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African affairs get a local airing

Following three days of "Bring Africa to Taiwan" activities this week, participants admitted that Africa is often portrayed in a negative light in Taiwan, saying there is much to be done to improve its image locally.

"It interests me that when I spoke to people here in Taiwan, the most common response is that people think Africa is very far away. Yet in terms of flying from here, Africa is no further away than the US. You can fly to Johannesburg in 13 hours from Hong Kong. You feel it's further away because you don't know it," David Anderson, senior lecturer in African History of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, told the Taipei Times.

The three-day event, including an African film festival and a series of seminars, were mainly organized by the Asia-Pacific Public Affairs Forum (APPAF), a non-governmental organization. Taipei-based African ambassadors and foreign representatives, scholars from Africa and Taiwan, retired Taiwanese officials and incumbent officials joined lively discussions on themes such as the private sector, agricultural reform and the NGO movement in Africa.

In a written document on African-Taiwan relations, Eunice Kazembe, Ambassador of the Malawi Embassy in Taipei, admitted: "Knowledge of Africa in the Republic of China is scanty and generally negative. Public perception of the continent is one of war, conflict, disease, [and] non-democratic leadership."

Based on his long-standing research on African issues, Anderson echoed Kazembe's view. "The problems that many people within Africa feel is that news from Africa is always bad news. One never reads in the newspaper of a successful development project in Africa ... But there are many successful schemes and projects," Anderson said.

One of the examples, Anderson argued, is that Africa has gone further in what he described as "re-establishing democracy" in the last 10 years than anyone would have thought possible.

"The impact of that transition has been enormous, and it's been done on the basis of economies which are not strong. People had to achieve this transition at great personal cost ... While thinking of the African continent as poor let's not forget that it has experienced an enormous struggle with dignity," Anderson added.

During the summit held on Friday afternoon, which foucsed on bringing African studies to Taiwan, participants toyed with ideas such as enhancing government-to-government contacts between Taipei and individual African countries, and setting up a research center in Africa or an information center on Africa.

Professor Themba Sono, President of the South African Institute of Race Relations, said the African embassies in Taipei should consider producing newsletters on the latest happenings in Africa and the Taipei-based African embassies.

Retired Ambassador Loh I-cheng (陸以正) offered concrete ways for Taipei-based African embassies to promote knowledge on Africa among the Taiwanese such as lobbying local TV producers to send camera crews to African countries to produce related programs on Africa.

Loh added another idea, saying: "the idea of building something around this African Day year after year [under different themes] is a very good idea. There are many things that the African ambassadors here can do not only to promote individual countries but the continent as a whole," Loh added.

The 76-year-old retired ambassador, who served as Taipei's ambassador to South Africa from 1990 to 1997, is scheduled to teach a course on Africa's influence on world politics at Tamkang University this autumn.

Anderson was upbeat on prospects for improving Africa's image in Taiwan.

"The initiatives of the APPAF here in Taiwan in trying to make people more aware of Africa is a very good first step toward bringing knowledge of Africa to Taiwan. Once you have knowledge of Africa, you'll see the opportunities that exist," Anderson said.
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