In which three cities meet at a bridal shower

Millennial cultures know that lack of growth means death.

Neocolonisation on the other hand, is consensual, a wilful marriage.

Kenya, like most other African countries, has willing pretenders and a wide choice of possible grooms.

The famous actor Jet Li said: “The world is very small. In New York you can buy Chinese food, and in Beijing a hamburger”.

Li was very right, and after Dean Penny Andrews of the University of Cape Town and I had been over-satisfied with the excellent but somewhat peculiar Chinese cuisine, where there is a thin line between dead dishes and live ones, we resorted to our old habits and went into an American fast-food joint, right in the midst of Beijing.

We had spent three fabulous days in Beijing, on the invitation of Chinese authorities, to share our respective law school experiences with the top Chinese law schools.

Nowadays, in our global society, there is a constant intermarriage of cultures. When it comes to power, politics, law and culture, there is a kind of social osmosis in action. Either you are influencing others or you are being influenced by others.

TWO CULTURES

The extent of this influence will determine which culture will survive and which one will be absorbed. In these past five days I have been lucky to witness two distinct millennial civilizations. Both are powerful and influential.

One is growing and looking towards the outside, while the other is imploding, busy looking at itself in the mirror. They will both survive, for they are great cultures, but the latter is facing a major paradigm shift, which began last June 23. These civilizations are China and Britain.

Millennial cultures know that lack of growth means death. Either they go up or down; there is no middle way. Either you influence others and spread out or you are on the way to the grave.

The Chinese will not settle for the grave. They are determined to grow, they want to expand their area of influence and their markets. They are generally determined, hardworking, compassionate, cheerful, reverent, disciplined, proud of their heritage and brutally direct. They are naturally enterprising, and they are aware of it.

Beijing is organised, but even the unsuspecting visitor will sense plenty of movement, and economic growth. In Beijing, money is being made. Sadly, Beijing’s nature and peoples are trapped in a grey bubble of pollution that crushes the city’s majestic views and monuments, suffocating the visitor.

NEW COLONISATION

The exchange with the Chinese universities was amazing, fruitful and eye-opening for the selected seven deans from law schools across Africa.

We were from Tanzania, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya. We were lodged at the famous Beijing Friendship Hotel, and the sessions took place at the Renmin Law School, one of the highest-ranked and largest universities in China.

The Chinese want to give a push to China-Africa collaboration, cross-pollination and student exchange. One of the deans jested that this would bring about a new kind of colonisation, a comment that paved the way for an engaging conversation, where pros and cons were freely aired.

I love looking at history as a vivid reality that marks societies deeply. History is not just about the past; it also explains the present and somewhat predicts the future. Yesterday helps us understand today, and plan for tomorrow. It gives us a point of reference, a sense of security and belonging.

In the past, colonisation was a forced marriage. The colonised was like a bride with no choice, the groom and his rules imposed on us. These forced marriages could only be a win-win relationship if the “groom” was loving, genuine and compassionate. In most cases he was not.

Neocolonisation on the other hand, is consensual, a wilful marriage. The bride must be won over by the niceties of courting; she needs gifts and time, and she may say yes or no. She may say a thoughtless yes out of despair to marry, out of rushed consent or blind love.

CHANGED HEART

In this case the groom will be blamed for the bride’s woes, but the bride is not truly and exactly totally innocent.

In today’s world countries are of age. Influenced countries have a wider choice of grooms, and they are able to decide who they want to be courted or influenced by, and to what extent.

These marriages fail, more often than not, due to countries being auctioned by their leaders’ gluttony, greed or negligence or perhaps by the combination and permutation of these vices.

These modern consensual marriages may also be a great success when both parties are fully aware of each others’ intensions and the extent of the duties of each. If they are well assessed and studied they could easily be a win-win deal.

I left China with a changed heart. My respect for the Chinese and their amazing culture has increased a hundredfold. Their palaces and monuments have a sense of heavenly perfection. It is not easy to handle a city of 20 million inhabitants.

Academic collaboration with the Chinese may bring us many benefits. They are eager to expand, to get involved, to receive African students. Their expansive agenda is not only material but also academic and to a certain point, spiritual.

CONTRASTING MOODS

The Chinese know that an expansive agenda unifies the inside, for expansion unifies a country. Once you stop looking at yourself in the mirror you can then appreciate the world, and become more aware of your own gifts.

On my way back I had several meetings to attend to in the United Kingdom. I have already written extensively about Brexit and I will not go into it again. But I was lucky to be at Parliament when the new Prime Minister, Theresa May, was appointed. Her election is deeply related to Brexit and she will have the arduous task of invoking article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to start the exit process.

The corridors of the British Parliament were a beehive of activity. The atmosphere was electric; it was a mixture of excitement and uncertainty. As Lord David Alton ushered us through the Peers’ entrance, everyone was talking in low tones, asking if there was news about anyone being approached by May and offered a Cabinet position.

I could not help but notice the contrasting moods between a grey and polluted yet lively and positive Beijing, and a blue and clean, but sombre, London.

Londoners’ hearts are by and large concerned, uncertain, polluted with the bitter taste of a decision that they will have to live with. I got the same feeling at Oxford. Those who understand in depth the consequences of Brexit are quite restless about the outcome.

CHOICE OF GROOMS

Unless Britain makes a quick, strategic decision of looking towards the outside, for example to the Commonwealth of Nations, and reviving it as a lively and engaging economic partner, they run the risk of imploding and breaking apart.

Kenya, like most other African countries, has willing pretenders and a wide choice of possible grooms. We have to be clever and honest, and decide if we want to be influenced, when, how much, by whom and to what extent.

It could be a win-win situation, for as long as we can guarantee the safety of our culture and, at the same time, strengthen our influencing power.

We have a wide choice of grooms, and the upcoming United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Nairobi will be our huge, expensive bridal shower party.

Dr Franceschi is the dean of Strathmore Law School. [email protected], Twitter: @lgfranceschi