Building a Novel Future: Connecting Peoples and Cultures

Social Sciences in China ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rssc20 Building a Novel Future: Connecting Peoples and Cultures Augustin F. C. Holl To cite this article: Augustin F. C. Holl (2022) Building a Novel Future: Connecting Peoples and Cultures, Social Sciences in China, 43:1, 194-208, DOI: 10.1080/02529203.2022.2051894 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02529203.2022.2051894 Published online: 25 Mar 2022. Submit your article to this journal View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rssc20 Social Sciences in China, 2022 Vol. 43, No. 1, 194-208, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02529203.2022.2051894 Building a Novel Future: Connecting Peoples and Cultures Augustin F. C. Holl School of Sociology and Anthropology, Xiamen University Abstract Current humanity is experiencing extraordinary levels of material and ideal connectivity. Change being constant and stability exceptional and provisional; one has to expect a significant acceleration of change in the next hundred years. The core question is therefore: What kind of future is being shaped for the next generations, our grandchildren and greatgrand children? Without going too far back in time, it is fair to say that the current world was shaped by two different, successive and antinomic global processes: imperial expansion, colonization and domination on the one hand, and resistance, struggle for liberation, and the search for a more equitable world order on the other hand. Against all the odds, European imperialism, civil war, wars of aggression, and Western ostracism, China was an influential actor in the struggle for liberation of Africa from colonialism, got its rightful place in the international world order and is now the second economy of the planet. Globalization resulted in the emergence of a de facto multipolar world, with different models of societies and organizational cultures. These are dialectic processes constantly in operation, but there is however a third crucial area of interest, generally taken granted, that of people and culture. Peaceful relations and sustainable economic development backed by greater cultural and demographic connectivity are better options for the construction of a novel future for humanity. Universities and higher education institutions can play an important role in spearheading and implementing these new orientations for the construction of a future peaceful and sustainable human world in which war will be outlawed. This paper outlines what academics can do to promote such a vision. Keywords: Africa, China, social sciences, alternative, partnership, connectivity, people, cultures, sustainable future. Introduction The research domain encompassing African social sciences and humanities is very broad indeed. The sustained and increasing move toward inter-disciplinarity makes the delineation of © Social Sciences in China Press 22-1-g.indd 194 2022/3/21 11:21:38 Augustin F. C. Holl 195 demarcation lines even more difficult. One will then have to rely on a minimalist operational definition. Accordingly, humanities and social sciences include all forms of scientific and philosophical research devoted to the understanding and explanation of the human condition. Some—here termed historical sciences—like paleoanthropology, prehistory, archaeology, and history, deal with the time dimension. Others, as is the case for geography, habitat research and architecture, focus on the spatial dimension. Others still, like anthropology, linguistics, psychology, demography, sociology, political science, etc., explore the synchronic dynamic patterns of human societies. Before proceeding forward and for the sake of clarification, it is important to dissociate the creative side of the humanities, such as Painting, Sculpture, Music, Literature, Theatre, Cinema, etc, from the scholarly endeavors developed to observe, study, and analyze these productions of the human mind. These are important research fields in which the writer has no competence. Trained initially in history and anthropology, he later shifted to anthropological archaeology, and is today a simple wandering curious mind. This paper is structured in three movements. It opens with the genealogy of the production of scholarly knowledge on Africa and its people; its changes through time; and its strong resilience.1 It then shifts to the exploration of alternatives away from the colonial legacy based on the liberation imperative and the development of new partnerships, with special emphasis on China-Africa relationships. The third movement focuses on projects helping to shape novel collaborative practices between Chinese and African academic and research institutions laying the foundation for peaceful and mutual prosperity. The production of scholarly knowledge on Africa goes as far back as Pharaonic Egypt, the Greco-Roman period, the Arab-Moslem classical period as well as dynastic China.2 Cultural alterity with striking differences is at the very foundation of encounters between minds shaped by different cognitive and perceptual practices. Perceived differences in patterns of behavior, food habits, dress codes, housing styles, etc., could have been praised as kindness, simplicity, friendliness or generosity, or condemned as cannibals, savage, barbarians, etc. Travel narratives and reports from European explorers and adventurers shaped the “others” perception of the donor society elites and influenced their attitudes. The combination of all these genres led to the formation of the “Colonial Library.” I. The Colonial Library As far as Africa is concerned, the colonial intelligentsia carried on fundamental and applied research in almost all fields of the social sciences and humanities. Most of these men and women belonged to the colonial apparatus as administrators, soldiers and military officers, 1 F. Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality; V.Y. Mudimbe, The Invention of Africa: Gnosis, Philosophy, and the Order of Knowledge. 2 M. Bernal, Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization. 22-1-g.indd 195 2022/3/21 11:21:38 196 Social Sciences in China medical doctors and nurses, missionary personnel, etc. Some became renowned scholars in their respective fields and contributed to the foundation of African Studies programs in European and North American universities and advanced research institutions. Different schools, museums, research institutions and academic traditions emerged in Europe at Berlin, London, Paris, Rome, Vienna, and in North America at Harvard and Columbia. Diffusionism was at its peak during the colonial era.3 With some variations among authors, Africa was viewed as a continent that had received all innovations from neighboring populations, essentially from the Near East, through direct migration and/or technological influence. The main themes of the Colonial Library, the hierarchy of races, civilizations and cultures, were contested and countered initially by intellectuals from the diaspora, in the Caribbean and North America and later from Africa.4 Modern higher education institutions created in Africa were initially extensions of European universities and Christian missions. Achimota College in the Gold Coast, Makerere in Uganda, Ibadan in Nigeria, were the first to be in operation in sub-Saharan Africa during the colonial period. Algiers University, Dakar University, and the University of Cameroon-French Foundation of Higher Education in Cameroon, an extension of the Academy of Bordeaux, created later, were all French institutions in France’s former colonies. Take archaeology as an illustration: its initial development in Africa was the result of conflicts, tensions, and negotiations within the colonial techno-structure. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, there was no coherent and well articulated archaeological curriculum anywhere. Archaeological research was nonetheless conducted by daring and bright minds, in Europe and Africa. Without standard methodology and precise goals, “prehistoric” archaeology was fuelled by major controversies. The development of a more secular view of human history, the theory of “natural selection,” the validity of biblical narratives, the emergence of European nationalisms, and the deep-seated “primitive/civilized divide, were core driving forces in the narratives of Africa’s past. These worldviews helped shape the minds of virtually all archaeologists working in West Africa up to World War II. A radical shift to field data took place in the early 1950s with the creation of research institutions and the training of a handful of professional archaeologists. Paradoxically, and for understandable reasons, West African archaeology was not affected by the rise of African nationalisms and the movement toward independence. The entry of a larger number of Africans into the field had mixed results: poor communication between African scholars; a tendency to rely on former colonial powers that kept tight control of the field; and virtually no significant internal African support for archaeological research. The research agendas were exactly the same. For example, the field archaeology program of the famous Ancient Ghana site of Awdaghost-Mission Tegdaoust-led by Jean Devisse and 3 G.W.F. Hegel, Reason in History: A General Introduction to the Philosophy of History; F. Ratel, Anthropogeographie. 4 C.A. Diop, Nations Negres et Culture. 22-1-g.indd 196 2022/3/21 11:21:38 Augustin F. C. Holl 197 Serge Robert from the History Department of the University of Dakar was interested in tracing Arab and North African influence on the emergence of urbanization in West Africa.5 Glazed ware from Mediterranean and North African origins was analyzed thoroughly while locally made pottery was neglected and left un-examined.6 The same strictures can be applied to a former colonial enclave, the British Institute in Eastern Africa, whose initial archaeological research agenda championed the Near Eastern origins of the Swahili civilization in East Africa.7 The structure of European archaeological research in Africa is clearly nation-based and an extension of European outreach, with recurrent sub-titles like: “British contributions to….,” “50 ans d’archéologie francaise en Afrique,”8 “Polish contributions to...,” “Swiss contributions to…,” “Belgian contributions to…,” and “German contributions to....,” etc.9 Each of these entities, rightly so, promotes its achievements. However, such understandable attitudes generally cause intellectual uneasiness, as conveyed below in a review of Researching Africa’s Past: New Contributions from British Archaeologists edited by Peter Mitchell, Anne Haour, and John Hobart: “The sub-title immediately caught my eye. It is true that in African archaeology (as in other branches of scholarship) we are usually aware of our colleagues’ nationalities and affiliations, but ideally we don’t let that influence our assessment of their work or the way we debate, share knowledge and advance the subject, whether through formal collaboration in the field or laboratory or through informal exchange. It’s equally true that practice sometimes falls short of the ideal, as when one hears of unseemly rivalry between institutions or their funding bodies over site concessions, or jealousy over ‘ownership’ of results and publicity. Perhaps national scientific agencies and the bureaucrats and politicians who control their funds are entitled to a measure of self-congratulation occasionally; but among ourselves, the true researchers committed to the pursuit of knowledge, flag-waving is not considered good form.”10 The ideals of open unprejudiced debates, free and responsible assessment of research results, and collective promotion of knowledge are appealing, a noble but useful myth. Genuine research, vigorous debates, prejudices, antagonisms, as well as destruction, take place in academic institutions. The denial of the demic structure of scholarly communities, 5 A.F.C. Holl, West African Early Towns: Archeology of Households in Urban Landscapes. 6 D. Robert-Chaleix, Tegdaoust V: Une Concession Medievale a Tegdaoust. 7 A.F.C. Holl, “African History: Past, Present and Future? The Unending Quest for Alternatives”; “The Difficult Path of France/Africa Scientific Cooperation.” P.R. Schmidt and T.C. Patterson eds., Making Alternative Histories: The Practice of Archaeology and History in Non-Western Settings. 8 A. Bazzana and H. Bocoum eds., Du Nord au Sud du Sahara: Cinquante ans d’archeologie Française en Afrique de l’Ouest et au Maghreb. 9 A.F.C. Holl, “The Difficult Path of France/Africa Scientific Cooperation.” 10 J.E.G. Sutton, “Researching Africa’s Past: New Contributions from British Archaeologists.” 22-1-g.indd 197 2022/3/21 11:21:38 198 Social Sciences in China with their embedded networks of academic power and privilege, is a poor strategy to naturalize an existing social order.11 The reality is very different.12 Any attempt to bring to the fore the hidden and unsaid practices that still plague African social science research is met by a barrage of denials. Tasked with writing a review of Postcolonial Archaeologies in Africa, edited by P. Schmidt, Ann Stahl discloses the content of the book in precisely 111 words. The book review was supposed to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the contributors’ papers. They have different training trajectories, come from different geographic areas and cultures and from diverse research and institutional origins, and are sharing their personal research experience and life in academic institutions. Instead, Stahl used her review to launch a frontal assault on P. Schmidt’s introduction. For her, the book’s chapters “range from engaging and reflective to ill focused and meandering. Some deal robustly with structural and institutional dimensions of power/knowledge while others reduce their complex dynamics to a narrative of heroes and villains.” 13 It is no surprise that the contributors to Postcolonial Archaeologies in Africa were shocked by the misleading, patronizing and dismissive attitude of Professor Stahl. All the contributors to the volume wrote a short statement entitled “Silencing Voices in African Archaeology: Statement by Contributors.” That response outlines the main facets of the mindsets at play. The silencing of African scholars with different perspectives operates via non-citations, biased peer-reviews, and abrasive book reviews. “Silencing of African scholars who are not in the Western mainstream is a condition that still persists during the postcolonial era. Silencing occurs when scholars proffer views different from those familiar to Western scholarship and when peer review becomes a disguise to denigrate these unorthodox viewpoints. Much more troubling are conscious attempts to silence those who challenge well-established paradigms that specifically took root during the colonial era and have held sway since.”14 II. The Search for Alternatives The promotion of alternatives to Eurocentric perspectives on Africa humanities and social science research is not a new phenomenon.15 These ideas coalesced under the concept of PanAfricanism in the middle of the 19th century to counter the de-humanization of Africans, fight 11 P. Bourdieu, Homo Academicus; J. Bude, L’Obscuratisme libéral et l’investigation sociologique. 12 A.F.C. Holl, “Worldviews, Mindsets, and Trajectories in West African Archaeology”; A. Stahl, “Review of Postcolonial Archaeologies in Africa”; Karega-Munene and P. Schmidt, Postcolonial Archaeologies in Africa: Breaking the Silence. 13 A. Stahl, “Review of Postcolonial Archaeologies in Africa.” 14 Karega-Munene and P. Schmidt, Postcolonial Archaeologies in Africa: Breaking the Silence. 15 A. Boddy-Evans, “The Origins, Purpose, and Proliferation of Pan-Africanism”; A.F.C. Holl, “African History: Past, Present and Future? The Unending Quest for Alternatives.” 22-1-g.indd 198 2022/3/21 11:21:38 Augustin F. C. Holl 199 against enslavement, and promote the liberation of the continent from colonialism. Edward Blyden, Marcus Garvey, W.E.B DuBois, Frederick Douglass, J. A. Beale Horton, J. E. Caselay Hayford, M. Robinson Delany, H. Sylvester Williams, G. Padmore, A. Cesaire, L. S. Senghor, Walter Rodney, Cheikh Anta Diop, etc., were some of the towering figures promoting alternative views of the contributions of Black people to world history and cultural heritage. Cheikh Anta Diop’s life-long research and political activism were devoted to debunking colonial constructs on the African past.16 Other scholarly initiative without Pan-Africanism involvement backed alternative views on the history of Pharaonic Egypt.17 Many individual African scholars and experts in African social science research carry out their own alternative agendas in their respective fields of expertise, relying on a broad range of rallying concepts: liberation, anti-imperialism, anti-neo-colonial, post-colonial, or de-colonial. Adhesion to a particular school of thought or ideological posture, important as it seems to be in academic circles, is in fact unimportant. What matters fundamentally is setting a pragmatic research agenda that makes a difference. Some sixty years after the wave of African independences, one has to pause and think. Bretton Woods institutions—such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and more recently the World Trade Organization—have set the rules and imposed liberal capitalism as the norm. Deregulation and laissez-faire have proven to be double-edged sword processes. What is the place of independent African states in such an international system? Some, as is the case for the Francophone countries of West and Central Africa, are trapped in the neo-colonial net of their former colonizers. Their national currency, the CFA Franc, controlled by the French government, is an emblematic case of neo-colonial domination. Without necessarily having to cut ties with former colonial powers, it is time to explore new partnerships with Asia and South America. The world is open to all, and they are entitled to their own views and worldviews. The past colonial domination, wealth and institutional imbalance that presided over the presentday satellization and dependency of African researchers do not ipso facto put Euro-American academics in the position of gate-keepers of Africa’s social science research. Unfortunately, African countries are predominantly unwilling to support Africa’s social science research and prefer to rely on foreign research teams. Many fear an ideological radicalization of youth and students they think can be triggered by critical social science research. Others assert different priorities excluding fundamental and applied social science research. Most are comfortable with foreign research teams enlisting one or two local researchers, in what Cameroonian colleagues called the “policy of picking up the crumbs.” 1. The liberation imperative and new partnerships It is time to explore new partnerships with South America and Asia. Despite its current 16 C.A. Diop, Nations Negres et Culture; E.L. Dreyer, Zheng He: China and the Oceans in the Early Ming, 1405-1433. 17 M. Bernal, Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization. 22-1-g.indd 199 2022/3/21 11:21:39 200 Social Sciences in China political crisis, Brazil, with the largest population of people of African descent out of Africa, is and will be crucial—a natural partner in the years to come. China is already the primary economic partner of Africa and the second economy in the world. Partnership with China can be an effective way of building alternative models of academic and scientific cooperation and exchange. At the launching ceremony of the new Institute for African Studies of Zhejiang Normal University in 2007, Professor Mei Xinlin, President of the University and head of the new research center, reported that China has less than ten African Studies centers in universities. He also stated that the establishment of the Institute was prompted by the increasing need of Chinese people to know more about Africa, as recent years have seen a rapid development of Sino-African relations. It is my understanding and suggestion that Chinese universities’ research in and on Africa has to go global, including all topics and fields of scholarship, and become more field-oriented. Considered from a long-term perspective, Sino-African interactions have a rather long and surprising history. This very special long history justifies the need to create special and wellfunded training programs in top institutions of higher education in China, a few of which are already fully operational, as is the case with the Institute of African Studies at Zhejiang Normal University, the School of International Studies at Peking University, and the Institute of African Studies at Nanjing University. This paper presents some of the evidence on the past interaction between China and Africa. It proceeds from there to look at the development of African Studies in China, considers the New Chinese Studies Program, and moves on to suggest a global but pragmatic new academic partnership between Chinese and African research institutions, with a case study on the program of the new Africa Research Center from Xiamen University. 2. Past Chinese presence in Africa It is not clearly known when Chinese goods reached Africa for the first time in the past. Archaeological research, always in progress with sometimes challenging results, provides a number of clues. An Austrian expedition excavating in Thebes at Deir el Madina found the remains of silk in the hair of a 30-50 year old female mummy discovered in the burial ground of the kings’ workmen. The burial is dated to the Hyksos period, belonging to the 21st dynasty, ie 1075-945 BCE.18 The silk industry certainly originated from China, where archaeologists have found textiles in a mysterious tomb dating back nearly 2,500 years in eastern Jiangxi Province, the oldest discovered in China’s history.” The silk industry, trade, and consequently the Silk Road are thus much older than thought and probably reached Egypt through Persia. The silk found in the Thebes burial could have been introduced by the Hyksos. Trade and cultural exchange between China and Egypt were well established during the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE). According to Li Anshan, Du Huan, a Chinese from the Tang dynasty (618-907 CE), who was a war captive at Baghdad 18 Li Anshan, “African Studies in China in the Twentieth Century: A Historiographical Survey”; G. Lubec et al., “Use of Silk in Ancient Egypt.” 22-1-g.indd 200 2022/3/21 11:21:39 Augustin F. C. Holl 201 where he spent several years, visited Africa in the 8th century, sometime around 762.19 The book he wrote when he returned to Guangzhou, Jingxingji (Record of My Travels, was lost and is now known only through quotes in other books. The part of Africa he may have visited is therefore unknown, even if Egypt and Northeast Africa appear to have been the most reachable. In the first half of the 15th century, the Ming dynasty decided to project Chinese naval power all over the Indian Ocean. The Yongle Emperor (1403-1424) appointed Zheng He as the chief admiral of a large fleet—the “Treasure Fleet.” The latter organized a number of expeditions, seven in total, from 1405 to 1433, generally termed the “Zheng Ho travels”. The Treasure Fleet sailed to the East Africa coast in the fourth voyage (1413-1415), fifth (14161419), and sixth (1421-1422), docking at Mogadishu, today in Somalia, and Malindi and Mombasa in today’s Kenya. They exchanged Chinese goods for African ones, including live animals like zebras and giraffes. Chinese celadon of the Longquan type found in the Limpopo valley on Mapungubwe Hill in the 1930s are now firmly dated to the Late Yuan (1279-1368) and Early Ming (1368-1644) dynasties.20 Such evidence is distributed over a large geographic area in Eastern Africa, including Great Zimbabwe, Swahili city states, the Comoros and Madagascar.21 In addition, some of the descendants of Chinese sailors from Admiral Zheng Ho’s fleet live in Lamu and the small island of Pate along the Kenyan coast. The latter were interviewed by Kristof (1999) for The New York Times. In summary, there is scattered but consistent evidence for the presence of Chinese goods and people in the African past. This interaction peaked in the 15th century and was cut short by the following dynasty’s imperial ban on foreign trade and naval expeditions. 3. Past African presence in China Beyond the presence of surprising animals like the zebra and the giraffe, a number of Africans, through different indirect channels, ended up living in China as early as the first quarter of the 8th century. According to the Chronicle of the Tang Dynasty, the king of Srivijaya from Palembang in Sumatra offered a Zandj (Black) girl, among other things, as tribute to the Emperor in 724. This practice was repeated several times during the next centuries, in 813, 818, and 976. In 813 and 818, the rulers from Kalinga, an Indonesian kingdom, offered several Zandj boys and girls in three successive missions to the Tang emperor Xian Zong. In 976, under the Song dynasty, the Imperial court received “a black Kun Lun slave with deep-set eyes and black body”22 from an Arab trader.23 Although indirectly and through Arab and Indonesian middle men, the slave trade reached China, principally through the entry port and distribution hub of Guangzhou. The enslaved 19 Li Anshan, “African Studies in China in the Twentieth Century: A Historiographical Survey.” 20 L. C. Prinsloo et al., “Re-dating of Celadon Shards Excavated on Mapungubwe Hill, a 13th Century Iron Age Site in South Africa, Using Raman Spectroscopy, XRF and XRD.” 21 P. Beaujard, “East Africa, the Comoros Islands and Madagascar before the Sixteenth Century.” 22 Chou Ju-Kua, Chu-fan-chi. 23 Y. Talib and F. Samir, “The African Diaspora in Asia.” 22-1-g.indd 201 2022/3/21 11:21:39 202 Social Sciences in China Africans were employed on shipboard to caulk leaky seams. Others were gate guards and household servants for the wealthy families in metropolitan areas. The great Moroccan world traveler and explorer Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Abdullah Al Lawat Al Tanji Ibn Battuta, Ibn Battuta for short, visited China in the middle of the 14th century. He was born on February 24, 1304, at Tangiers and died at Marrakech in 1377. He travelled all over the ancient world, covering some 120,000 kilometers in 29 years. Ibn Battuta arrived at Guangzhou in China in 1345.24 He was particularly interested in local crafts, boat construction and porcelain making, and visited a number of places and towns. He travelled north to Hangzhou, which he presented as the largest of the cities he had ever seen. He could not reach Beijing and returned to Guangzhou in 1346 to sail to Sumatra. It is also claimed that Admiral Zheng Ho’s Treasure Fleet took some foreign dignitaries back to China to go and pay homage to the Ming emperors. It is not clear if some Africans from the Swahili city-states of Mogadishu, Malindi or Mombasa were involved in these visits. In summary, from as early as the 8th century, Africans were present in Chinese imperial courts and in some wealthy families from southern China. 4. The development of African studies in China In his influential paper on “African Studies in China in the Twentieth Century: A Historiographical Survey” published in 2005 in African Studies Review, Professor Li Anshan from the School of International Studies of Peking University partitioned the development of this research field into four main phases.25 The first phase, “Sensing Africa (1900-1949),” which may have started with the most remote interactions between Africa and China, took shape and coalesced at the very end of the Qing dynasty at the beginning of the twentieth century. Chinese scholars like Lin Zexu, who led the opium burning in Canton that initiated the “Opium War” in 1840, compiled information about the West and Africa’s geography and ethnology in his Gazetteer of the Four Continents (Si Zhou Zhi). The fate of Africa under colonial rule was used by such revolutionary leaders and intellectuals as Chen Tianhua, Liang Qichao and Sun Yat-sen to mobilize the Chinese people. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, research focused on African liberation movements. This phase dubbed “Supporting Africa (1949-1965)” lasted up to 1965, in the “independence decade,” The first Institute of Asian-African Studies was founded during this period in 1961, under the Central Party External Ministry and the Chinese Academy of Science. The period from 1966-1976, termed by Li Anshan “Understanding Africa” was paradoxical in a number of ways. It was dominated by the “Cultural Revolution” and from 1971 onwards, by the return of the People’s Republic of China to the world scene. African Studies were paradoxically accelerated during that period through specialized institutions of the Communist 24 Ibn Battûta, Voyages III. Inde, Extrême-Orient, Espagne & Soudan. 25 Li Anshan, “African Studies in China in the Twentieth Century: A Historiographical Survey.” 22-1-g.indd 202 2022/3/21 11:21:39 Augustin F. C. Holl 203 Party of China. A number of regional history books and even country-specific books were translated into Chinese during that period. Li Anshan indicates that 117 books on Africa, out of which 111 were translations, were published during that period. “Although their quality varied, Chinese students at least began to acquire some knowledge about a continent far away from China and to come across the names of some leading scholars of the field.”26 The foundations for the later development of African Studies after the Cultural Revolution were laid during that period. University research centers as well as learned societies focusing on Africa were established after the return of the People’s Republic of China to the world scene. The period, termed “Studying Africa (1977-2000)” by Li Anshan, witnessed significant growth in the field of African Studies in China, in different research fields including history, law, politics and economics. Different major universities created well-staffed centers of African Studies, as was the case at Peking University and Zhejiang Normal University. In summary, Sino-African relationships have grown very fast at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. The imperative for the development of solid and sustainable research and academic cooperation and collaboration cannot be overstated. It has to shift to a global perspective, comprising all fields of scholarship. 5. The China Studies Program Initiative In the context of the 2012 European Confucius Institutes/Classrooms Working Symposium, on Friday June 8, 2012, at the University of Edinburgh Old College Playfair Library, Professor Ji Baocheng, then President of Renmin University of China, unveiled the “NeoSinology International Research Plan” in his introduction of the key project of the Confucius Institute headquarters (Conference program 2012). That ambitious plan was debated in the plenary session, with participants from different European institutions of higher education encouraged to offer ideas and suggestions. A draft of the project, entitled “An Explanation of Implementing the Pilot Program of Fellowships for the PhD Program of the China Studies Plan (A Tentative Version for Discussion)” was distributed to the symposium attendants. Some participants suggested using “Chinese Studies” instead of “sinology.” The main objective of the proposal is to attract promising international young scholars to selected elite Chinese universities’ graduate schools, all scholarly fields included, via a competitive and well-funded program. The hope is that “these scholars may promote the development and prosperity of international education and research in China Studies contributing to enhance friendship between China and other countries.” Ten top ranked Chinese universities, including Xiamen University, were selected to launch the program and all started to advertise the initiative. That was clearly a very exciting milestone. The projection into the future was exhilarating and the perspective very exciting intellectually. The program deserves total support. For it to unleash all its potential, it needs to be complemented by an equally well funded initiative 26 22-1-g.indd 203 Li Anshan, “African Studies in China in the Twentieth Century: A Historiographical Survey.” 2022/3/21 11:21:39 204 Social Sciences in China directed at Chinese graduate students from Chinese institutions of higher education who are interested in studying other countries, societies, and cultures. Former Chinese President Hu Jintao’s initiative made public at the Sino-African Economic Forum (Summer 2012) and the statement of Professor Mei Xinlin, President of Zhejiang Normal University, that China had less than ten African Studies centers in its universities in 2007, emphasized the need to expand China-Africa academic cooperation and collaboration. In his speech, Professor Mei Xinlin also stated that the establishment of the Institute for African Studies at Zhejiang Normal University was prompted by the increasing need of Chinese people to know more about Africa, as recent years have seen a rapid development of Sino-African relations. It is my suggestion that the need for better and well-grounded knowledge of Africa be taken into account in parallel to or within the new and ambitious international China Studies Research Plan. Such a plan to operate within Chinese institutions of higher education may include important funding and research incentives for faculty and graduate students who intend to conduct master and doctoral research on any topic within the realm of African Studies. This new shift in research on Africa has to include a field component, allowing for a stronger involvement of Chinese faculty and students in field-generated knowledge. The aim of such a bold move is threefold: first, to train a larger number of students in African Studies and prepare new generations of scholars to staff future faculty positions in the fast-growing Chinese higher education system. Second, it behooves us to enhance excellence in many fields of scholarship in African Studies to attract bright students worldwide. And third, it is necessary to launch international cooperation and research collaboration involving Chinese and foreign faculty and students. III. Xiamen University Africa Research Center Agenda The Xiamen University-Museum of Black Civilizations joint anthropological archaeology project on the Saloum Delta shell-middens, launched in 2017, is part of the implementation of the new academic agenda I have always called for. Such development is anchored on two pillars: mutual respect and trust. Beside teaching and master’s and doctoral students’ supervision of Chinese and Senegalese, three complementary projects are being carried out by the Africa Research Center within the School of Sociology and Anthropology and the Belt and Road Research Institute of Xiamen University. The first is the creation of a laboratory of anthropological archaeology, with research collections from my previous field projects in Africa donated to Xiamen University. The material to be used for research and training of undergraduates and graduates includes pottery, stone and metal artifacts, fauna and human remains that need to be analyzed. When ready, it will be the first and only laboratory entirely devoted to African archaeology. The second, clearly connected to the first, is to initiate a field program with field schools; 22-1-g.indd 204 2022/3/21 11:21:39 Augustin F. C. Holl 205 one in Africa, on Senegambian megaliths and the Saloum Delta shell-middens in Senegal, already mentioned above, and the other in China, the Archaeology and Semiology of West Fujian Pavement Art that was launched in July 2021 at Zhixi in Liancheng County, Fujian. Innovative multi-disciplinary research teams will be put in place to conduct original comparative investigations on past African and Asian societies’ diverse forms of cultural adaptation. And finally, the third is to create a multi-disciplinary research center, the Africa Research Center, part of the Xiamen University Belt and Road Research Institute, to be staffed with six faculty members to start with, predominantly young researchers. In general, the choice of the disciplines to be represented will be decided by the best profiles in the pool of future applicants. Some disciplines like anthropology and cultural heritage, economics and management, as well as epidemiology, health and environmental sciences, will have a certain precedence. The key idea is to enhance multidisciplinary and collaborative research between social and natural science experts, with the crucial requirement for all new faculties of the Africa Research Center to devise student training in field contexts. As well as the core projects outlined above, there are additional possibilities of developing collaborative exchange and research with some African, Brazilian, and European universities and research institutions. IV. Tackling the Public Health Emergency The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the entire world since the beginning of the year 2020. While situations vary considerably between countries and continents, the “armageddon” predicted by some to hit Africa did not happen. This does not mean the health situation is not serious. It is indeed serious, at both the preventive and the curative level, and requires joint China-Africa action to look for present and future sustainable solutions. On the preventive side, diverse assortments of Covid-19 vaccines are being rolled out in most countries of the world, with Africa as a whole lagging significantly behind. As recorded on September 17, 2021, the proportion of people fully or partly vaccinated in African countries ranges from 7.4 percent in Egypt to 0.57 percent in Tanzania. A China-Egypt agreement allowed intellectual property transfer to hike the production of Covid-19 vaccines in Africa. South Africa, in collaboration with the World Health Organization, is taking steps to increase Covid-19 vaccine production in the continent. In general, however, there are fewer than ten African manufacturers with vaccine production and all are based in five countries: Egypt, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia. On the curative side, African health experts are taking ground-breaking initiatives, conducting research on herbal medicines as effective cures for Covid-19 pneumonia. “Corocur,” for “coronavirus cure,” of the Cameroonian cardiologist Dr Euloge Yiagnigni Mfopou, obtained from dried leaf powder of Thymus vulgaris has proved to have both 22-1-g.indd 205 2022/3/21 11:21:39 206 Social Sciences in China preventive and curative effects on Covid-19 infection. Used to treat more than 2000 patients since April 2020 with 97 percent efficiency, it was approved by Cameroonian health authorities for use for three years. Another medication, named Ngul be Tara, meaning the Power of Ancestors, created by Dr Marlyse Peyou Ndi Samba, biochemist and Professor at the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of the University of Yaounde I and Director of Reece International Research Consortium, has obtained a four-year licence (up to July 1st, 2025) from the Nigeria Food and Medicine National Agency Administration and will be manufactured in Nigeria. It will be good business to create China-Africa joint ventures to root pharmaceutical research and medicine production centers in each of the five Africa Union regions, through facilitation of intellectual property transfers and low interest loans. In their assessment of the state of research on herbal medicine in the Cameroons, Fongnzossie Fedoung et al (2021) made the following distinct but complementary observations. On the one hand, they noted that despite the great potential of local medicinal plants, it is unfortunate that they are still pejoratively referred to as “grandmother recipes.” More than ever, there is a need for applied research to provide more scientific evidence for the efficacy, to establish the standard formulation… and further clinical studies as part of the response strategy for the management of Covid-19. On the other hand, they add that “Capacity building and financial support are a necessity at all levels in order to stimulate active research on natural medicinal products at the local level. Specifically, efforts have to be geared towards developing and sponsoring applied research on natural products and drug discovery. It is indeed paradoxical that with the country’s medicinal plant potential, herbal drug discovery has not yet reached the expected performance.” Conclusion The strength of China-Africa cooperation will certainly keep increasing in the future. It has however to become more global and integrate direct people to people connections, articulated on a broader range of issues at different scales. All the good intentions of the world expressed in well intended speeches have to be followed by actions implemented by people. People are the salt of the earth. They are the builders of a peaceful and harmonious future world. Notes on Author Augustin F.C. Holl is Distinguished Professor from the School of Sociology and Anthropology at Xiamen University. His main research fields are origins of food production, origins of social complexity in West Africa and the Levant, petroglyph archaeology, and tomb archaeology. His works include West African Early Towns: Archaeology of Households in Urban Landscapes (AnnArbor, MI: Museum of Anthropology, 2006); and The Land of Houlouf: Genesis of a Chadic Polity, 1900 BC-AD 1800 (AnnArbor, MI: Museum of Anthropology, 2002). E-mail:[email protected]. 22-1-g.indd 206 2022/3/21 11:21:39 Augustin F. C. 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