Jodie Yuzhou Sun | Fudan University (original) (raw)
Books by Jodie Yuzhou Sun
James Currey, 2023
Africa has become a major platform from which to analyse and understand China's growing influence... more Africa has become a major platform from which to analyse and understand China's growing influence in the global South. Yet, the impact of their historical relationship has been largely overlooked. Through the triangulation of the global Cold War, African history, and Chinese history, this study provides a detailed analysis of China-Africa relations in the second half of the 20th century. Examining the encounters, conflicts, and dynamics of China-Kenya/Zambia relations from the 1950s until the present, as well as the basis on which historical narratives have been constructed, the book presents two contrasting state perspectives underlining the concept of 'African agency'.
Driven by a class-based analysis of world revolution, Communist China's foreign policy did not distinguish significantly between Kenya and Zambia. Both countries sought ideological and material support from China in the years after their independence. The Kenya African National Union under both Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Moi pursued a consistently pragmatic foreign agenda, and despite political tensions and ideological rifts with China since the mid-1960s, Sino-Kenyan trade has continued to grow steadily. In contrast, China-Zambia relations under Kenneth Kaunda were cordial despite their political differences. Zambian leaders maintained a relatively high consensus that any alleged Chinese Communist threat would not be allowed to fuel power struggles within their United National Independence Party. Challenging both the widely accepted role of China-Africa's historical lineage, as well as the tendency to assume uniformity in China's relationships across the continent, the author explains the development of these relationships and sheds light on the historical underpinnings - or lack thereof - on contemporary China-Africa relations.
Africa in Global History: A Handbook, 2021
An investigation into what Julia Strauss called “historical and rhetorical lineages in China rela... more An investigation into what Julia Strauss called “historical and rhetorical lineages in China relations with Africa,” is of historiographical importance and great contemporary significance. In particular, the ways in which this older Afro-Asian solidarity discourse is used to legitimise more recent political, economic, and cultural connections between former “Third World” allies remains under-researched and underappreciated. The uniqueness of China-Africa relations in the socialist and post-socialist periods is reflected in its challenge to the “East/West” and the “North/South” divides. Therefore, an examination of China-Africa relations beyond the Cold War enables an understanding of the extent to which the Cold War itself was the key influence on the evolution of these enduring and complex relationships.
This chapter provides an overview of post-colonial Africa’s relations with the People’s Republic of China. The comparative approach of studying countries engagements with China reveals the structural differences in their domestic and foreign politics that were informed and shaped by the Cold War. The resulting contestation of power should not simply translate into foreign manipulation. Facing similar challenges of state-building and economic development, newly independent African nations approached, deepened, and negotiated their relations with China as they searched for ideological and material support. In this way, it hopes to contribute to the much cited but little explained concept of “African agency”.
Reviews of my book by Jodie Yuzhou Sun
H-Africa, 2023
Reviewed by Ruodi Duan Jodie Yuzhou Sun. Kenya's and Zambia's Relations with China 1949-2019. Eas... more Reviewed by Ruodi Duan
Jodie Yuzhou Sun. Kenya's and Zambia's Relations with China 1949-2019. Eastern Africa Series. Martlesham: James Currey, 2023. 260 pp. $115.00, cloth, ISBN 978-1-84701-339-2.
Africa. Rivista semestrale di studi e ricerche, 2023
Antonio Messina's review of Jodie Yuzhou Sun, Kenya’s and Zambia’s Relations with China 1949-2019... more Antonio Messina's review of Jodie Yuzhou Sun, Kenya’s and Zambia’s Relations with China 1949-2019, Woodbridge, Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 2023, 260 pp.
Global Media and China, 2024
In the last two decades many books and articles have been published on the topic of China-Africa... more In the last two decades many books and articles have been published on the topic of China-Africa relations, but few take the longue dure ́e and comparative view that Sun (2023) does in her first monograph: Kenya’s and Zambia’s Relations with China 1949–2019. The work examines the history of post-colonial Kenya’s and Zambia’s relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from ideological, political, economic, and social perspectives.
Vienna Journal of African Studies, 2024
Jodie Yuzhou Sun's monograph Kenya's and Zambia's Relations with China 1949-2019 provides readers... more Jodie Yuzhou Sun's monograph Kenya's and Zambia's Relations with China 1949-2019 provides readers with a comparative longue durée perspective on ideological, economic, political, and social relations between Kenya and China as well as Zambia and China.
Journal Articles by Jodie Yuzhou Sun
Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 2022
The Bandung Conference of 1955 is often described as the beginning of what Vijay Prashad called t... more The Bandung Conference of 1955 is often described as the beginning of what Vijay Prashad called the “Third World” project. While it is undeniable that intergovernmental gatherings had largely facilitated the political connections between Chinese and African leaders, no less significant in cultivating a heightened Bandung Spirit in the decolonizing world were the “transnational networks” such as the Afro-Asian People’s Solidarity Conference (1957), the Afro-Asian Writers’ Conference (1958), the Afro-Asian Women’s Conference (1961) and the Afro-Asian Journalists’ Association (1963). These platforms allowed a privileged group of writers to travel to Africa. Feng Zhidan, Du Xuan and Han Beiping were among them. Their travel notes, later published as 西非八国漫记(Glimpses into West Africa, 1962), 西非日记(West Africa Diary, 1964) and 非洲夜会(Nights in Africa, 1964), carefully described local landscapes, climate and architecture, as well as their personal encounterswith Africans from diverse social backgrounds outside the state apparatus. Likewise, a Malian minister and writer, Mamadou Gologo, recounted his tours in China and his deep appreciation for the country. China: A Great People, A Great Destiny (La Chine, un peuple géant, un grand destin) was published in both English and French by New World Press in Beijing in 1965. Like an X on a map, crossing marks both a place and a process, an intersection and a journey. This essay aims to explore the multi-dimensional “crossings” of individuals, texts and circulation networks that went beyond national boundaries and the Cold War binary. It argues that travelogues, as both under-explored archives and literary writings, help to reveal the tangible nature of Afro-Asian solidarity, felt through individual encounters and sometimes fragile emotional bonds.
中国非洲学刊Journal of China-Africa Studies, 2021
冷战史新研究为书写非洲对外关系史提供了新机遇， 也对学者在史料运用和研究视野等方面提出了更高要求。本文通过梳理近二十年来国内外相关学术成果， 重点阐释以下三个研究新动向： 第一，多类别史料的运用... more 冷战史新研究为书写非洲对外关系史提供了新机遇， 也对学者在史料运用和研究视野等方面提出了更高要求。本文通过梳理近二十年来国内外相关学术成果， 重点阐释以下三个研究新动向： 第一，多类别史料的运用， 尤其是对来自非洲国家档案文献的获取和使用； 第二， 去中心化的研究思路， 强调非洲国家内部政治与外交的互动； 第三， 多维度的研究内涵， 重视种族、民族和宗教信仰等社会因素对非洲开展对外交往的影响。基于百年未有之大变局的时代背景， 开展冷战时期非洲对外关系史研究， 有助于反思冷战思维对当今国际社会施加的持续作用力。
Cold War History, 2022
Using Foreign Ministry Archives and memoirs from China, this article explains the nature and the ... more Using Foreign Ministry Archives and memoirs from China, this article explains the nature and the development of Chinese policy in the Congo Crisis, in particular, Beijing's support of two Lumumbist movements in Kwilu and eastern Congo in 1963-5. While initially loyal to the Soviet Union, China sought to position itself as the leader of the newly independent 'Third World', sympathetic to-and able to provide experience, training and weaponry for-rural guerrilla struggles. However, China's military assistance to opposition movements in Congo had to make sure not to provoke direct conflict with the United States.
Journal of Southern African Studies, 2020
Existing analyses of China’s involvement in late colonial Angola have an overwhelming focus on mi... more Existing analyses of China’s involvement in late colonial Angola have an overwhelming focus on military support for competing independence movements. However, Maoism as an ideology had a more personal impact on Angolan elites in their struggle to define Angolan nationalism. Among them was Viriato da Cruz, an Angolan poet and nationalist who served as the Secretary-General of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) between 1962-1964. As a result of both ideological alignment and personal circumstances, Cruz lived in exile in the People’s Republic of China from 1966 until his death in 1973. Drawing on original archival, newspaper and oral sources, this article employs a biographical approach to analyse the connections between Angolan nationalism and Communist China through Viriato da Cruz’s life story. His intellectual and life adventures, played out beyond the confines of national borders and nationalist structures, reveal the mobile and transnational nature of southern African liberation. The article’s biographical approach also offers a unique opportunity to understand African history through the interaction between historical context and individuals.
International Journal of African Historical Studies, 2019
While it is commonly recognised that there is not a monolithic definition of socialism, the meani... more While it is commonly recognised that there is not a monolithic definition of socialism, the meaning of the term was the subject of fierce and politically influential contestation during the Cold War. Although the great dispute regarding ‘true’ interpretations of socialism divided the Communist bloc throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Africa’s own role in these debates, despite its perceived position as laboratory for Western ideas and practices, has received little contemporary scholarly attention. Marxist writers generally considered African societies as too underdeveloped to host a proletarian revolution led by its tiny working-class. There has also been an increasing interest in re-evaluating Africa’s contributions to the theories and practices of socialism. This article builds on these achievements, drawing on the newly accessed Kenyan and Zambian archives and newspapers, as well as previously neglected diplomatic sources. It constructs a historiography of African socialisms through a triangulation of the influences of the global Cold War, the political culture of individual African states, and their bilateral relations with Communist countries.
This article shows that Kenya and Zambia, despite considerable similarities in their historical development, did not deliver identical results. While Zambian Humanism was a catch-all term during the rule of Kenneth Kaunda’s United National Independence Party, Kenya President Jomo Kenyatta preferred the branding of ‘African Socialism’ to its substance or ethos. Kenya and Zambia’s increasing divergence, in terms of foreign policy in general and relations with Communist China in particular, revealed the diversity rather than the consistency of African experiments in socialism.
Cold War History, 2020
This article, by exploring the complex interaction among domestic politics, foreign policy, and t... more This article, by exploring the complex interaction among domestic politics, foreign policy, and the Cold War in Africa, analyses Kenya’s relations with Communist China between 1964 and 1970. As newly independent Kenya sought foreign aid and trade opportunities, the Sino-Soviet competition for influences in the ‘Third World’ enabled limited bargaining power for the Kenyan nation, commonly perceived as ‘weak’. Through an analysis of the factional political struggles within the Kenya African National Union (KANU) as well as Oginga Odinga’s overtures to China, this article emphasises the significance of local dynamics and forces in determining the unfolding ‘local’ Cold War.
Published Papers (English and Chinese) by Jodie Yuzhou Sun
Sixth Tone, 2023
China has sent more than 20,000 trained medical professionals on aid missions to Africa over the ... more China has sent more than 20,000 trained medical professionals on aid missions to Africa over the last 60 years. Some have never left.
非洲研究小组 Africa Research Group, 2021
Analysis of Zambian election 2021
澎湃新闻 The Paper, 2020
我们该如何理解警察与国家权力的关系？当前南非政府是否沿用了种族隔离制度时的警察系统来维持封锁后的社会治安？
![Research paper thumbnail of ‘What Then Happened To Our Eden?’: The Long History of Lozi Secessionism, 1890–2013” [“那时我们的伊甸园发生了什么？”：洛齐分裂主义的漫长历史，1890-2013], translated and edited from Jack Hogan (2014)](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/59313423/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](东⽅历史评论 Oriental Historical Review , 2019
本文译自杰克霍根2014年发表在《南部非洲研究期刊》的文章，文中内容有删改，图片由译者添加。Jack Hogan (2014) ‘What Then Happened To Our Eden?... more 本文译自杰克霍根2014年发表在《南部非洲研究期刊》的文章，文中内容有删改，图片由译者添加。Jack Hogan (2014) ‘What Then Happened To Our Eden?’: The Long History of Lozi Secessionism, 1890–2013, Journal of Southern African Studies, 40:5, 907-924.
导读：
历史上洛齐族人曾经多次寻求分裂，从领袖挑战北罗得尼亚早期殖民的特许，到赞比亚独立前夕签订的巴罗策兰协定，再到一党专政和民主化运动时期的分裂主义运动。本文旨在通过详解不同历史阶段的权力斗争，来梳理洛齐分裂主义的动因，从而帮助人们更好地了解非洲的殖民主义、民族主义等概念。
同非洲国家其他的分裂主义一样，洛齐民族也强调其殖民前所拥有的强大政体，从而为其不同于中央政府的政治诉求提供一定程度的合法性。但是纵观整个20世纪至21世纪初，洛齐分裂主义频繁地出现，并不能简单地断言民主和政体具有原生关联。恰恰相反，只有将其历史演变轨迹仔细梳理，才能针对不断变化的政治经济环境提供更加客观的解读。
Oxford University China Africa Network, 2016
史学研究 Historical Research, 2016
依稀记得刘瑜在《民主的细节》序言中写到她观察美国的政治和社会动态的出发点:截 然不同的制度、文化、语言背景，有益于保持观察美国社会时的新鲜感。同理，我也希 望自己能够在正统的田野调研外，保持一份... more 依稀记得刘瑜在《民主的细节》序言中写到她观察美国的政治和社会动态的出发点:截 然不同的制度、文化、语言背景，有益于保持观察美国社会时的新鲜感。同理，我也希 望自己能够在正统的田野调研外，保持一份蓬勃的好奇心，给非洲爱好者们提供一些有 意思的视角。
非洲国家在政治科学领域素来是被又诛笔伐的对象，历史上频繁出现的军政府夺权、由种族 冲突引发的内战和执政几十年的独裁者似乎成了民主的对立面，一次又一次地触动着国际观 察员们敏感的神经。而非洲民主化进程的存废也似乎构成了西方主流社会的自我拷问，即， 如何在瞬息万变的世界局势中维持有序有利的话语权体系。
Book Reviews by Jodie Yuzhou Sun
Connections, 2023
When the contributors first gathered at Leiden in 2018, immigration was triggering intense debate... more When the contributors first gathered at Leiden in 2018, immigration was triggering intense debates in Europe. Its final publication in 2021 witnessed the global pandemic out- break that has since early 2020 cast doubts on global mobility. It can be said that those people mentioned in this book, regardless of nationalities, professions, or social classes, have more or less suffered from this crisis. Although the editors were frank about the unpredictable nature of a post–Covid-19 world, we have been reminded that global encounters cannot be taken for granted. This edited volume, by Mayke Kaag, Guive Khan- Mohammad, and Stefan Schmid, is a timely contribution to our understanding of contemporary Africa as a centre of global connectivity.
International Affairs 99: 2, 2023
Following the end of the Second World War, a ‘wind of change’ that called for an end to the globa... more Following the end of the Second World War, a ‘wind of change’ that called for an end to the global colonial order swept over the African continent. In the aftermath of the bloody conflict, the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR) replaced European empires to become the new superpowers. In many ways, the terms ‘liberation’ and ‘development’ capture both the opportunities and the challenges that African groups and countries faced vis-à-vis the Cold War powers. The two books under review here, both of which were published in mid-2022, are exciting new additions to the studies of the global Cold War. Arrested development and Cold War liberation offer a fresh perspective on the USSR’s entanglements with Africa.
James Currey, 2023
Africa has become a major platform from which to analyse and understand China's growing influence... more Africa has become a major platform from which to analyse and understand China's growing influence in the global South. Yet, the impact of their historical relationship has been largely overlooked. Through the triangulation of the global Cold War, African history, and Chinese history, this study provides a detailed analysis of China-Africa relations in the second half of the 20th century. Examining the encounters, conflicts, and dynamics of China-Kenya/Zambia relations from the 1950s until the present, as well as the basis on which historical narratives have been constructed, the book presents two contrasting state perspectives underlining the concept of 'African agency'.
Driven by a class-based analysis of world revolution, Communist China's foreign policy did not distinguish significantly between Kenya and Zambia. Both countries sought ideological and material support from China in the years after their independence. The Kenya African National Union under both Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Moi pursued a consistently pragmatic foreign agenda, and despite political tensions and ideological rifts with China since the mid-1960s, Sino-Kenyan trade has continued to grow steadily. In contrast, China-Zambia relations under Kenneth Kaunda were cordial despite their political differences. Zambian leaders maintained a relatively high consensus that any alleged Chinese Communist threat would not be allowed to fuel power struggles within their United National Independence Party. Challenging both the widely accepted role of China-Africa's historical lineage, as well as the tendency to assume uniformity in China's relationships across the continent, the author explains the development of these relationships and sheds light on the historical underpinnings - or lack thereof - on contemporary China-Africa relations.
Africa in Global History: A Handbook, 2021
An investigation into what Julia Strauss called “historical and rhetorical lineages in China rela... more An investigation into what Julia Strauss called “historical and rhetorical lineages in China relations with Africa,” is of historiographical importance and great contemporary significance. In particular, the ways in which this older Afro-Asian solidarity discourse is used to legitimise more recent political, economic, and cultural connections between former “Third World” allies remains under-researched and underappreciated. The uniqueness of China-Africa relations in the socialist and post-socialist periods is reflected in its challenge to the “East/West” and the “North/South” divides. Therefore, an examination of China-Africa relations beyond the Cold War enables an understanding of the extent to which the Cold War itself was the key influence on the evolution of these enduring and complex relationships.
This chapter provides an overview of post-colonial Africa’s relations with the People’s Republic of China. The comparative approach of studying countries engagements with China reveals the structural differences in their domestic and foreign politics that were informed and shaped by the Cold War. The resulting contestation of power should not simply translate into foreign manipulation. Facing similar challenges of state-building and economic development, newly independent African nations approached, deepened, and negotiated their relations with China as they searched for ideological and material support. In this way, it hopes to contribute to the much cited but little explained concept of “African agency”.
H-Africa, 2023
Reviewed by Ruodi Duan Jodie Yuzhou Sun. Kenya's and Zambia's Relations with China 1949-2019. Eas... more Reviewed by Ruodi Duan
Jodie Yuzhou Sun. Kenya's and Zambia's Relations with China 1949-2019. Eastern Africa Series. Martlesham: James Currey, 2023. 260 pp. $115.00, cloth, ISBN 978-1-84701-339-2.
Africa. Rivista semestrale di studi e ricerche, 2023
Antonio Messina's review of Jodie Yuzhou Sun, Kenya’s and Zambia’s Relations with China 1949-2019... more Antonio Messina's review of Jodie Yuzhou Sun, Kenya’s and Zambia’s Relations with China 1949-2019, Woodbridge, Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 2023, 260 pp.
Global Media and China, 2024
In the last two decades many books and articles have been published on the topic of China-Africa... more In the last two decades many books and articles have been published on the topic of China-Africa relations, but few take the longue dure ́e and comparative view that Sun (2023) does in her first monograph: Kenya’s and Zambia’s Relations with China 1949–2019. The work examines the history of post-colonial Kenya’s and Zambia’s relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from ideological, political, economic, and social perspectives.
Vienna Journal of African Studies, 2024
Jodie Yuzhou Sun's monograph Kenya's and Zambia's Relations with China 1949-2019 provides readers... more Jodie Yuzhou Sun's monograph Kenya's and Zambia's Relations with China 1949-2019 provides readers with a comparative longue durée perspective on ideological, economic, political, and social relations between Kenya and China as well as Zambia and China.
Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 2022
The Bandung Conference of 1955 is often described as the beginning of what Vijay Prashad called t... more The Bandung Conference of 1955 is often described as the beginning of what Vijay Prashad called the “Third World” project. While it is undeniable that intergovernmental gatherings had largely facilitated the political connections between Chinese and African leaders, no less significant in cultivating a heightened Bandung Spirit in the decolonizing world were the “transnational networks” such as the Afro-Asian People’s Solidarity Conference (1957), the Afro-Asian Writers’ Conference (1958), the Afro-Asian Women’s Conference (1961) and the Afro-Asian Journalists’ Association (1963). These platforms allowed a privileged group of writers to travel to Africa. Feng Zhidan, Du Xuan and Han Beiping were among them. Their travel notes, later published as 西非八国漫记(Glimpses into West Africa, 1962), 西非日记(West Africa Diary, 1964) and 非洲夜会(Nights in Africa, 1964), carefully described local landscapes, climate and architecture, as well as their personal encounterswith Africans from diverse social backgrounds outside the state apparatus. Likewise, a Malian minister and writer, Mamadou Gologo, recounted his tours in China and his deep appreciation for the country. China: A Great People, A Great Destiny (La Chine, un peuple géant, un grand destin) was published in both English and French by New World Press in Beijing in 1965. Like an X on a map, crossing marks both a place and a process, an intersection and a journey. This essay aims to explore the multi-dimensional “crossings” of individuals, texts and circulation networks that went beyond national boundaries and the Cold War binary. It argues that travelogues, as both under-explored archives and literary writings, help to reveal the tangible nature of Afro-Asian solidarity, felt through individual encounters and sometimes fragile emotional bonds.
中国非洲学刊Journal of China-Africa Studies, 2021
冷战史新研究为书写非洲对外关系史提供了新机遇， 也对学者在史料运用和研究视野等方面提出了更高要求。本文通过梳理近二十年来国内外相关学术成果， 重点阐释以下三个研究新动向： 第一，多类别史料的运用... more 冷战史新研究为书写非洲对外关系史提供了新机遇， 也对学者在史料运用和研究视野等方面提出了更高要求。本文通过梳理近二十年来国内外相关学术成果， 重点阐释以下三个研究新动向： 第一，多类别史料的运用， 尤其是对来自非洲国家档案文献的获取和使用； 第二， 去中心化的研究思路， 强调非洲国家内部政治与外交的互动； 第三， 多维度的研究内涵， 重视种族、民族和宗教信仰等社会因素对非洲开展对外交往的影响。基于百年未有之大变局的时代背景， 开展冷战时期非洲对外关系史研究， 有助于反思冷战思维对当今国际社会施加的持续作用力。
Cold War History, 2022
Using Foreign Ministry Archives and memoirs from China, this article explains the nature and the ... more Using Foreign Ministry Archives and memoirs from China, this article explains the nature and the development of Chinese policy in the Congo Crisis, in particular, Beijing's support of two Lumumbist movements in Kwilu and eastern Congo in 1963-5. While initially loyal to the Soviet Union, China sought to position itself as the leader of the newly independent 'Third World', sympathetic to-and able to provide experience, training and weaponry for-rural guerrilla struggles. However, China's military assistance to opposition movements in Congo had to make sure not to provoke direct conflict with the United States.
Journal of Southern African Studies, 2020
Existing analyses of China’s involvement in late colonial Angola have an overwhelming focus on mi... more Existing analyses of China’s involvement in late colonial Angola have an overwhelming focus on military support for competing independence movements. However, Maoism as an ideology had a more personal impact on Angolan elites in their struggle to define Angolan nationalism. Among them was Viriato da Cruz, an Angolan poet and nationalist who served as the Secretary-General of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) between 1962-1964. As a result of both ideological alignment and personal circumstances, Cruz lived in exile in the People’s Republic of China from 1966 until his death in 1973. Drawing on original archival, newspaper and oral sources, this article employs a biographical approach to analyse the connections between Angolan nationalism and Communist China through Viriato da Cruz’s life story. His intellectual and life adventures, played out beyond the confines of national borders and nationalist structures, reveal the mobile and transnational nature of southern African liberation. The article’s biographical approach also offers a unique opportunity to understand African history through the interaction between historical context and individuals.
International Journal of African Historical Studies, 2019
While it is commonly recognised that there is not a monolithic definition of socialism, the meani... more While it is commonly recognised that there is not a monolithic definition of socialism, the meaning of the term was the subject of fierce and politically influential contestation during the Cold War. Although the great dispute regarding ‘true’ interpretations of socialism divided the Communist bloc throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Africa’s own role in these debates, despite its perceived position as laboratory for Western ideas and practices, has received little contemporary scholarly attention. Marxist writers generally considered African societies as too underdeveloped to host a proletarian revolution led by its tiny working-class. There has also been an increasing interest in re-evaluating Africa’s contributions to the theories and practices of socialism. This article builds on these achievements, drawing on the newly accessed Kenyan and Zambian archives and newspapers, as well as previously neglected diplomatic sources. It constructs a historiography of African socialisms through a triangulation of the influences of the global Cold War, the political culture of individual African states, and their bilateral relations with Communist countries.
This article shows that Kenya and Zambia, despite considerable similarities in their historical development, did not deliver identical results. While Zambian Humanism was a catch-all term during the rule of Kenneth Kaunda’s United National Independence Party, Kenya President Jomo Kenyatta preferred the branding of ‘African Socialism’ to its substance or ethos. Kenya and Zambia’s increasing divergence, in terms of foreign policy in general and relations with Communist China in particular, revealed the diversity rather than the consistency of African experiments in socialism.
Cold War History, 2020
This article, by exploring the complex interaction among domestic politics, foreign policy, and t... more This article, by exploring the complex interaction among domestic politics, foreign policy, and the Cold War in Africa, analyses Kenya’s relations with Communist China between 1964 and 1970. As newly independent Kenya sought foreign aid and trade opportunities, the Sino-Soviet competition for influences in the ‘Third World’ enabled limited bargaining power for the Kenyan nation, commonly perceived as ‘weak’. Through an analysis of the factional political struggles within the Kenya African National Union (KANU) as well as Oginga Odinga’s overtures to China, this article emphasises the significance of local dynamics and forces in determining the unfolding ‘local’ Cold War.
Sixth Tone, 2023
China has sent more than 20,000 trained medical professionals on aid missions to Africa over the ... more China has sent more than 20,000 trained medical professionals on aid missions to Africa over the last 60 years. Some have never left.
非洲研究小组 Africa Research Group, 2021
Analysis of Zambian election 2021
澎湃新闻 The Paper, 2020
我们该如何理解警察与国家权力的关系？当前南非政府是否沿用了种族隔离制度时的警察系统来维持封锁后的社会治安？
东⽅历史评论 Oriental Historical Review , 2019
本文译自杰克霍根2014年发表在《南部非洲研究期刊》的文章，文中内容有删改，图片由译者添加。Jack Hogan (2014) ‘What Then Happened To Our Eden?... more 本文译自杰克霍根2014年发表在《南部非洲研究期刊》的文章，文中内容有删改，图片由译者添加。Jack Hogan (2014) ‘What Then Happened To Our Eden?’: The Long History of Lozi Secessionism, 1890–2013, Journal of Southern African Studies, 40:5, 907-924.
导读：
历史上洛齐族人曾经多次寻求分裂，从领袖挑战北罗得尼亚早期殖民的特许，到赞比亚独立前夕签订的巴罗策兰协定，再到一党专政和民主化运动时期的分裂主义运动。本文旨在通过详解不同历史阶段的权力斗争，来梳理洛齐分裂主义的动因，从而帮助人们更好地了解非洲的殖民主义、民族主义等概念。
同非洲国家其他的分裂主义一样，洛齐民族也强调其殖民前所拥有的强大政体，从而为其不同于中央政府的政治诉求提供一定程度的合法性。但是纵观整个20世纪至21世纪初，洛齐分裂主义频繁地出现，并不能简单地断言民主和政体具有原生关联。恰恰相反，只有将其历史演变轨迹仔细梳理，才能针对不断变化的政治经济环境提供更加客观的解读。
Oxford University China Africa Network, 2016
史学研究 Historical Research, 2016
依稀记得刘瑜在《民主的细节》序言中写到她观察美国的政治和社会动态的出发点:截 然不同的制度、文化、语言背景，有益于保持观察美国社会时的新鲜感。同理，我也希 望自己能够在正统的田野调研外，保持一份... more 依稀记得刘瑜在《民主的细节》序言中写到她观察美国的政治和社会动态的出发点:截 然不同的制度、文化、语言背景，有益于保持观察美国社会时的新鲜感。同理，我也希 望自己能够在正统的田野调研外，保持一份蓬勃的好奇心，给非洲爱好者们提供一些有 意思的视角。
非洲国家在政治科学领域素来是被又诛笔伐的对象，历史上频繁出现的军政府夺权、由种族 冲突引发的内战和执政几十年的独裁者似乎成了民主的对立面，一次又一次地触动着国际观 察员们敏感的神经。而非洲民主化进程的存废也似乎构成了西方主流社会的自我拷问，即， 如何在瞬息万变的世界局势中维持有序有利的话语权体系。
Connections, 2023
When the contributors first gathered at Leiden in 2018, immigration was triggering intense debate... more When the contributors first gathered at Leiden in 2018, immigration was triggering intense debates in Europe. Its final publication in 2021 witnessed the global pandemic out- break that has since early 2020 cast doubts on global mobility. It can be said that those people mentioned in this book, regardless of nationalities, professions, or social classes, have more or less suffered from this crisis. Although the editors were frank about the unpredictable nature of a post–Covid-19 world, we have been reminded that global encounters cannot be taken for granted. This edited volume, by Mayke Kaag, Guive Khan- Mohammad, and Stefan Schmid, is a timely contribution to our understanding of contemporary Africa as a centre of global connectivity.
International Affairs 99: 2, 2023
Following the end of the Second World War, a ‘wind of change’ that called for an end to the globa... more Following the end of the Second World War, a ‘wind of change’ that called for an end to the global colonial order swept over the African continent. In the aftermath of the bloody conflict, the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR) replaced European empires to become the new superpowers. In many ways, the terms ‘liberation’ and ‘development’ capture both the opportunities and the challenges that African groups and countries faced vis-à-vis the Cold War powers. The two books under review here, both of which were published in mid-2022, are exciting new additions to the studies of the global Cold War. Arrested development and Cold War liberation offer a fresh perspective on the USSR’s entanglements with Africa.
H-Diplo, 2022
Thomas C. Burnham's review of my published article “Supplied Cash and Arms but Losing Anyway: Chi... more Thomas C. Burnham's review of my published article “Supplied Cash and Arms but Losing Anyway: Chinese Support of the Lumumbist Insurgencies in the Congo Crisis (1959-65).” Cold War History 22:4.
International Affairs 98: 5, 2022
Africa has become a major case-study to analyse and understand China’s growing influence in the g... more Africa has become a major case-study to analyse and understand China’s growing influence in the global South. Since the mid-2000s, research on China’s involvement in Africa has generated a large body of scholarship across a variety of disciplines. In this thick volume, Sabella Abidde and Tokunbo Ayoola put forward 15 chapters that deal with three key themes: early contacts and connections, new imperialism (or a new world order) and China’s regional footprint.
H-Diplo, 2022
In this rich and comprehensive edited volume, Michele Louro, Carolien Stolte, Heather Streets-Sal... more In this rich and comprehensive edited volume, Michele Louro, Carolien Stolte, Heather Streets-Salter, and Sana Tannoury-Karam examine the lives and afterlives of the League Against Imperialism (LAI), a transnational anti-imperialist organisation, during the interwar period.
中非观察网ISAW , 2016
分享书籍—— Kenya: Between Hope and Despair, 1963–2011.By Daniel Branch. (New Haven, CT: Yale Universi... more 分享书籍—— Kenya: Between Hope and Despair, 1963–2011.By Daniel Branch. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011. Pp. xi, 299.$35.00.)《希望与绝望间的 肯尼亚，1963-2011》
Course Description: China's engagement with Africa during the last decade has generated media att... more Course Description: China's engagement with Africa during the last decade has generated media attention that generally portrays China as either Africa's economic saviour or as its new imperial overlord. This course will both survey these analyses but also suggest that the China-Africa phenomenon needs to be understood as a series of engagements-economic, political, but also social and cultural-between a range of Chinese and African actors that have both potential benefits and costs for all those involved.
MSc African Studies, University of Oxford, 2018
China’s engagement with Africa during the last decade has generated media attention that generall... more China’s engagement with Africa during the last decade has generated media attention that generally portrays China as either Africa’s economic saviour or as its new imperial overlord. Many academic analysts have also characterised this relationship in monolithic terms. This lecture will both survey these analyses but also suggest that the China-Africa phenomenon needs to be understood as a series of engagements – economic, political, but also social and cultural – between a range of Chinese and African actors that have both potential benefits and costs for all those involved.
Without offering a comprehensive analysis, the lecture will explore the history of China’s relationship with Africa and the continuities and breaks in this relationship. It will analyse economic relations in the form of mineral extraction, the extent and form of China’s engagement with political change on the continent, and the ways in which Chinese migrants have interacted with African societies. It will also explore how Africans are seeking to shape their unequal relationship with Chinese influences and to negotiate advantages for themselves in both Chinese-influenced Africa and in China itself. The lecture will seek to locate China’s recent engagement with Africa in the context of the continent’s many centuries of interaction with global flows of goods, peoples and ideas.
Faculty of History, University of Oxford, 2017
Wahuriu Itote, or General China as he came to be known, remains a highly controversial figure in ... more Wahuriu Itote, or General China as he came to be known, remains a highly controversial figure in the history of decolonisation in Kenya. Was the Mau Mau rebellion an anti-colonial, nationalist movement or an internal struggle
within the Kikuyu community?
University of Oxford, 2014
This dissertation aims to address the role of history in shaping the perceptions and behaviours o... more This dissertation aims to address the role of history in shaping the perceptions and behaviours of Chinese mining companies in Zambia. Borrowing from Paul Cohen’s characterisation of the Boxer Movement as successively, an experience for its participants, an event for historians to analyse, and a myth for nationalists to utilise, the dissertation analyses the ways that the past is remembered and articulated in the present, through which a particular form of historical legacy is constructed by a variety of actors. In the context of China-Zambia foreign relations across half a century, two sub-questions are addressed in sequence: firstly, what have been the standard historical accounts of this engagement that are available as an influence on contemporary discourse; and secondly, by which actors and in what ways has history been deployed to influence the exploitation of copper wealth.
This symposium aims to emphasise the transnational nature of ‘African left’ in the second half of... more This symposium aims to emphasise the transnational nature of ‘African left’ in the second half of the 20th century as well as to add to an emerging social history of internationalism, moving beyond the realm of state relations to focus on the multi-dimensional “crossings” of individuals, texts, and circulation networks. We would like to explore how different theories and practices of the African left have contributed to political and social changes in Africa, Asia, and the world through the lens of political organizations, social movements, gender issues, literature, art, and other forms of knowledge production. This not only helps to deepen the understanding of social transformation in modern Africa, but also enriches the research horizons of global left-wing movements.