A photo of first-prize winner Cavaliers of the Desert (HAMDAOUI MANSOUR)

Zhang Dejie from Henan Province in central China was glad that his entry for the fourth China-Africa Video and Photo Competition won the third prize. Though not a professional photographer, the 26-year-old always captures the moment he finds interesting during his time in the Republic of the Congo, where he works as a translator for a Chinese medical aid team to the country. 

His winning entry is a collection of photos featuring members of the team treating local people. He believes that their work deserves to be recorded and known. “Chinese medical teams have saved lives and healed the wounded on the land of Africa over the past six decades. Many local people are grateful to these Chinese doctors. They have been strengthening China-Africa exchange and friendship,” he told ChinAfrica. 

First established in 2019, China-Africa Video and Photo Competition is a programme focusing on presenting China-Africa friendship in the form of images. The fourth edition of the competition was launched on 1 September last year, jointly sponsored by the Secretariat of the Chinese Follow-up Committee of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and China International Communications Group (CICG), and organised by CICG Centre for Europe and Africa. 

Thirty entries emerged as winners out of hundreds of qualified competitors, including three first-prize winners. Best organisation awards were also granted to organisations that have actively supported the competition. 

Epitomes of China-Africa friendship 

The winning works cover a wide array of topics related to China-Africa cooperation and exchanges, ranging from infrastructure to art, allowing viewers to have a sense of the comprehensiveness of China-Africa relations. 

One of the first prize-winning videos is Footprints of a Music Legend from a documentary production team in Kenya. The entry shares the story about how a Chinese artist created the image of Ayub Ogada, a Kenyan musician known for playing traditional Kenyan harp instrument Nyatiti, in the street to pay attribute to the musical legend, who is also a friend of his.  

Apart from the techniques applied to tell the story and make the video, the judges were also impressed by the extent to which Qi Lin, the protagonist of the video, worked to preserve the local culture. Being a photographer and painter in Kenya for many years, he had this idea of putting a picture of Ayub Ogada in the street after his death so that the younger generations of Kenyans would know the traditional musician and the cultural heritage he represents. With the support of local and Chinese companies and his friends, he printed a photo of the deceased artist into 54 tiles and pasted them on a community wall. 

“Though my friend Ayub is not here, and someday I will not be here anymore, this piece of memory of Kenyan art and culture may last much longer than us,” he said in the video. 

A photo of second-prize winner Saving Lives and Helping the Injured (ZHANG DEJIE) 

Another first-prize winner, Loly’s Dream Trip, tells the story of a seven-year-old Egyptian girl, Loly, paying a visit to his father at work, who is an engineer at the new CBD project of Egypt’s new administrative capital under construction by China State Construction Engineering Corp. (CSCEC). At the construction site, Loly sees how Chinese technology is applied to build the Iconic Tower, which will be Africa’s tallest when completed. 

Hamdaoui Mansour from Algeria is the first-prize winner of the photo category with his collection Cavaliers of the Desert featuring a Fantasia horse racing event in his country. He was given the honour for bringing the breath-taking tradition to life with his superb photographic skills. 

Other topics covered in the winning entries include living in China or Africa, a career in Chinese companies, studying Chinese language and culture, and Chinese medical teams in Africa. The entries show that women are active participants of China-Africa cooperation with stories depicting women operating heavy machinery, working as an engineer, pursuing a career in e-commerce, etc. 

In one of Zhang’s winning photos, ophthalmologist Xu Houyin from the northern Chinese city of Tianjin conducts preoperative examination of a child with congenital cataracts. As the only doctor in the team who is capable of conducting cataract surgery, she completed over 300 such surgeries for the local people in the course of around one year since the medical team was dispatched there in November 2021. 

A photo of second-prize winner Chinese Tai Chi Fan Dance (BENJAMIN LIREN ZENG) 

Behind the cameras 

Many of the winners are young people like Zhang who feel obliged to record what is happening at various areas under the general picture of the progressing China-Africa relations. 

Li Binghong, a 28-year-old from Guangdong Province in south China, won a total of three prizes for his works, including Loly’s Dream Trip. As a publicity worker for CSCEC’s Egypt branch, he has been covering the CBD project for five years, during which he witnessed and recorded how the project has brought people from two different countries closer. 

“I’ve observed that many local employees have totally adapted to the working environment of a Chinese company. They enjoy working in the company because they can learn skills and the pay is good, while Chinese employees like to communicate with them to know more about the Egyptian culture and customs,” he told ChinAfrica. 

He also finds it worthwhile to record the progress of the project, which is rather challenging given its size. In his opinion, these projects are important for Egypt as a developing country, which can use China’s funding, technologies and management know-how for accelerated development. 

For 24-year-old Patience Ratidzo Ngombengombe from Zimbabwe, the winner of excellent prize for her video My Passion for Clothes, people-to-people exchanges help to build trust, strengthen bonds and foster long-term partnerships between China and Africa. In the video, she shows her passion for traditional Chinese clothes as well as calligraphy and Chinese songs. She emphasised the role individuals can play in promoting people-to-people bonds. 

“It is the collective efforts of individuals, through their interactions, initiatives and attitudes, that contribute to a better China-Africa friendship,” she said.