With a new-born baby in her arms, Ratsizakaina Isaia Herimialy (Herimialy), a Madagascan woman, still cannot believe just how much her life has changed thanks to her experiences and adventures at the Confucius Institute (CI). 

Herimialy quotes an old Madagascan saying - "education is the best heritage." With this belief in mind, her parents strongly supported her education and encouraged her to learn Chinese at the CI at University of Antananarivo.

As a student, Herimialy got a chance to visit China to attend the "Chinese Bridge," Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students. She was good enough to be among the final six contestants and the first African competitor in history to make it to the final.

In 2017, she accompanied Chinese singer Gloria Tang Tsz Kei for a performance aired on China's Hunan TV station, which she declares to be "an unforgettable memory," and it is that very show that allowed her to meet her future husband.

"I am very grateful to the CI, because it was the starting point for all my dreams and the biggest factor in making my dreams come true," she said. 

Herimialy is just one of the numerous young Africans whose life has been changed due to the CI.

Unlike Herimialy whose dreams came true through learning Chinese at the CI, Kenyan man Antony Ndungu Kahuro (Antony) fulfills his Chinese kung fu dream at the CI. 

'Happiest moment'

With a strong curiosity driving his passion for Chinese martial arts, Anthony became an avid fan of Chinese kung fu films, and started to study Chinese at the CI at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. He joined the martial arts club, and got the chance to travel to China through a summer camp program.

"That was the happiest moment of my life; I never thought that one day I would be able to go abroad," he said. 

After graduation, Antony got a media job in Kenya, and has been teaching students Chinese martial arts and the dragon and lion dances, a form of traditional Chinese dance at the CI in Nairobi as a part-time job.

"China has brought me a lot of good opportunities. You can easily get a job if you speak Chinese," he said while expressing a wish to open a Chinese club in Kenya to teach Chinese to more Africans.

Students from the Confucius Institute at the University of Nairobi try Chinese opera costumes. Photo: Courtesy of Confucius Institute at the University of Nairobi

The inspirational stories of Herimialy and Antony are shining examples the remarkable lives lived and fruitful paths taken by young Africans studying Chinese at CIs across the continent.

Wang Shangxue, the Chinese director of the CI at the University of Nairobi, told the Global Times that compared with the distorted understanding of CIs in the West, the development of CIs in Africa is prosperous.  

Media reported that as of 2020, there had been 61 CIs in 46 countries in Africa. Although it is not the continent with the largest number of CIs, Africa is regarded as the region with the most effective CIs in the world.

The CI at the University of Nairobi, as the first CI established in Africa, was inaugurated in December 2005, with the University of Nairobi and Tianjin Normal University as its partner institutions. It was awarded the "Model Confucius Institute" in 2015.

Significant increase  

According to Wang, since Chinese has also been integrated into the national education system in Kenya, Chinese is very popular in Kenya as an acquired second foreign language.

"For them, learning Chinese means mastering a foreign language and giving them the opportunity to broaden their future career paths. We can clearly feel that in recent years, the number of students at the CI has increased year-on-year," she said.

In 2022, the number of student registrations significantly increased at the Nairobi CI, reaching a total of 1,274 throughout the year, while the second half of 2022 saw a total of 937 registered students. In the first half of 2023, the number of registered students was 411. However, this number is expected to rise in the second half of the year as the new school season starts in September.

Chen Lijuan, the Chinese director of CI at University of Antananarivo, told the Global Times that the CI, as a non-profit educational institution whose mission and purpose are to promote Chinese teaching and cultural exchanges, demonstrates China's importance and influence around the world. 

Similar to other Western cultural institutions such as the British Council, Goethe Institute, and Alliance Française that provide language teaching and spread culture, the CI is characterized by integrating with local host universities, which could help promote the empathetic development of international Chinese education.

The two directors said that through the CI platform, young Africans could go to China to experience a different life through scholarship support, and seek job opportunities at Chinese companies, and that the CI serves to create infinite possibilities for students, and witnesses the friendly cultural exchanges between China and Africa.