Solid Relationship Won’t Be Tainted
China-africa time-tested relations can withstand malicious prejudices
No one seriously expects that the valuable framework of the China-africa comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership could be totally inoculated from side distractions. This is especially true as there remains pockets of vested interests that wish Africa remains a poor, conflict-ridden beggar and the sole global theater where Western NGOS, pop stars, and assorted celebrities showcase their large hearts and humanitarian concerns.
A South American diplomat once told me how he had thought about an abrupt ending of his diplomatic career instead of serving in Africa, but once in Africa, did his best to stay in the post beyond the allotted duration.
According to him, the rumor he had previously heard is that people bathed in the open streets and light skin humans were a delicacy for the locals. The strength of fallacious prejudice, according to him, was so strong that his spouse chose to divorce him rather than follow him to Africa.
Even no less a personality than the U.S President Donald Trump recently was reported to have allegedly said that Nigerians who come to the United States are unlikely to return to their thatched-roofed huts.
Malicious rumors
The sheer fabrications, fallacies and myths that have been woven around China-africa relations squarely fall into the longheld antecedents of how every African, or related stories about Africa, is viewed.
Recently, someone posted a video claiming outlandishly that China has established 14 police stations in South Africa. A close and even casual scrutiny revealed that it was a lie.
In addition, a recent rumor blew across Nigeria that drugs made of human remains in China have flooded the Nigerian market. It took the intervention of the head of the Nigerian drug agency to dispel the nonsense as totally false.
Before then, another rumor that rubber plastics, packaged as rice from China, has been smuggled into the Nigeria market, spread like African bush-fire before it