Mbumba praises Africa-China relations as mutually beneficial

President Nangolo Mbumba says the relationship between Africa and China is rooted in mutual political understanding, cultural cooperation and exchange.

“The Chinese have companies that can do the dirty work, if one can put it that way, cleaning up things, building roads and opening up mines. Our relationship is based on political understanding of one another, cultural cooperation in promoting understanding, exchanging academics who want to teach and train, which we want and which we need.”

President Mbumba said this during a panel discussion on the role of China in a rising global South and its implications for the future world order at the 22nd Doha Forum in Qatar on Saturday.

Mbumba reflected on the history and present state of China-Namibia relations.

“It did not start by coming with an army. Rather slowly we started engaging one another and especially in the liberation of Africa, they contributed,” Mbumba said.

“In terms of modern cooperation, they are the number one miners of uranium in Namibia. We have a lot of uranium. Other countries are involved, too, but even the one mine which used to belong to a British company, they sold it to the Chinese. We did not tell them to sell it. It was the market forces.”

Mbumba was referring to the sale of Rio Tinto’s interest in the Rössing uranium mine in Namibia to China National Uranium Corporation Limited in 2018.

“China is opening up the business and their companies as well. Which European, British, German or Italian company is going right now to come and build a road in Africa?”

Mbumba also said Namibia is committed to open trade and fostering relations with every country if it aligns with its developmental objectives.

“On the basis of cooperating with one another, not forcing anybody and if the Western countries want to compete, then the competition is open,” he said.

The panel included Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame, the minister of foreign affairs of Honduras, Eduardo García, and the prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley.

During the panel discussion, Kagame remarked that prejudice about China and its financial investments in the global South does not acknowledge the agency that African countries have in their own economies.

Kagame remarked: “There has also been this prejudice about China and talk about debt. I think that should not be blamed on China, perhaps they can take part of the blame for that. But Africans also need to do better engagement with our partners. We should take loans that we know we are going to deploy on projects that are actually going to give us good returns, both ways.”

Mbumba agreed with Kagame and said African choices were a reflection of their agency.

“We Africans are learning how to do things for themselves and who to do them with, openly and on our own terms. If it is our weakness then we are to blame, and we will be sharp enough to nudge other people, then the benefit can come to us,” he said.

The rise of China and its deepening ties with the global South are reshaping traditional understandings of international relations. In particular, China’s economic and political leadership has begun to change global trade networks and challenge the dominance of Western-led multilateral institutions.

Speaking at the forum, Bience Gawanas, current vice chairperson of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, reflected on the importance of human resources to address primary healthcare challenges.

“As much as we talk about human resource capacity, we cannot run away from the issue of migration. Many of the human resources in health that governments are putting into on the African continent, most of the health workers, professional and community health workers are trained by governments,” Gawanas said.

“But immediately when they get the skills and experience, they go outside the country. So there will always be that shortage of skills within the country and we need to address that,” she said.

The Doha Forum is an annual gathering of world leaders to discuss solutions to global challenges. This year the forum convened under the theme ‘The Innovation Imperative’ from 6 to 7 December.