Prejudices between ordinary Chinese and their African counterparts has become a subject of writings and discussion at various forums in recent times.

And it seems there is a really big gap when it comes to people-to-people interaction from both sides that something needs to be done urgently.

Considering the vast distance between the two, no ordinary African can afford to travel to China just to discover the country and its people, in as much as no ordinary Chinese can afford to go to Africa for the same purpose.

A Chinese scholar and expert in African affairs, Professor Li Anshan, says there is a lot of such prejudices between the Chinese and Africans, which need to be debunked.

Speaking to African journalists based in Beijing recently, Prof Li cited a poll which indicated a lot of misunderstandings of each other between the Chinese and the Africans.

He quoted the Chinese Youth Daily poll carried out in 2006 showing that most Chinese think Africans are very poor and backward, afflicted by hunger and HIV and Aids, very primitive and that chaos reigns on the continent.

The poll indicates that Africans think that the Chinese have very limited desires and simple pleasures, very little legal consciousness, do not pay attention to image, do not hang out together, do not have religious belief and eat everything.

Prof Li noted that while political and economic interaction between China and Africa has been very solid, much lack when it comes to interaction between ordinary people.

While Prof Li’s call to fight such low level prejudices might have few takers, one woman – Samantha Sibanda – has taken it upon herself to change the views of ordinary Chinese about Africa.

Samantha Sibanda

In 2013, Samantha, who comes from Zimbabwe and now stays in China, formed an organisaton called Appreciate Africa Network, whose purpose is to “create awareness about Africa, African people and their culture” not only in China, but in the whole of Asia.

The organisation does not only strive to deal with the above mentioned stereotypes, it also brings to the fore contributions Africans are making to the development of China.

“We seek to bring the real and true Africa and the opportunity to create a relationship between Africa and Asia, not only business wise, but also in appreciating African people as well,” said Samantha.

“Appreciate Africa Network is a non-profit organisation whose sole intent is to promote the values of African socio-cultural and economic contributions anywhere in the world starting from our base of operation in China.”

To achieve the objectives, Samantha recognises that it has to start with the sprucing up of the African physical image in the eyes of the Chinese.

This resulted in the Miss Plus International competition in which chubby African women take to the stage showcasing their beautiful curves.

This has helped change the perceptions of many Chinese people towards the “plus-sized” African women, and to some extent men.

“Most importantly, we show that we are comfortable in our own bodies and not intimidated by the continuous pressure and stereotypes that people have about big women,” said Samantha.

The first Miss Plus Size International Beijing was held at Landmark Hotel on 25 April 2015 with the theme “Big is Beautiful”, where 16 “plus-sized” women took to the stage.

The second one was held on 25 April this year.

Appreciate Africa Network also runs another competition called Discover Africa Speech and Music Contest, with this year’s edition set for 24 September in Beijing.

Contestants are given at least five minutes to sell and market their countries in front of a non-African audience.

The purpose is to ensure that by the end of the speech, the audience will have known something about the particular African countries.

This helps create awareness about the continent and its different cultures.

“The contest aims to provide African communities in China to re-connect with their heritages, while encouraging others to discover the beauty of African countries and, of course, provide invaluable opportunities for multi-arts collaboration and involving artists, students, business people and so on,” said Samantha.

“It’s a night to celebrate and embrace African culture through music, dance, fashion and food. Each represented African country has the opportunity to showcase to the world what they are capable of and who they really are, not how the media depicts them.”

In an effort to prop up African entrepreneurs in China, Appreciate Africa Network runs the Africa Achievers Awards which recognises African community builders in Asia.

Categories of community development, leadership, arts and culture, business and entrepreneurship, agriculture, community service, rural development and education form the basis of the awards.

The major objective is to recognise the contribution made by Africans who are based in the Asia-Pacific and reward them for continuously uplifting their countries’ names in the region.

These awards also help showcase the positive contribution made by Africans, not only to China, but in the whole of the Asia-Pacific region.

Appreciate Africa Network is constructing the African Information Resources Centre in Beijing, which will have all information about Africa under one roof.

The network also runs the Africa Got Talent Show which scouts for talent among Africans living in China in the fields of music, dance, poetry, drama and magic.

The show caters for many Africans who would like to pursue a career in arts, but lack the financial capacity and consequently a platform to be trained, heard and known by production companies.

In the long run, Appreciate Africa Network intends to open African schools in China “to create a suitable learning environment for African kids and ensure educational affordability to all”.

The other project being run by Appreciate Africa Network is the Discover Africa Academy, which teaches students about Africa, African people and their cultures.

Students learn subjects like African history, African art, African music and dance, wonders of Africa, African folktales and stories and African languages.

The academy offers summer schools, winter classes and after school activities to students from kindergarten to high school.

It is already offering such lessons in partnership with Eduwings German Kindergarten at its Shunyi and Haidian campuses and the Sunrise International School.

Students under this programme will be taken to Africa during the winter vacation in January next year to enable them to have first-hand experiences on the continent.

Appreciate Africa Network has lined up a number of programmes before the end of the year.

The major highlight will be the invitation of Zimbabwean and African iconic musician Oliver Mtukudzi, to Beijing in early November.

With her organisation and projects, Samantha is striving to ensure that more Chinese are aware of Africa and enhance people-to-people relations between the two sides.

Samantha is an artist in her own right, having been involved in dance and singing in Zimbabwe, before starring in the Chinese film, China 1911, in 2011.

The film is about the Xinhai Revolution that ended the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911), the last imperial dynasty in China, leading to the formation of the Republic of China.

Lovemore Chikova is the News Editor of The Herald Newspaper in Zimbabwe, a fellow at the China-Africa Press Centre and an intern at People’s Daily Online. He can be contacted on [email protected]