A Fertile Base
Young African living in the Greater Bay Area upbeat on the prospects of the area
Lineo Kobeli’s first impression about China was low-priced Chinese goods brought back to Lesotho by her father from his first trip to China in 2005 when she was 16. At that time, she didn’t know anything else about this country where she will later study and live for years. She now works as an international public relations specialist at the Africa Guangdong Business Association (AGBA) based in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, for the fourth year. She is also an assistant to the secretary general of the association.
Guangzhou has the largest African business community in China. Although it has become smaller due to the pandemic, business connections are not cut off.
She was here when China initiated the plan to build the Guangdong-hong Kong-macao Greater Bay Area in 2019, and has experienced the increasingly dynamic development of the region. She has become fond of the place for its economic dynamics, inclusiveness and special bond with Africa. However, her move to the area was accidental.
A dream coming true
Kobeli said she wouldn’t have come to China if it weren’t for her father. Each year after 2005, she would see her father travel to China four to six times, and soon her narrative changed about China. She was intrigued because not only did her father’s business grow, but he also opened an office in China that would work with his office in Lesotho.
She attended high school as well as university in South Africa, and worked there after graduation. However, she still longed to accompany her father when he traveled to China. That dream came true in 2016 when she was offered a scholarship by the Chinese Government to study for her master’s degree at Zhejiang Normal University.
She cherished the long-awaited opportunity and promised herself to make the most of it. She was active in international students’ activities at the university, participating in business competitions, forums and other conferences. It was in one of these activities that she met an important person who set the stage for her move to Guangdong.
It was a business bootcamp competition hosted by an e-commerce company in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, and Kobeli attended it as leader of a student group from the university with business plans. One of the judges was Tracy Huo, who was the only woman on the panel of judges and knew about Africa more than all others.
“I saw a Chinese woman who spoke of Africa not as a country, not as a place desolate with no future; she spoke of an Africa with opportunities, an Africa she loved and lived in, where she shared food with its people. And she was committed to mentoring the next generation to use their new skills learnt in China back into their continent to enrich it, protect it and harness its richness,” she told Chinafrica.
Kobeli volunteered and asked her if there was an opportunity to work under her mentee. “I wanted to learn from her; she was fierce. In her, I saw a woman I wanted to become,” she said. She got the chance and Guangdong became a new home for her after graduation.