This Beautiful Song on the Africa-China Friendship Went Viral

"Here in China, there are new friends to meet, new things to try, a new life to start, every step along this path, that's no matter who you are, we find friendship together, it's sticker than glue..."

The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit convenes in Beijing on September 3rd and 4th to symbolize a new chapter in China-Africa relations. Tabou, a Senegalese singer living in Guangzhou, the capital city of South China's Guangdong province, performed the song 'One for All and All for One' to celebrate the friendship between Guangdong and Africa ahead of the summit.

“My mom, a businesswoman engaged in China-Africa trading, used to be based in Guangzhou. She was the one who invited me to first come here 4 years ago.” 

“I’ve tried to blend African music with Chinese and Cantonese culture and relate my experience living in the city,” Feifei told the reporter. “I think China and Africa need each other, and we can also help each other. It’s just like I sang in the song - no mountains or seas can separate us. Through hardship we fight, sharing a common destiny.”

Photo credit: news.cn

Driven by the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and themed “China and Africa: Towards an Even Stronger Community with a Shared Future through Win-Win Cooperation,” the summit is expected to invigorate joint efforts to build a community with a shared future for humanity.

Wale Oloko, Consul General of Nigeria in Guangzhou 

Photo credit: Steven/Newsgd.com

The Population Reference Bureau projects that Africa will be home to 58 percent of the projected 2.6 billion increase in global population between now and 2050. In 2017, Cantonese enterprises set up 244 branches in Africa.

Established 18 years ago, FOCAC has achieved fruitful results and has become a significant mark of China-Africa cooperations. China-Africa trade volume amounted to 170 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, up from just over 10 billion dollars in 2000, according to data from China's Ministry of Commerce.

"We can see a two-digit growth rate in the next five to 10 years," said former vice commerce minister Wei Jianguo at a recent China-Africa seminar at the Renmin University of China. 

"Is it possible to reach 300 billion dollars in 2020? Some people say it's unlikely, but I believe it's totally possible."

Just in late August, Chinese mining firm Nonferrous China Africa launched production work for its greenfield project in Chambishi town in Zambia's Copperbelt Province, which was hailed by Zambian President Edgar Lungu as an example of serious investment.

The commencement of mining, he said, was significant to the people in the town as the new project implies more business opportunities for residents. The business school found and designed a core curriculum, focused on establishing a talent pool in Africa.

The initiative has emphasized infrastructure projects such as railways, highways and airways, and brought various opportunities for the development of infrastructure in Africa over the past few years, pouring money into precast concrete pipe infrastructure, networking and education charities.

Costantinos, also a professor of public policy at the Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, further lauded the initiative for its target to economically integrate countries through various projects. 

Source: Nanfang media group, Xinhua, New Vision

Supervisor: Crystal Huang

Editor: SC

Co-editor: Ed Bellin

What is your opinion? 

Don't forget to share this article with friends by pressing "..." in the top right corner.

Advertisement 

Editor's Pick