By studying African problems, scholars can gain valuable insights in terms of knowledge and theory that will guide the development of the world as a whole, said a scholar.

 

By studying African problems, scholars can gain valuable insights in terms of knowledge and theory that will guide the development of the world as a whole, said Chen Dongxiao, president of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS), in the opening address of a meeting held in Shanghai from Aug. 12 to 13.

“Now that China’s national interests have become increasingly important within the framework of global politics, economy, security and diplomacy, Africa is positioned to be a key partner in China’s international strategy,” Chen said.
 

As the host of the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Chinese Society of African Historical Studies (CSAHS) and the Symposium on “History, Theory and Reality of Africa’s Development: Prospects and Challenges of China-Africa Development and Cooperation at the New Stage,” SIIS co-organized the two-day meeting with the CSAHS. More than 50 scholars across the country attended the symposium and shared their recent research progress and results in African studies.
 

Mu Tao, vice-president of the society and a history professor at East China Normal University (ECNU), told attendees about the society’s achievements in the past year. Mu noted that the society has promoted intercontinental exchanges in many fields and cultivated a new generation of scholars domestically to focus on African development.

From a historical perspective, China is closely connected to Africa, and the historical basis of the partnership cannot be ignored. The “Belt and Road” initiative and other current national strategies show that the bonds between them are as deep as the oceans they cross, said Wang Chaoguang, deputy director of the Institute of World History at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).
 

Last year marked a historical milestone for Africa’s development. The UN Sustainable Development Summit laid out the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, while the African Union approved the Agenda 2063 and drafted the First 10-Year Implementation Plan.
 

The Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) was held in South Africa at which the transcontinental partnership was elevated to a comprehensive strategic level. At the summit, China also initiated 10 cooperation plans to promote African development. These actions have provided new sources of growth and new research topics for scholars.
 

At the symposium, attendees mainly focused on Africa’s peace and security, political development, as well as transcontinental economic cooperation and cultural exchanges, sharing their ideas and proposing various suggestions. Thirty-six scholars gave presentations. Their research covers a broad range of subjects, including Africa’s security issues, Somalia’s conflicts, China-Africa cooperation on production capacity, medical corps, Chinese media in Africa and Chinese immigration in Africa.
 

African scholar Kwesi Prah is a recent addition to the ECNU staff who focuses on studies of African history. His speech “Pan-Africanism and Africa-China Relations: Past, Present and Future” was among the highlights of the meeting. He pointed out that it is important to understand how Pan-Africanism maintains its revolutionary and practical importance at present and imagined an Afro-Asian world future.

Zhang Chun, deputy director and senior fellow of the Institute for Foreign Policy Studies at SIIS, hosted the symposium, and Bi Jiankang, secretary-general of the society and research fellow of the Institute of World History at CASS, delivered the concluding remarks.

 

Zhang Mengying is a reporter at the Chinese Social Sciences Today.