My sincere thanks to those who attended
the September 24, 2019 Owl &
Ibis – A Confluence of Minds meeting where we viewed and
discussed the 2010 documentary, When China Met Africa. For those who have not
viewed this film, it may be downloaded free on Tubi TV here.
This 75-minute film followed the activities of three people residing and working in Zambia between 2007 and 2009: a Chinese private farm owner; a Chinese private company road construction engineer; and Zambia’s Minister for Commerce, Trade, and Industry.
The documentary covered multi-faceted Chinese-Zambian social interactions in the areas of commercial farming, road building, and bilateral international development relations.
Among the concerns expressed during the
O&I discussion of the film was whether China’s so-called ‘debt trap diplomacy’ was intentional or not.
The O&I gathering also voiced
concern over the climate change, inequality, and potential global economic
collapse consequences of the further spread of capitalist modernization within
the lesser developed regions of the world. That is, the consequences of
modernity being rapidly spread through public and private sector ‘international
development’ via investment, trade and aid from China and the West.
The O&I group wondered:
Is the push to modernity a form of unintentional ecocide, geocide, and anthropocide? The China-Zambia relationship was seen by some at the meeting as a microcosm of systemic ecological and economic dysfunction and larger global problems ahead.
Is the push to modernity a form of unintentional ecocide, geocide, and anthropocide? The China-Zambia relationship was seen by some at the meeting as a microcosm of systemic ecological and economic dysfunction and larger global problems ahead.
Since the film’s release nine years ago, Zambia has had national elections and undergone changes in government leadership.
Specific updated information about the farming activities, road construction, and four Chinese government loans to Zambia shown in the film are not easily available.
More broadly, the following links provide updates on Minister Felix Mutati who was featured in the film and who went on to serve in other parliamentary and ministerial posts; and the current status of various loans the Chinese have made to the Zambian government over the past twelve years, Zambia’s difficulty in repaying them, and what jeopardy this loan indebtedness has placed Zambia in.
Here are the links:
Felix Mutati
Wikipedia
Resistance
Growing to Chinese Presence in Zambia
Deutsche Welle
April 9, 2019
Zambia Debates
Chinese ‘Economic Slavery’
The Diplomat
January 28, 2019
Mines, Money,
Mandarin: China in Zambia
The Diplomat
October 5, 2018
China is
Secretly Taking Over Zambia
China
Uncensored, YouTube
September 12,
2018
How China is Slowly
Colonizing Zambian Economy
Lusaka Times
July 27, 2018
}:> ~:)
