China's concept of a common and shared destiny has far-reaching global effects and benefits. Bob Wekesa, a research associate at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, and doctorate candidate at the Communication University of China, looks at how this concept and China's Belt and Road Initiatives are following a path that Africa and China have long established. His thoughts follow:

Chinese President Xi Jinping has long been calling for the creation of a community globally with a common and shared destiny. In March, Xi addressed the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference, saying, "We have only one planet, and countries share one world." Xi's common destiny concept draws from age-old Chinese ideals, which place mutual benefit at the center of relations, be they human or relations between states. Conversely, this concept is against unhealthy competition between countries.

In a world wracked by conflicts and disagreements among nations, Xi's message is a welcome breath of fresh air. It is reassuring that the leader of a country emerging as a global power can express messages of fealty and camaraderie on a global scale. Reassuring because China could easily extract gain for itself through "hard power."

Xi's message would resonate in many parts of Africa, a continent where optimism in China is perhaps the highest globally, going by opinion and attitude polls. Obviously, when two regions meet - as in the case between Africa and China - there are bound to be differences. The important thing - and in line with Xi's message - is that these challenges be resolved amicably, with the understanding that nations benefit more from peaceful engagements than disagreements.

Xi's global shared destiny concept has an economic dimension. The common destiny message finds tangible expression in the China-led Belt and Road Initiatives. The initiatives are inspired by the ancient Silk Road network from China running through Eurasia and parts of Africa. In the cartographic models of the new Silk Road, the east and north coasts of Africa are the beachheads of the maritime route.

Historians have recorded Sino-African contacts going as far back as the 9th century, particularly in present-day northern Africa. Importantly, Chinese contacts with Africa in the ancient times were marked by the mutual benefits that Xi is promoting today. The peoples of the two regions engaged in trade and there is no record of violence or war between them.

When the African dimension of the Belt and Road Initiatives take shape, it will essentially be following a path that Africa and China have long established. Since 2000, trade between China and Africa has multiplied twenty-fold and contributed immensely to the current "Africa Rising" narrative on the continent. With respect to the Belt and Road Initiatives, China's footprint is already there in the development of African transport infrastructure.

It can be recalled that when Xi visited Tanzania in 2013, one of his engagements was to endorse the construction of a new port at Bagamoyo, north of Dar es Salaam, which would be linked inland by a network of railways. When Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited Africa last year, he proposed the construction of intra-African road and railway networks to help Africa trade with itself more as well as with the rest of the world.

Indeed, work on a standard gauge railway that will link the Kenyan port of Mombasa with the landlocked countries of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Sudan has already started. On an even grander scale, there is talk of Africa and China cooperating to build the great northern road from Cape Town in South Africa to Alexandria in Egypt. There is also talk of a road and railway network that would start at the Kenyan port of Lamu and end up in Cameroon.

With all these great plans, what remains to be seen is the proper unveiling of the African lap of the Belt and Road Initiatives.