The 2024 Joint Conference of Confucius Institutes in Africa was held in Nairobi, Kenya from 29th May to 01 June 2024. The theme of the conference was “Promoting Localization, Development, Collaboration and Innovation of African Confucius Institutes”. The event was hosted by the Confucius Institute at the University of Nairobi, Kenya and jointly organized by the Chinese International Education Foundation, the University of Nairobi and the Confucius Institute at the University of Nairobi. The aim of the event was to network, exchange experiences of directors for the enhancement of cooperation among CIs and promote the development of Confucius Institutes in Africa. The delegates were from over 60 Confucius Institutes and classrooms from around 40 African countries.
At the opening ceremony, CI students of the University of Nairobi performed African Dance of Warrior Karapapla, Chinese Inner Mongolian folk dance and Chinese Opera. The Vice Chancellor of the University of Nairobi, Prof. Stephen Kiama gave a welcome speech to all the chief guests and delegates. The keynote speaker was Prof Zhong Yinghua, Chair of the International Society for Chinese Language Teaching and he talked about the development and exploration of various fields of cooperation between Universities and Confucius Institutes for the construction of stronger local communities.
Under the sub-theme “How does CI lead the way in collaborating with the community and playing its role in serving society”, CI speakers expressed their strong support to work closely with Chinese enterprises operating in the African countries to empower local communities, meet their different needs in a proper way, organize job fair to recruit local human resources and offer internship, promote cultural events, celebrate women’s and children’s day, host experts to empower communities in various areas and value each other’s culture through exchanges, integration and growth.
Other speakers talked about “Foreign Language Education Policies and the Training of Native Chinese Language Teachers in African Countries”; “Models of Cooperation between CIs and Chinese Enterprises and the Development of CIs ‘Chinese Plus’ Programme”; and “Characterization and Branding of CIs in African Countries”.
CI-UoM Poster at the Joint Conference of CI in Africa, Nairobi
Professor FU Mingduan, Chinese Director and Associate Professor Naraindra KISTAMAH, Mauritian Director of CI-UoM at the Conference, Nairobi, May 2024