And because of this, like in many other African countries, the Chinese are involved in various activities in Sierra Leone ranging from health, business, agriculture, electricity connectivity through the construction and provision of dams, infrastructure, and mining to education. In fact, during Sierra Leone’s tragic event of the Ebola viral disease outbreak in 2014, many diplomats were asked by their parent countries to leave the country but the Chinese were there and supported the government until the disease was contained. Again, in August 2017, the mudslide and flooding incidents took place and the Chinese supported the survivors and the government, especially in the area of mitigating further disaster. That is a friend indeed who is always there in need.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Upon all what the Chinese are doing in Sierra Leone and other African countries, they are mostly appreciated by government officials and educated Sierra Leoneans and Africans. This is because in Sierra Leone, the uneducated and uninformed citizens, who accounted for majority of the population, are of the fervent conviction that everything about China is fake or substandard. Many of them were brainwashed by western media reports coupled up with the highly utilized social media platform. Frankly speaking, the latter have posed serious challenges for our governments in Africa because particularly Whatsapp and Facebook are difficult to be regulated and should not be regulated because they are the only means that the common citizens can express their dismay about irregularities, even though some of the users are causing more problems than solutions in such platforms.

They also think because western media reports have been saying that there is no democracy in China and that there is only one political party here, makes life very uncomfortable for foreigners. But myself, and my colleague African journalists that have been here for months now, have got a different story to tell. Frankly, security for lives and property is guaranteed here. For the few months we have spent now, we have not heard of armed robbery or pick pocketing on the street of Beijing. You may think I am telling a joke, but when you dare walk in the street at night in some African countries you will know exactly what I mean. In Beijing, you can walk throughout the night and even admiring the beauty of night, without anyone harassing you.

Another example is that the easiest way to describe a fake product in Africa, is to say it is made in China or simply put, “Chinese product”. However after my arrival in China for five months, through my own and first-hand experience and observation, I it found complicated to well analyse this matter and I discovered that in some cases, some of our people are doing injustice to China in this regard.

What I said is just an epitome. How are we going to tell the real Chinese stories in manner that we can convince our people back in Africa that China is a friendly and peaceful country? To us, I mean the media practitioners of both parties, this is serious and it’s posing a threat to the relationship that China and Africa have nurtured for many years. Even though we may want to tell the real Chinese stories in a way to convince our people in Africa, we should also ensure that fake products, which many people in Africa claimed to have been manufactured in China, must never be imported into the African soil because the safety of the lives of our African people is of importance than anything else. In order to achieve this, the media (professional media practitioners and their various media outlets) have a great role to play so as to educate the traders coming from Africa to buy goods in China.

In one of our provincial tours last month in Guangzhou city, the provincial headquarter of Guangdong Province, officials from local government urged us to inform our African businessmen and women that they should make thorough research about the market situation in Guangzhou before they come to buy goods.

What I’m saying here is that we have a challenging, but an achievable task, to building the images of both Chinese and the African public. The stereotype there has been fake Chinese products and African business people importing into China illegal thing. But such forum for media experts should provide the building blocks for communicating the story to the citizens of both publics (the Chinese and African publics). Thus, there is an urgent need for stronger voice and effective public communication for better image-building. If we make Africa great, through the contribution of China, every African public, will change his/her negative perception about the Chinese and work towards a harmonious relationship.

We are quite aware of the fact that China has gotten her own problems especially the challenge now to lift 40 million of her citizens out of poverty. That is why we are not asking for too much. We are simply requesting for things that will be done simultaneously with the eradication of poverty in China.

Before I conclude, I would like to make the following recommendations, which I think if they are considered, we would be able to build positive images of both Africans and the Chinese.

Firstly, consider Africa as a continent not as a country. Since I came to China it is difficult to hear the officials talking about individual countries but the continent as a whole. There are over 50 countries in Africa and because 99% of those countries are part of the partnership with China, they should also get a fair share of the olive branches that are extended by the Chinese government to the continent.

Secondly, Adopt more Chinese-African Media (for example, China-Sierra Leone) Column/TV hour in various national media institutions especially radio and TV stations and print media. By doing this, the citizens of both parties would start to reason between the lines instead of having a perceived idea about issues happening in both China and Africa. The common Chinese citizens must be sensitized to see Africans as their brothers and sisters and embrace them with love. Similarly, Africans must also embrace their Chinese counterpart.

Thirdly, develop and support media institutions with the necessary mechanisms that would ensure that the messages are reached to the general public. We enjoy the China Africa Press Center Program here in China, we also would love to see the people to people exchange, media to media exchange initiated by both parties in Africa. Yes we enjoy sharing the professional skills with our Chinese colleagues in People’s Daily, China Daily and CGTN, we invite you, our Chinese media friends to take your time doing media attachment back in our office, talking about what kind of Chinese stories will be loved by your local people.

Finally increase on the number of African journalists in your various media institutions who will in turn report your stories to their parent countries. Job opportunities are needed in Africa let us work together and do just that in a bid to bridge existing gaps.

I thank you very much for listening.