The 3rd edition of China Africa Stories, a flagship event organized by Kente & Silk, China Africa Tech Initiative and the Global Shapers Community Beijing has been successfully held in Beijing.
In its second year, the event has attracted enormous interest and participation from China’s international community especially young African and Chinese professionals and students working or schooling in China.
The event was part of Kente and Silk’s 2019 Africa Week event line up aimed at promoting Africa and deepening the knowledge and understanding of Africa’s rich culture, uniqueness and history through creativity and innovation.
Themed “Partnership for a Digital Future”, the 3rd edition centered around discussions on how Africa and China can both learn from and collaborate with one another to prepare for and shape an increasingly digital world. Designed with workshops and panel discussions to improve engagement and participation, the event had 6 workshops and a panel discussion to digest the theme and key focus areas. Delivering the Keynote Address, Nadia Uwamahoro, Founder and CEO of Rwanda Data Systems and Alibaba E-Founder shared her thoughts on how Africa could leverage on China’s experience and technology to advance its own technological agenda.
Technology does not exist in a vacuum but thrives within a system of support hence the organizing team designed 6 workshops focusing on key technological support and enabling areas. The workshops included “Building a Sustainable Digital Future” facilitated by Philanthropy in Motion, “Network Like a Boss – The Do’s & Dont’s in China” facilitated by Asi Nkatha, “Leveraging the Power of Mini-Programs for Development” facilitated by Didier Frank, “African Millennials, Social Media & Influencer Marketing facilitated by Heather Li, “Myth Busting China-Africa Ties” by Eric Olander and “Developing Cultural Intelligence” by Timothy Karikari, Lily Kang and Kayshell Jennings.
In addition to the workshop, the packed but engaging event also had a panel of experts to stimulate participants on the theme “Leveraging Chinese Technology in Africa”. Moderated by Eric Olander; MD of the China Africa Project, the members of the panel were Dr. Ding Yu Peng; Digital Economy Expert at UN Capital Fund, Prof. Dr. HE Wenping from the Institute of West Asian and African Studies (IWAAS), Nadia Uwamahoro and Dr. Yiyang Shen; Senior Energy and Green Finance Consultant for UNDP.
Founded by Ghana’s Zahra Baitie and Miatta Momoh from Sierra Leone, Kente and Silk is a social enterprise that aims to change the status quo of Africa-China relations by rebranding Africa in China, supporting African startups to engage with China and introducing value added products from Africa to the Chinese market.
By: Timothy Karikari