Forget French, learn Mandarin Chinese. Formal French language learning has consistently been making in-roads into our education system with a sizeable number of public schools offering French language lessons, and a whole department at the University of Botswana dedicated to the training of teachers of the French language. What strategic benefit do we, as a nation, derive from speaking French?
The same question can be extended to the fact that we still have six colleges, including the University of Botswana of course, producing teachers when we have long reached self-sufficiency levels as a country, yet there is only one engineering school when we are so short of engineers. Can’t we just convert most of these teacher training colleges into institutions that can produce for the country useful engineers and artisans which the economy so much needs?
Anyway, the big contention is what real benefits does Botswana derive from speaking French? French is no doubt a very romantic and charming language, language only potent for impressing a group of friends around a dinner table, serving them the finest of French cuisine, cheese and wine. Besides that, France has no real political or economic influence over Southern Africa, let alone Africa, in this neo-colonial era.
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, formerly a francophone country, knows this all too well. He led the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) to victory over perpetrators of the 1994 genocide and chased over 30 000 Hutu militiamen into DR Congo, effectively ending the genocide. Next in his ambitions, Kagame had a goal to move the Rwandan economy from an aid dependent one to a thriving economy by attracting investment and businesses, and, according to the Rwandan government, the Francophone market was not large enough to meet this goal.
Having assessed the international and domestic political environment Rwanda’s government argued that to bolster Rwanda’s economy, the country must utilize the vast market and business opportunities offered by the Commonwealth of Nations. In 2006, Rwanda cut all diplomatic ties with France. I should mention that this decision was also motivated by the French harassment of Kagame and his aides after a French judge asserted in 2004 that Kagame was responsible for the 1994 downing of a plane that killed the presidents of both Rwanda and Burundi and set off the genocide.
So, do we still see the benefit of learning French? I propose that “we look towards the ‘East’ and find a friend” in China. Over the last 30 years, China’s GDP has grown at an annual average rate of 9 to 10%, quickly making it the second largest economy in the world. McKinsey and company estimate that by 2022, 75% of urban Chinese will earn between US$9,000 (P78, 540.20) to US$34,000 (P296, 707.00) a year. Only 4% of urban Chinese households were within this range in 2000, 12 years later, in 2012, it had jumped 64 percentile points to 68%. Many economists see China surpassing the United States to become the largest economy in the world, some among them even estimate it will happen by the end of this year.
Whether it happens this year or in the next decade, China offers a lot of opportunities for countries like ours with small domestic markets. The recent slowing of growth in the Chinese economy and normalisation from the growth rates of the past ten years should not fool us. China still has a lot to offer us. We need a deliberate strategy to guide us in exactly how we should exploit the gravy train that is China. This strategy should involve all sectors and organs of government and should answer the following questions: 1) How do we woo credible, did someone get that, CREDIBLE Chinese companies to invest here? Could they be the answer, in terms of money and expertise, in the development of various sectors we have identified as high growth sectors?
With our coal, copper and nickel, leather, soda ash, how do we get them to assist us to process these here at home? 2) What can we sell the Chinese? Would their restrictions be as tough as the EUs where beef exportation is concerned? Can we expedite the diamond polishing and jewellery making industry set-up so that the Chinese ‘nouveau riche’ wear diamond jewellery which was processed here from, as they say, ‘farm to pan’. Could we rent them some of our land so that they supplement food production for their large population?
Now, in order to realise whatever ideals will be espoused in the strategy I propose, the country should be Chinese friendly, and what better way there is than to have a good number of us speak Mandarin Chinese and appreciate Chinese culture, cuisine, art and music. We need to appreciate that there is more to the Chinese than Kung Fu movies and construction companies with shoddy workmanship. The University of Botswana in partnership with the Confucius Institute has started the ball rolling with short term Mandarin language courses and a bachelor’s degree programme in Chinese Studies.
As part of the strategy I proposed, we have to graduate a sizeable number of students from these courses, fully funded through the Department of Tertiary Education Financing, so that interpreters are readily available for the ease of doing business with Chinese investors. Primary and secondary school level teachers should also be produced so that Mandarin Chinese is taught in public schools as a mainstream subject. We will not be cutting diplomatic ties with anyone; rather, just doing what is economically sensible. President Kagame has done it, we can do it.