Category: Education
The U.S. Tries to Repackage What’s Effectively a Zoom Call Into Secretary Antony Blinken’s “Virtual Travel to Africa”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will "embark on his first virtual trip to Africa" on Tuesday as part of an effort to reach out with young people in Kenya and Nigeria. Even though the State Department ...
New Independent China-Africa Think Tank Opens in Ghana
Two years after it was founded, a new Ghana-based China-Africa research center launched on Tuesday with a virtual ceremony. The Afro-Sino Centre of International Relations is an Accra-based think tank that aims to provide policymakers, scholars, and the public with critical analysis on contemporary issues in China-Africa ...
The Central Chinese Province of Hunan is Now a Major Hub For China-Africa Engagement
When most people think about the major centers of Sino-Africa engagement, cities like Guangzhou and Beijing tend to come to mind first. How about Changsha? Well, not so much. But if you're not familiar with what's going on in Changsha and ...
The Reality of Educational Soft Power
Last week was a bloody one in Johannesburg. Wits University, where I used to teach and where I’m currently an affiliate, has seen weeks of student protests. On Wednesday, a standoff turned violent. As the police opened fire with rubber bullets, a bystander stepped out of a ...
Washington’s Former Top Diplomat For Africa: “China’s Kicking Our Tails Everywhere”
Tibor Nagy, the top U.S. diplomat for Sub-Saharan Africa under ex-President Trump, re-surfaced for the first time since he left Washington in January. Nagy published a column in a local Texas newspaper calling on the current U.S. administration to do more to stop China's rising influence in ...
Deborah Brautigam Reflects on Ian Taylor’s Legacy
Scholars around the world are mourning the passing of acclaimed China-Africa scholar Ian Taylor. Former students, colleagues and peers published tributes online and on Twitter. Professor Deborah Brautigam, director of the China-Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University
Ian Taylor, Pioneering China-Africa Scholar, Dies at 52
Scholars around the world are mourning the untimely passing of acclaimed China-Africa researcher Ian Taylor. The University of St. Andrews professor was widely regarded as among the most thoughtful, provocative scholars in the field. In addition to his position at St. Andrews, Professor Taylor also held appointments ...
Traditional Chinese Medicine Training in Mali: “A Revolution of Sorts” but Skepticism Remains
In December 2019, when the Tianjin government launched its Luban Workshop in Mali, it stood out from the Luban Workshops (named after Lu Ban, the father of Chinese architecture) in other African countries which offer courses on ultra-modern device manufacturing, high-speed rail technologies and Chinese cuisine ...
Construction Begins on New Chinese-Financed Vocational Campus in an Important Congolese Cobalt Mining City
The Chinese embassy in Kinshasa announced that construction will begin soon on a new vocational education campus in Kowlezi, the capital of the southern Lualaba province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The new 15,000 square ...
The Head of One of China’s Major Foreign Policy Think Tanks Proposes 4 Ways to Revive Slumping China-Africa Trade
Two-way China-Africa trade dropped by almost 20% to just $82 billion in the first half of the year due to lockdowns brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak. With China's economy recovering well, it's possible that some of those losses will be made up in Q3 ...
New U.S. Proposal to Limit Student Visas All But Hands the Educational Diplomacy Advantage in Africa to China
The United States government is proposing to severely restrict access to student visas from a majority of African countries in an effort to crack down on visa overstays. The new proposal by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) calls for any ...
China Now the Top Destination for African Students, Says New Report
China is surging ahead of France, the United States and the United Kingdom to become the top destination for African students seeking to study abroad, according to new data from the Beijing-based consultancy Development Reimagined (DR). While Europe as ...