Girl’s journey to ancestral land in China

PHOTO | CORRESPONDENT Mwamaka Sharifu during her graduation in China.

What you need to know:

Mwamaka Sharifu left Kenya to study in China after her ancestry was linked to a famous Chinese dynasty. Today she is a medical doctor, and she is coming home to run for senator

More than 600 years ago, a ship carrying Chinese sailors capsized off the Indian Ocean near Siyu in Lamu.

According to accounts by the local people and historians, a ship from Malindi that was carrying giraffes and other mementoes capsized in the high seas near Shanga. A few sailors swam to safety and got integrated in the local community. They intermarried with the local Swahili people.

This shipwreck, involving famous Chinese explorer Zheng He, is the genesis of the story of Mwamaka Sharifu, a 26-year-old intern doctor now working in China.

Dr Sharifu was born and bred in Siyu village, Pate island, in the Lamu archipelago. But her ancestry can be traced to the Chinese Ming Dynasty in East China’s Jiangsu Province.

Dr Sharifu’s story is not just about her professional achievements, having studied clinical Chinese medicine and graduated from the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. She has become one of the prominent Kenyan ambassadors in the East. She is special because she is one of the few links the Chinese have with the Kenyan coast. The others are her mother Baraka Badi Shee, her two sisters and two brothers.

“My grandmother’s great grandfather, who converted to Islam and was named Mohamed, was among the few Chinese sailors who were rescued after their ship hit a big rock called Mwamba Hassan and capsized,” Dr Sharifu says.

This history makes her one of the most cherished Chinese guests. Yet, about 10 years ago, she could hardly complete her studies at Lamu Girls’ High School as her father, Mr Sharifu Lali, a fisherman, could not afford her fees.

She was a timid teenager when we met her in 2003. But today she is a confident young woman, in whose hands many Chinese patients are putting their lives. And that has been thanks to a sponsorship she got to study in China.

“I appreciate the help of so many people and organisations in Kenya, especially the Nation Media Group that brought out the story of the Chinese connection. It was that story that changed a whole world for me and my family,” she told Lifestyle.

Others that helped her were the National Museums of Kenya, the Ministry of Higher Education, the Chinese embassy in Kenya and the China Scholarship Council.

“This support bolstered my resolve and gave me confidence to come to this great country. Upon reaching China and meeting the real family of the great sailor, Admiral Zheng He, it was a great relief for they ensured that I was settled and geared up to start studies,” she says.

Dr Sharifu’s story is one of perseverance and determination to see a dream come true when an opportunity presents itself. A dream that a decade ago was fading due to poverty.

She arrived in China to battle with language and cultural barriers.

“The initial two years were full of challenges, but I’m glad I was able to finish the Chinese language course and can now not only speak and write in it, but also translate it to Kiswahili or English with ease,” she says.

“Unlike the other languages I was used to, there are no alphabets in Chinese, but only 3,000 characters which one has to memorise before applying. Now I understand why it takes at least two years to study the language because one word can have so many meanings and usages. It all depends on the pronunciation,” she said in a 2007 interview.

But language was not her only difficulty in China. The food and culture were hard to adapt to.

“I gradually adapted to the life and managed to live almost like the Chinese,” she recalls.

And then there was her faith.

“As a young Muslim lady life was more difficult because of huge cultural differences. At the beginning I would spend most of the time indoors to avoid things that are forbidden in Islamic culture. I used to cook my own food for fear of eating haram food. However, with time I got used to the culture and fear disappeared and I chose to do what was right,” she says.

Studying medicine in Chinese was not a walk in the park and it took her more than determination and hard work to complete the five-year course.

“Studying medicine itself is not easy, and then the additional problem was studying in a foreign language. It took me almost one year to really understand what was being taught in class.

“I discovered that the Chinese I learnt in the language class for two years was not useful for the technical course, especially medicine. Grasping the biological concepts in class or through reading was hell. Briefly, I did a two-year course in Chinese language, then five years of clinical Chinese medicine,” she says.

Her greatest achievement was the exemplary performance and graduating as a medical doctor. She says she owes her success to hard work and cooperation and encouragement by her classmates and lecturers.

She is currently an intern doctor at the Nanjing Municipal Hospital, the third affiliated hospital to Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

She says she would have desired to practise in Kenya but the opportunities for internship in Kenya or elsewhere are rare as Chinese medicine is still new in many countries.

“I haven’t really worked in China due to visa restrictions but, as part of course requirements, I undertook a one-year internship as part of fifth year studies. I think working as a foreign doctor in China is a challenge because mostly the Chinese would not prefer to be treated by a foreign doctor, more so one dealing with Chinese medicine, because they believe that’s their thing.”

And Dr Sharifu’s quest for knowledge did not end with acquiring her first degree. “Having successfully completed my basic degree, I found it prudent to further my knowledge in this field that is quite nascent in Kenya. I have set my sights on imparting the skills and knowledge in medical institutions in Kenya or elsewhere, and that is why I opted to continue with my studies with the hope of graduating with a master’s degree from the same university,” she says.

She plans to return to Kenya and practise medicine and engage in community work after her studies.

And, for a woman who comes from a community where marriage is considered a big source of pride for the family (in many cases girls are married off at an early age), Dr Sharifu says that it is not in her short-term plans.

“I leave that to Allah. At the moment the plan is study hard, finish and come back. I think the family issue will come automatically when the time comes.”

She says she is looking for scholarships for the youth of Lamu.

Access sponsorship

“I am exploring ways of working with Chinese friends to see whether young people, especially ladies, can access sponsorship for higher education because I strongly believe that an educated Lamu is a prosperous Lamu,” she says.

She advises the women and girls of Lamu who have opportunities to study to grab them.

“I hustled a lot in China just as life in Kenya, but at the end of the day, the results are here. I beseech the young girls out there not to be lured by men into early marriage at the expense of studies. Education is essential in life and this is clearly exemplified by the Lamu Port Project where the youth of Lamu might lose opportunities simply because of lack of technical skills,” she says.

Having lived in China for close to a decade, Dr Sharifu is saddened by the poor state of health care in her home area. Siyu has one dispensary which suffers lack of medicine and other facilities. She says China’s health care system is advanced and fundamentally differs in many ways from Kenya’s.

Most hospitals in China have sufficient equipment, personnel and other resources to the extent that people have choices of what hospitals to go and the doctors to see.

The costs, she says, are affordable in most instances due to a well-developed social insurance network.

“My plan is to form a social organisation to help young people of Siyu to understand the value of education, health and gain the necessary business skills.

“I envision a Siyu that is connected to the rest of the country; with piped water, electricity, and communication infrastructure to enable the people exploit the vast tourism potential in the islands and the Lamu archipelago in general.”

She says her dream is to have a sizeable percentage of Chinese who identify with Zheng He and his exploits to visit Siyu in their lifetime.

“I believe that if Siyu is properly marketed in China, the revenue from Chinese tourists would be sufficient to make Lamu prosper.”
Aside from volunteering her time and skills to mentor young girls, Dr Sharifu has political ambitions.

“I believe that in future I will not hesitate to give Lamu a pioneer woman senator.”