By Mr. Shu Zhan, former Chinese Ambassador to Rwanda and Eritrea
Ebola Fighters is a 24-episode drama series, which was very popular on China’s TV around the turn of 2021 and 2022.
The story goes like this: in 2014, an Ebola epidemic broke out in Kabaliya, a fictional country in Africa, and China CDC set up a rescue team of 19 doctors and experts and rushed to Africa to help with the response.
Shortly, a medical center was established for the prevention and treatment of Ebola patients. The African and Chinese experts curbed the pandemic, treated thousands of local patients.
The main character Dr. ZHENG Shupeng, who was about to leave Kabaliya, chose to stay on for the fight against the epidemic because of the death of Dr. Gaisimu KAMARA, as the African doctor and his daughter Mananare close friends of ZHENG Shupeng.
In the real world, one of the prototypes of the hero ZHENG Shupeng is Dr. CAO Guang, a chief surgeon from Beijing Anzhen Hospital who was working with China’s 23rd medical team to help Guinea at that time, whilethe prototype of Gaisimu in the play is his Guinean partner, who also died on duty, contracting Ebola virus.
Another Chinese doctor HE Dong in the film, whose grandfather was also a doctor came to Africa helping the local people many years ago and was buried in this land. Dr. HE once could not understand his grandfather, and with complicated feelings for Africa. He always kept a frowning face;it was not until he cured the Ebola patient that the audience saw the doctor finally smiled.
And in August 2022, a 5- episode documentary film titled “Chinese meet Africa” went on air. The two directors are my film-making friends, Professor ZHANG Yong and freelance Photographer LIANG Zi, who was in Bo Town of Sierra Leone from October of 2001 to April 2002. In their new documentary, a nurse of the Chinese medical team for Mali, Ms. HONG Min followed her father, a Chinese doctor once offered free service there in 1970s. When she was a child, listening to her father’s recorded Bambara language and his story in Mali, was dreaming to follow in his footsteps. 47 years after, she went to Mali and served the locals as her father had done.
There are dozens of cases where two or three generations of Chinese clinicians have followed one another to Africa, and dozens of doctors came and worked here for two or more times.In fact, the drama “Ebola Fighters” is a vivid miniature of more than23 thousands Chinese doctors and nurses assisting Africa.
China sent the first medical team to Algeria in 1963 when the country got independence. Over the past 59 years, about one thousand batches of Chinese medical personnel have treated 230 million patients in Africa. At present, there are nearly 1000 medical personnel in 45 countries in Africa, offering free services in 98 medical institutions.
In 2017, I was lucky to visit Freetown, and at the China Sierra Leone Friendship Hospital on the outskirts,we could still see the traces left by the Chinese medical team helping Sierra Leone in fighting the Ebola epidemic in 2014.
This first collaboration led to the creation of the Sierra Leone China Friendship Biological Safety Laboratory or “Jui Lab”, which was built in just 87 days and became active in the detection of Ebola on March 11, 2015. When the epidemic ended later that year, Sierra Leone’s MoHS and China CDC launched a long-term technical cooperation project which is still ongoing. It entered its third phase in January 2021, with new contributions to the current fight against covid-19.
These are only a few examples of Africans and Chinese help each other in countless ways. The two peoples are close to each other and have a deep affinity formed through many years of friendship.
I saw the charming singer Ms. Mariatu Kargbo’s performance on the Sierra Leonean Pavilion Day of Shanghai World Expo in May 2010. She sang both native songs and Beijing opera. And I was told that She has been living in China for over 16 years.
The Miss Sierra Leone 2009 and one of finest philanthropists and Cultural Ambassadors, popularly known as An African Pearlin China,or nicknamed as Maria, trekked and was first on the scene to help with the relief efforts after the 2008 earthquake in southwestern China. And recently, she again took the lead in raising money for Chinese people at the outbreak of pandemic and has been working on the front line in the fight against COVID in Beijing China.
In 2020 when China went into COVID-19 lock down, Mariatu Kargbo was one of the first foreigners to sign up for volunteer work in her local community in Beijing, just like Community Volunteerism in Sierra Leone. In recognition of her selfless work monitoring temperatures and ensuring the safety of the neighbourhood, she was invited to join other outstanding volunteers at a ceremony in the Great Hall of the People, the meeting place of the Chinese Parliament, where she was presented with a special award.
She also took on the task of delivering health drinks to people living in the vicinity. To the amazement of the locals, she used the traditional African method of carrying the heavy pot on her head to ensure the refreshments were distributed quickly and efficiently.
Mariatu’s status as a famous star became big news and the local population were quick to ask for photographs with her dressed in her protective clothing and to circulate their pride at having such a high-profile volunteer via social media. In particular, many older residents who were wary of leaving their homes to take COVID tests were encouraged to do just that when they saw Mariatu on the frontline.
“I am humbled by the response of my neighbours and the local authorities, and their support truly makes me feel like a member of the family. ” she once said, “Although the work is tiring, when I see so many people willing to give up their time to support the community, it gives me the extra strength to keep going. I will continue to do this work as a way of giving back to the community and promoting relations between Africa and China”.
Mr. Wu Peng, the Africa Department Director-General of MFA and a former Ambassador of China to Sierra Leon, showered praises on Mariatu Kargbo by quoting an African proverb, ‘Sharing the way forward is a true friend’ and said that China-Africans’ perception of each other has gone from being African brothers in news broadcasts to classmates, mutually beneficial business partners and friends travelling together.
The friendship between countries lies in the affinity between the peoples. Exchanges between Africans and Chinese in culture, media, youth and women, think tanks, have been still growing all round.
We may have found the common value of all mankind with a passion for the life and building community with a shared future for mankind is a new perspective to seek new connotations of the common interests and common values.
[1]https://wetv.vip/en/play/3wf5zzs3fgnr2ai-Ebola-Fighters/r0041jpqa04-EP1-Ebola-Fighters; with English subtitles.
[2]https://www.cgtn.com/tv/replay?id=dGECcA; with English subtitles.
[3]Sierra Leone: MariatuKargbo Back On the Front Line in China’s Fight Against Covid-19, Concord Times (Freetown), 10 MAY 2022, https://allafrica.com/stories/202205110103.html
