Lessons of a killing and an election

When you live in a foreign country for almost a year, stereotypes begin to disappear

When I left Cameroon 11 months ago I knew very little about China. Yes, I knew it had become an important partner to Cameroon in recent years, that its economy was surging ahead, with growth in the double digits, and that some of its big cities were blighted by air pollution.

But there were many stereotypes, too, one of those being that China is adept at turning out substandard products. I had also heard stories about Chinese eating dogs.

In my village many people were convinced every Chinese was a kung fu master like Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan. And when the press secretary of the Chinese embassy in Yaounde asked me to give him some names of places I wanted to visit, I had to quote from memory: "Um, the Great Wall, the Memorial Hall of Chairman Mao, Shanghai and Tibet."

Nearly a year later, as I wistfully recall my sojourn in China, facts and incidents start coming back to me, two in particular.

In each of these two cases friends emailed me or made contact through social media. As the first Cameroonian newspaper reporter working in China for a news outlet in my country, it was incumbent on me to respond to the questions colleagues raised.

I was among nine journalists in the first batch of a program called China Africa Press Center, and the two incidents underscore its worth.

On the night of June 17-18, the body of a Cameroonian, Georges Ambe, 30, who had lived in the city of Fuzhou, Fujian province, for 10 months, was found lying in a pool of blood following a knife attack. Social media went into overdrive when news of the killing broke, and many critics alleged that Chinese racism had played a central role in Ambe's death.

A few days after the killing I was still unaware of it, until a former high school classmate posted a statement on the Internet about a week later saying: "Messi, you're a journalist in China. What do you think about all this?"

At the end of September a colleague in the Cameroonian coastal city of Nkongsamba sent me an email saying he was amazed to see protests in China. "What do you think?"

I realized he was talking about the demonstrations in Hong Kong, which the Western media, on which many Africans depend for news about China, had given great play.

Let's face it, you cannot rely on books or on the news media to give you the clearest idea of what is happening in a country. Seeing the country first hand, and touching it and smelling it, are far more reliable.

As the relationship between China and Africa continues to grow it would be ideal for all Africans to spend time in China and for all Chinese to spend time in Africa, but of course that is impossible. This is where the China Africa Press Center in Beijing comes in. It has allowed me and eight of my colleagues to act as surrogates and tell Africans about what we have found.

I could tell you of my trips to more than 10 Chinese provinces, and I could easily recount my travels in more than 24 Chinese cities, of the many ethnic groups I have met and of the lush landscape that has enchanted me.

Instead I will tell you about what I told my compatriots who wanted to know about the circumstances of the death of George Ambe, and later about Hong Kong.

An official of the Cameroonian embassy in Beijing told me the embassy had received the results of the Fuzhou police investigation. At the time, the three alleged killers were arrested and were awaiting trial. They were alleged to have assaulted Ambe at the exit of a nightclub.

A spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Hua Chunying, whom I had publicly challenged on the subject in a media conference, assured me the Chinese government was fully committed to ensuring the safety of all who live on Chinese territory.

When I think of police killings that take place in many countries and that often involve African men I can hardly understand why there are so many people in the world who want to give China lessons on democracy.

When I think of the access to sources that I received in reporting this case and other matters, it is almost impossible to believe it is China they are referring to when they talk about constraints on journalists.

On social media, I conclude my comments by asking those who have alleged that Chinese are racists whether they, like me, have lived in Jianguomen, not far from Tian'anmen Square in Beijing. That is where I did my shopping and where I was in daily contact with people from all walks of life. I used the Chinese traditional bicycle taxi, the city cab, the subway and the bus. And guess what? Not one of them spat on me.

I ask them whether someone could live in a foreign country, most of whose people have a different skin color to his, and get through 11 months without being approached by police and asked for papers. Well, I lived in China that long, and that is exactly what happened to me.

Finally, let me tell you how I responded to the colleague who asked me about the protests in Hong Kong, ruled by Britain for 150 years until 1997. I kept telling him that China has 23 provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities with a rank of province, including Beijing, and two special administrative regions, Hong Kong and Macao.

I believe the Chinese central government is on the right track with Hong Kong. If its people could vote for any candidate, and one was elected on a platform of promoting Hong Kong's secession, what would happen?

We must not forget the historical origins of this problem. China is an old civilization and the country was an ancient kingdom until the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912 and later the People's Republic of China in 1949. The now reverted territories, Hong Kong and Macao, were torn from China in the wake of unequal treaties with European countries.

In short, in my time in China I have learned a lot, and especially why China is so complex and can be hard to understand. Had I not lived in the country, I would still be like those who judge China without really knowing it.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 12/12/2014 page8)