Academics missing in action, says professor

A visiting Nigerian scholar at Peking University has expressed concern about the lack of involvement by academics in expanding ties between China and Africa.

"We seem to have surrendered the initiative to traders, businessmen and contractors," says Professor Femi Osafisan, reminding Chinese and African academics about the possibilities open to them of becoming involved in the China-Africa relationship.

Osafisan was speaking during a conference on African languages and literature at Peking University. It was organized by the university's Department of Asian and African Languages and Literature in collaboration with the Centre for African Studies and the School of International Studies.

The conference, held in remembrance of the late Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe, aimed to promote the exchange of ideas and experiences of teaching African languages and cultures among universities.

Osafisan, a former director of the drama department of Ibadan University in Nigeria, says there has been a growing interest among his students in the field of African studies.

That was the result of efforts by authorities at Peking University to develop the study of African literature and its culture at the university and in China generally, he says.

Osafisan says growing interest in African studies came from the fact that China is developing many economic links with Africa.

At the same time, Africans are increasingly eager to know about China, he says.

"On the streets, in the markets, on campuses and elsewhere, many of our citizens are burning to know about the history, the culture and politics of big sister China."

"However, it does not seem to me that we of the academic communities in both China and Africa are doing enough yet to exploit this mutual, expanding, burst of curiosity.

"It takes an occasion like this to remind us of the possibilities available to us to get ourselves better involved if we wish to."

African students in the university introduced their own local languages during discussions.

There was a consensus among contributors that the healthy state of China-Africa relations would endure and benefit future generations if efforts were made to narrow cultural gaps between the two sides.

That could be achieved through the study of culture by ordinary people in both China and Africa, they say.

For China Daily

(China Daily Africa Weekly 08/29/2014 page16)