Chinese authorities are setting up a China book corner in Kenya’s state training institutions, to provide Chinese literature, language resources and insights for scholars and students. But analysts say such a display of soft power is an effort to maintain Beijing’s influence on the continent.
At one school in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, more than 30 students are enrolled in part-time classes on Chinese language and culture. Steve Wakoli has been teaching the three-month course for three years.
Inspired by employment opportunities as a translator, Wakoli learned Chinese in 2020. Now a private teacher, he said Chinese literature is helping him earn a living.
”I did accounts as my bachelor’s degree, but it reached a point where everyone is doing accounts and others are doing finance. This is a field that was crowded, so I decided to go for something unique. I found that there were translation jobs, teaching jobs,” he said.
Kenyan authorities have begun to display Chinese literature to the public in places like the state workers training institute — the Kenya School of Government.
More than 100 books on governance, politics and development are showcased in the school’s library in what is called the “China Book Corner.”
Prisca Oluoch, the school’s director of linkages, collaborations and partnerships, said the books can help readers understand how China grows an economy.
”A lot of our books currently in our library are from American authors, from European authors. How about the East? How about China, Korea, Singapore? How did they do it?” Prisca said. “Having the China corner helps us to have that perspective to be able to also build, in terms of our own African leadership and management, drawing from the Chinese experience.”
According to a study by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a key pillar of China’s efforts to gain influence in Africa and globally is to create the impression of universal support for the Chinese Communist Party in a strategy known as the “united front.”
Historical relations between African countries like Kenya and the West or Europe can be unassailable for newcomers, but Beijing is taking advantage of its technological expertise to make inroads, said international relations professor Chacha Nyaigotti.
“African nations, which some of them were colonized by the French and others, British or English people, still cherish that network between the U.K. and commonwealth countries in Africa, and France with French speaking countries in Africa. But I think African[s] are being driven toward China mainly because China supports their infrastructural development,” Chacha said.
The books, authored by writers including China President Xi Jinping, were donated by the Chinese Embassy in Kenya. Some are translated into the Kenyan language, Swahili. Officials believe that with access to Chinese literature, the public can learn different economic methods which may help alleviate poverty.
