Addressing the 2018 CIUCC Summer Camp delegates at Hunan City University in Yiyang – China, retired head of English Department of the university Professor Yang Yingming expressed satisfaction over the China-Ghana Relationship that Chairman Mao and Dr Nkrumah initiated.
The lecture on Friday August 3, 2018 formed part of second week activities for the delegates and was on the theme ‘Sino-foreign Cultural Exchange Session’. The Yiyang City famous professor who had the rare privilege to work in several African countries as Chinese – English Interpreter in Agric for more than a decade in the late 20th Century recounted his experiences in Africa.
“I worked in Sierra Leone from 1975 to 1977, and in Ghana from March 1981 to June 1983 at Afife Irrigation Project in Volta Region. Later, I worked in Liberia from 1985 to 1987 in the same discipline as Interpreter after my assignment ended in the Republic of Ghana.”
Major developmental events and projects that took place along this journey of unbroken history of China include devising of calendar and written language in Xia Dyansty (21st Century BC), development of painting, poetry and mathematics during the Zhou Dynasty (11th – 5th Century BC), building of The Great Wall in Qing Dynasty (221 -206 BC), invention of paper and emergence of Buddhism in Han Dynasty (206 – 220 AD), the Tea-drinking report in South China in the era of The Three Kingdoms (220 – 265 AD), invasion of China by Huns and Turks in Southern Dynasty (420 – 589 AD), invention of gunpowder in Tang Dynasty (618 – 907 AD), the building of imperial palace in Beijing during the Ming Dynasty (1368 -1644 AD), all through to the insurrections, Opium wars and the decline of the monarchy in Qing Dynasty (1644 -1911).
Professor Yingming noted that China and Ghana had enjoyed good friendship since 1960 with the maiden diplomatic visit to China by then Ghana’s President Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. The then vice Premier of China, Zhou Enlai in return, visited Ghana in 1964 which enhanced the cultural exchange activities between the two countries. Also, in December 1981, the then Chinese vice president, Huang Hua paid an official visit to the Republic of Ghana. Huang Hua earlier was appointed the first Chinese ambassador to Ghana in 1960 during the tutelage of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah by the then Chinese leader Chairman Mao.
The unbroken bilateral relation between the two nations continued in good shape, and as a result, successive leaders of both countries continued to make courtesy calls to one another from time to time: Then Ghana’s President John Agyekum Kufuor in 2002 visited China, and in 2007, President Hu Jintao of China also visited Ghana. In September 2010, President John Evans Atta Mills of Ghana visited China and in November 2011, vice chairman of Chinese National People’s Congress also visited Ghana.
Former president John Dramani Mahama visited China at the time he was the vice president under President John Evans Atta Mills, and the then running mate of the New Patriotic Party, Dr. Mahmud Bawumiah also visited China in the roundup to the 2016 Ghana’s general elections which won his party power.
Professor Yingming in his closing remarks emphasized that this several decades-long peaceful and friendly relationship between the two nations have bright future so long as the peoples of these nations, especially the youth, are actively involved in decision making process.
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Reported by: Iddriss M. Iddriss (for CIUCC)