Zambians choose Chinese cures

By Derrick Silimina

China’s ancient healing arts are gaining a strong following in Zambia. Residents of the southern African country are increasingly visiting Chinese-owned clinics offering a variety of ancient cures, including acupuncture, herbal medicines, massage, exercise regimes, dietary therapies, and creams and ointments against aches among others.

Traditional Chinese cures avoid many side effects associated with modern medicine, its advocates say. At least 70% of Zambians use traditional medicine, according to the World Health Organization.

Zambia’s government has noticed the growing popularity of Chinese cures and is reviewing its rules on traditional medicine with a view toward making such practices more accessible. 

Chinese medical practitioners in Zambia have been happy to meet the growing demand. “I attend to patients suffering from stroke, HIV/AIDS, hypertension, paralysis and diabetes among others,” said Feng Kehong, owner of the Zhong Yi Surgery. She opened the private clinic in 2002, five years after arriving in Zambia.

Of the wide range of traditional Chinese cures on offer, acupuncture has seized Zambians’ imagination the most. In this traditional Chinese therapy, needles are inserted into affected points on the body to relieve pain and cure illnesses.

For Bernard Siwale, a Lusaka based taxi driver, the results of the procedure are worth some discomfort. He turned to the Zhong Yi surgery in Lusaka after modern medicine did not cure a partial paralysis he suffered early this year. “The doctor pricks you with small needles and you feel a slight discomfort,” he said. “After 30 minutes the needles are removed. The process is repeated for 10 days, but thereafter the pain disappears.”

Other patients are equally enthusiastic. “A Chinese health practitioner recommended herbal medicine and acupuncture for my abdominal pains, and after 10 days the pain was gone,” said Belinda Ngulube, a pharmacist. “Acupuncture is based on the interconnectivity of our hormones and nervous system. It has helped many patients.”

Three months of acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicines treatments were the solution to severe bleeding for Angela Nkandu, age 38. “I used to bleed badly even with a slight injury and conventional medicine couldn’t help much,” she said. “Doctor Tiang gave me blood boosters and acupuncture and it worked wonders.”

Traditional Chinese cures are longer-lasting than cures from modern medicine, according to Chris Banda, a teacher in eastern Zambia. He travelled to Lusaka for treatment at a private Chinese clinic and said it was worth the trip. “Western medicine couldn’t cure my chronic headache. Conventional medicine can reduce pain but afterwards the pain comes back.”

Human trafficking on the rise

By Derrick Silimina

Illegal immigration is on the rise in many parts of the world, including Zambia. Trafficked persons face despicable conditions on their journeys and many end up dead or suffering life-threatening conditions.

The media in the southern African country is not strange to news of arrests of foreign nationals for illegal entry or stay in the country. Authorities have also reported intercepting long-distance merchant trucks smuggling people in goods containers.

The Zambia police service recently found 27 dead bodies dumped by the roadside near the capital Lusaka. The victims are suspected to have been Ethiopian nationals who were being smuggled into the country. These are believed to have made their way through transit points in several African countries.

Zambia is a hotspot for human trafficking within Southern Africa, especially of migrants leaving Eastern African countries like Ethiopia, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and many more, to seek job opportunities in the wealthier countries like Namibia and South Africa.

The region has an agreement for free movement of people and goods through the regional cooperation body, Southern African Development Community (SADC), which makes it easy for human traffickers to sneak people across borders.

Human-trafficking cartels operating in Zambia have continued to exploit women and children from neighboring countries into forced labor. Sex trafficking is also on the rise. 

Rwandan women have been targeted especially. They are lured into Zambia with promises that they will acquire refugee status and earn lucrative benefits. In the end, they become sex slaves who are kept against their will. Traffickers threaten to turn the illegal immigrants to immigration officials if they refuse to do what they are told.

With the rising human-trafficking cases, the local police has called for capacity building of officers both in Zambia and the Southern African region to effectively investigate and eradicate the vice. The country’s immigration department also needs further support to deal with illegal immigration.

Alick Njavwa, a Lusaka resident, says: “Our immigration department is underfunded, understaffed and lacks necessary equipment. We need to improve it in so many areas. Back in the days, immigration issues were not as urgent hence practices such as spot checks and patrols were deemed not necessary.”

There are fears that continued illegal immigration and human trafficking may threaten the free movement of people and goods in Africa. Activists therefore want the Zambian government to do more, such as securing the country’s borders with modern technology.

A Source of Sustenance

 

By Derrick Silimina

It’s past 5 a.m. and Habib Mohammed is leaving his house to start the day at his 2.5-hectare coffee farm in the lush highlands of Ethiopia’s Oromia Region. 

In this East African country, Oromia is the natural homeland of the delicate Coffea arabica plant, which is driving an insatiable thirst for a beverage that has come to conquer the world. The Oromo people from this region are thought to have been the first to have noticed the stimulating effects of the coffee beans, and it remains an important element of their traditional cuisine. 

“I wake up every morning with my wife to manage our farmland, which is our source of livelihood. After each coffee harvest, we sell our produce to a local farmers’ cooperative, which is enabling smallholder farmers like us to put food on the table and sustain our livelihood,” Mohammed told ChinAfrica.   

As Ethiopia’s main export commodity, coffee contributes to the livelihoods of more than 15 million smallholder farmers and other stakeholders in the coffee sector. It is estimated that Ethiopia’s coffee production for 2022-2023 will reach over 495,000 tonnes.  

Benefits of beans  

Mohammed, 50, is excited that in the last farming season, he produced over 500 50-kg bags of arabica coffee beans - the most aromatic kind favoured by the majority of drinkers who prefer its rich, dark liquid.  

For many people, it feels almost impossible to be productive without a cup of coffee. Even the traditionally tea-drinking countries like China are seduced by Ethiopia’s arabica coffee produce due to its charming flavour.  

With about 5 million coffee growers in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority (ECTA) has noted that more than 25 million people in the country depend on coffee production and processing for their livelihood.  

Amid the high demand for arabica coffee in China, a growing number of Ethiopian coffee growers and exporters are vying to penetrate the emerging Chinese coffee market. 

ECTA Director General Adugna Debela recently observed, “We are witnessing a growing coffee market in China and other parts of Asia. The increasing number of consumers and growing popularity of Ethiopia’s coffee among the Chinese people is encouraging.” 

Emerging market  

Like Mohammed, Gizat Worku is among Ethiopia’s smallholder coffee farmers propelling their country’s exports to China.  

“We need the Chinese market very much because China is home to about one-sixth of the world’s population, and selling to that market means more benefit to us in terms of job creation, value addition and agriculture growth, among others. All we need is to satisfy the Chinese market demand for our coffee and meet their requirements,” said Worku, general manager of the Ethiopian Coffee Exporters Association, adding that the organisation has already agreed with some Chinese companies who are preparing to sign agreements with the local exporters.

Following the strategic cooperation framework agreement inked recently at the Ethiopian Embassy in Beijing, a number of Chinese companies have clinched deals to purchase Ethiopian coffee beans. Luckin, a Chinese coffee company and coffeehouse chain, is one of the firms that recently pledged to buy 2,000 tonnes of coffee annually. 

In this context, Ethiopian Ambassador to China Teshome Toga Chanaka reiterated the importance of China’s e-commerce market when he recently promoted Ethiopian coffee on China’s e-commerce platform Taobao, where about 11,000 bags of coffee were sold in just five seconds.  

“I think that holds the future, and that’s one area where we would like to cooperate with Chinese enterprises here in order for us to increase our exports to the Chinese market. We also need to work with Chinese companies so that productivity is increased in the agriculture sector, in value addition, in manufacturing and so forth,” Teshome said. 

Ethiopia’s reputation as a producer of top-class specialty coffees in terms of aroma, organic nature and variety is of great advantage.  

Gaining attention  

At the Fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE) held in Shanghai in November 2022, Ethiopian coffee received a lot of attention with exporters keen to establish their roots in the Chinese market. 

According to the ECTA, the East African country exported 11,935 tonnes of coffee to China during the last Ethiopian fiscal year (8 July 2021-7 July 2022) and earned over $65 million, up 84 percent year on year, which accounts for 30 percent of Ethiopia’s export revenue. That made China the seventh major importer of Ethiopian coffee during the last fiscal year, up from 33rd in the previous fiscal year (8 July 2020-7 July 2021). The top five export destinations were Germany, the US, Saudi Arabia, Belgium and Japan. 

Wu Peng, director general of the Department of African Affairs at China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, recently affirmed that Ethiopia’s coffee exports to China saw an 84-percent growth in volume. 

“Good to see an 84-percent increase in Ethiopian coffee exports to China this year (2022). With the Fifth CIIE opening in Shanghai on November 5, I hope to see more African quality products make their way to the Chinese market and bring benefits to Africa,” Wu wrote on twitter late last year. 

Thanks to the booming Sino-Ethiopian trade and investment cooperation coupled with important platforms such as the CIIE, Ethiopia’s overall export to China has registered steady growth in recent years as China remains Ethiopia’s biggest trading partner. 

Chinese official data show that Ethiopia’s exports to China increased by 8 percent in 2021 as compared with the previous year. 

One of Ethiopia’s largest producers and exporters of coffee - Kerchanshe Trading - expects China to become one of the main destinations for Ethiopian coffee in the near future. 

“We are tripling our exports to China both in quantity and quality. The demand is high, and we are preparing to grow more coffee for the Chinese market,” Kerchanshe Trading Chief Executive Officer Israel Degefa said recently.  

Ethiopian President Sahle-Work Zewde has since paid glowing tribute to all stakeholders in the country’s coffee industry value chain: “I am delighted to hear about the growth of production of coffee. Farmers, unions and exporters have been credited with the promising result. I would like to extend my appreciation to all of them engaged in this sector.” 

Reporting from Ethiopia