Ready for the challenge
Ousmane Sako, head coach of Senegal's national wushu (martial arts) team, can hardly wait for the Dakar Youth Olympic Games to open. Wushu will make its debut as an official Olympic event at the 2026 Games.
A Dakar native, Sako grew up in difficult surroundings, carrying the restlessness and aimlessness of a boy of the streets. He first began karate, then moved to tai chi. "Tai chi changed my life," he says.
Training day after day steadied his body and mind. He worked through one obstacle after another to reach his post as a national-team coach. For now, every ounce of his attention is on preparing his squad for the Dakar Youth Olympics. "It won't be an easy contest," he says, "but we're ready for the challenge".
In Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, a young man named Rodrigue Taling has turned the "Bruce Lee dream" he once coveted in a rundown video hall into his own martial arts gym. Wushu, he says, is "an art of cultivating body and mind" that taught him self-control, and he hopes to spread this discipline, steeped in Eastern philosophy, so more young Cameroonians can reach an inner calm.
In Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, young coach Emile Ndagijimana leads his students through tai chi, one movement at a time. Ndagijimana began training at age 9, at first drawn to it by kung fu films, but what truly transformed him was the philosophy behind the moves. "My Chinese teacher told me that to master tai chi, you have to find the balance between body and mind in the space between breath and motion," he says. He wants to share his understanding and love of tai chi with more Rwandans, convinced that this Eastern wisdom has healing powers.
Blending flavors
In the Chinese kitchen of the Kilimanjaro Institute of Technology and Management in Tanzania, a cleaver strikes the board in quick, insistent rhythms. Ruth Wahima Seni, a Tanzanian hotel management student, is practicing slicing a potato into threads as fine as hair.
Seni is taking part in a China-Tanzania cooking program launched in January. Each day, Chinese master chef Wang guides 20 local apprentices, Seni among them. As he sees it, "food is a bridge between people. Once the students understand the culture, they cook with feeling, and the quality of the dishes rises with it".
After learning the foundations of knife work, dough, heat control, and seasoning, the young apprentices transform local ingredients — Tanzanian beef, mutton and seafood — into classic Chinese dishes. As trade between Africa and China grows, demand for authentic Chinese food climbs, says institute instructor Philbert Haule, and the demand for Chinese cooking will open more doors for young job-seekers.
As young Tanzanians replicate the tastes of China, Chinese tables are taking on more African flavors. From May 1, China extended its zero-tariff treatment to all 53 African countries with which it has diplomatic ties. From Rwandan dried chilies to Kenyan avocados, from South African wine to Cameroonian cocoa, more African produce is entering the Chinese market faster than before.
A song, a set of moves, and a table of food are resonating across thousands of miles, and vivid moments in the lives of ordinary people are merging into an enduring echo between China and Africa.
