hardworking and I believe we can be like them,”
said Lauric Temfack, (Lau Liké in Chinese), a level three student.
He thinks that financially, China is helping Cameroon more than the US.
“You can see it in projects executed in Cameroon – for instance, the $60
billion financial aid Beijing pledged during the recent China Africa Summit,”
he said.
Asked why Chinese construction firms are still employing their own
workers, he said: “True, Chinese construction companies do not use local labor
but their men can work for 16 hours a day – which we cannot – and deliver on
time.”
Temfack is hoping to get scholarships for studies in China and work for
Chinese companies in Cameroon.
Vincent Janvier, a Public Law student at the University of Yaounde II,
loves martial arts and wants to master Kung-fu.
“I will practice law or choose combat sport as a profession. I only want
to learn the basic words in Chinese used in Kung-fu,” Janvier said.
Mastering Chinese language will be another feather in his cap for
Andre Luke Kombou who is proficient in English, French, German and Spanish.
“When I am through, I can decide to go back to school and study computer
sciences, maybe in China” he said.
Curiosity alone led Alex Yadou, a fine arts student, to the institute.
“China is an economic giant. I am learning their language because I
might need it in future. I can even learn their arts,” Yadou said.
Schools:
Vehicles for global dominance?
While many students sing praise, critics say China’s language program,
like those run by some western countries, is a weapon for cultural domination
through soft power.
The pan African magazine, New African, says Confucius institutes
are “nothing but China’s vehicles for global dominance, effected in the
cultural sphere through the promotion of the Chinese language, tastes,
education, architecture, music, food, movies, beliefs, banks, dressing, art,
history and lifestyle, to be continued until such a time that these would have
supplanted existing cultural precepts and raised local agents who would become
the defenders of the new imposed order themselves.”
Professor Oumarou Bouba, former Rector of the University of Yaounde II,
does not find any fault in the analysis.
“If I am to make an analysis on this, I would say it is but normal for a
newly-emerging and fast-growing superpower like China to develop such a
so-called “soft-power” institution in order to match its political and economic
influence at global level,” he told Asia Times.
New African warns how this soft power could alienate and weaken youth of the
continent.
“Education, acquired through scholarships to China and through Confucius
schools, captures the promising youth of Africa, implicates them in Chinese
philosophies, material and ideological exchanges, and creates a moral indebtedness
that is difficult to totally unpick. One possible outcome of this scenario is
the production of a national leadership with a sense of alienation from its own
settings and which may increasingly look East, seeking to imitate the master.”
Yu disagrees. He sees it from an exchange perspective — a cross-cultural
assimilation process. He says that last year, 35 Cameroonians received
scholarships to study in Chinese universities.
“I had a meeting with 60 Cameroonian students in China last December and
encouraged them to spread Cameroonian culture,” he said, adding that tens of
Chinese teachers travel to Cameroon and return with knowledge of local culture.
Professor Li Anshan of the School of International studies in Pekin
University in China points to similarities between Chinese and African
cultures. Both have a history of colonization and long struggle for liberation,
independence as well as development. Hence, there is blossoming cooperation
between them, he says.
Dr. Willibroad Dze-Ngwa, current president of Africa for Research in
Comparative Education, views Confucius schools as a strategy by China to
broaden its supremacy in the international arena.
“It is all about interests. Both the teachers and learners of
Chinese language and culture are looking for benefits. China has a great
economy and Cameroonians and other Africans want to tap from it. Other
countries are also struggling to promote their language and culture
worldwide. By the way, learning every additional language is a plus to
the learner,” said Dr. Dze Ngwa.
Emmanuel Tatah Mentan, a Cameroonian political economist, likens
Sino-African relations to “a wedding with uncertain prospects.”
Fondo Sikod, Professor of Economics at University of Yaoundé II, feels
China’s push in Cameroon and Africa is fuelled “by a desperate need to find oil
and raw material to fuel its fast-growing industry”.
According to him, Chinese companies in Africa are strangling domestic
industries.
‘Chinese
firms don’t follow norms’
Local companies and citizens complain that Chinese firms do not respect
the terms of agreement and human rights after a contract is awarded.
Hamadou Abba, managing director of Ste An’andal Sarl construction, says
Chinese companies prefer to work solo in violation of a government rule which
requires foreign firms to sub-contract at least 30% of work awarded in
Cameroon.
Earlier this month, residents and local miners of East region clashed
with small-scale Chinese gold miners who began setting up camp there six years
ago. They complain that Chinese, who arrived at the mining site in Betare Oya,
began extracting gold after three years and are now taking away their
livelihood.
Reports say about 300 Chinese miners are working in the area against 100
authorized by the Cameroon government. They are said to be using equipment to
clean stones and sift soil facilitating easier detection of minerals.
Adamou Assamou, the traditional ruler of the locality, says locals have
not seen any sign of the development they were promised.
Irate locals vandalized the equipment and beat up some Chinese miners.
Many shifted to neighboring towns as gold mining left behind polluted holes and
destroyed vegetation and animal habitat.
Chris Ho, a Chinese gold miner, denies this. He says his company, which
is operating with a temporary authorization, has provided roads, generators and
safe drinking water to the locality.
Earlier this month, the East regional office of Cameroon’s National
Social Insurance Fund (NSIF) indicted China International Water and Electric
Corporation for non-payment of social insurance covers for its employees
working on the Lom Pangar HEP dam.
According to a NSIF official, the Chinese usually conceal the statutes
of Chinese employees.
“They present employees from China as visitors and we only fish them out
after investigations. They have employed over 3,000 people since they started
work in 2012,” he said.
The Chinese company was forced to pay for local employee’s social
security in November 2014 after laborers decided to down tools for ten days.
Some Cameroonians, however, praise Chinese companies for contracts
executed in Cameroon, such as the construction of a giant Multipurpose Sports
Complex in Yaounde and the Yaounde Conference Center which, since its
completion in 1982, is still maintained by the construction company.
But critics say it only indicates there is no transfer of technological
know-how by the Chinese.
About 4,000 Chinese have been living in Cameroon. A majority of
them are involved in medium- and small- scale businesses. Some are involved in
petty trades like roasting corn, fish, and plantains on the sidewalks of
streets in big cities.
At least 40% of Cameroonians live below the poverty line, which is an
apparent reason for growing acceptability of Chinese goods by citizens who,
however, describe them as substandard.
Mbon Sixtus is a freelance journalist based in Yaounde, Cameroon.
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