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Tanaka Mahanya Features Writer
If one visits China today, they are likely to be surprised about the little knowledge that ordinary Chinese have about Africa, that is for those who know such a place exists.

Many of the Chinese, upon seeing a black person on the streets are likely to shout “Meiguo”, the Chinese name for America.

The assumption being that if you are a black person, then you should be a black American.

Although Africa is known as “Feizhou” in Chinese, very few of them would recognise you as coming from the continent.

Through arrangements on people-to-people exchange programmes, a number of Africans are now visiting China, making the Chinese get used to people coming from the continent.

But there are still existing gaps in terms of prejudices that some Chinese hold when it comes to relating with the Africans.

It is these gaps which have inspired Zimbabwean Samantha Sibanda, who lives in China, to come up with an organisation called Appreciate Africa Network to fight such prejudices. Samantha says she is keen to create awareness and promote the values of Africa’s socio-cultural and economic contributions in the world through her organisation formed in 2013.Headquartered in Beijing, China, Appreciate Africa has also spread to the whole of the Asia Pacific region.

Samantha faced racial discrimination in class in China as she was the only black among Europeans, Latin Americans and Chinese, which pushed her to desire to teach people about Africa and Africans.

“The push really came when one of the Professors who was Spanish decided to show a Masai man from Kenya and then told the class, ‘Imagine if you put this man in a car he will die of heart attack, but he would survive if you put him in a den of Lions”, she said.

To promote African progress, she went to African embassies in Beijing to get posters showing Africa’s tourist places, minerals investment opportunities and collected a list of innovations done in different African countries.

As her project in college, she did African awareness, which led to the birth of Appreciate Africa Network.

Samantha then campaigned and spoke against use of African people’s images when describing poverty and other ills like HIV and Aids. “The greatest achievement of all was when I wrote a petition to have a Chinese provincial museum stop an exhibition showcasing Africans and likening them to animals,” she said. “I met and asked them for a written apology to the African community all over the world.

“Another success for me was when I was selected as one of the Most Influential 100 people of African Descent under 40 in 2018 and the first Zimbabwean to represent Africans in China at the United Nations Fellowship of People of African Descent in Geneva.”

Samantha has hosted Plus Size Global Programme which seeks to make women who are big in shape feel comfortable with their bodies. Her organisation hosts many other activities that offer Africans an opportunity to participate and market their countries in China.  She has a “Africa Night Speech Contest” for African students studying in China to talk about their countries to a cosmopolitan audience. The network also runs the Africa Got Talent Show which scouts for talent among Africans living in China in the fields of music, dance, poetry, drama and magic.

In an effort to prop up African entrepreneurs in China, Appreciate Africa Network runs the Africa Achievers Awards, which recognises African community builders in Asia.

Talking of the Plus Size Global Progamme, Samantha said: “Being in Asia, people think when a woman is big she is ugly, unattractive and lazy, hence we promote body positivity for women to love themselves and learn how they can dress themselves to feel beautiful and live as proud plus size women.”

Samantha has also hosted Discover Africa Academy that provides after school programmes for international schools that educate students about Africa.

She is working on stimulating mutual business interests between Zimbabwe, China and the world.

“There has also been too much negativity in the press about Zimbabwe, but despite that, our country has a lot to offer and the world should know how proud we are to be Zimbabweans,” said Samantha.

She said for one to succeed, they have to turn the negatives into positives. “If you look closely at everything I do, it was derived from situations that I found myself in and I tell you there was nothing good about those situations, but I decided to turn the negatives and make them positive,” said Samantha.

“I was racially discriminated and I started Appreciate Africa Network and Discover Africa Academy in an efforts to correct the mindsets of such abusers.”

Samantha is an artiste in her own right, having starred in the Chinese film, China 1911, done in 2011.

The film is about the Xinhai Revolution that ended the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911), the last imperial dynasty in China, leading to the formation of the Republic of China.