When the events of 9/11 exploded on our TV screens in 2001, little did we know about the profound impact that single event will have on international travel but on our daily lives as well. A lot of the quotidian actions we took for granted suddenly became reason for serious suspicion and even risk of being jailed in certain jurisdictions Take wearing a rucksack for example, how it became almost outlawed after the London bombings.

I’ve spent the last few weeks (in a city under lockdown orders) just reflecting on what tomorrow may bring. What significant impact covid-19 will have on the world as we knew it? What adjustments we will need to make to adapt to the post-covid19 world?

I believe one of the most profound changes it will bring is the confirmation of China’s status as a de-facto Superpower. A lot has been written and shared on the 5G dominance bit, but that isn’t all that we need to take note of about China. I had to go back to one of my first deep encounters with China in the late 90s. This was as I was starting to pay serious attention to China and its ways. I was wondering why leaders on the African continent for instance were probably not paying enough attention to China’s emergence back then.

My first port of call was to start by reading Chinese literature, to discover its own story as told by the Chinese – not some westernized versions, as you find in Gavin Menzies novels – 1431, and 1421. Although these were classified as pseudohistory, meaning it doesn’t really portray the truth of history, the stories were enough to further stir my curiosity about China.

I later found a lot of interesting aspects of the culture that may have been overlooked in the Chinese ‘re-emergence’. A lot of these cultural and historical approaches are steeped in the deep eastern philosophies that govern their civilization. Philosophies espoused in literary works by its great writers that emerged and dominated the Ming and Qing dynasties. My China lessons later matured into reading stuff by writers like Ba Chin. Ba Chin’s The Family was an eyeopener of sorts for me and has helped in shaping what I call my personal ‘China Policy’. That China, like every other culture/civilization has deep roots; that it is constantly wresting with itself and you must take the pain to understand where it is coming from, otherwise you miss the plot – as America and the West and is finding out with its inability to stamp out Huawei’s influence on 5G.

So why does this matter? It matters because understanding a people’s culture, philosophy or worldview helps shape how you relate with that culture in a mutually beneficial way. This counters a tendency to view China through ‘westernized’ lenses. That is extremely dangerous. Leaders in today’s world must appreciate that there is a need to appreciate where the Chinese are coming from and how they view their place in the world.

What’s the take away? Mandarin or whatever variant of it, that is used most widely across China needs to be taught in schools across much of Africa, pretty much the same way we train kids to learn English and other modern European languages. What are the Chinese business and management models that we know of today, as we know of Kaizen management principles of the Japanese? All these are steeped in history, culture and a people’s way of life. 

My resolve for a post-covd19 world? I need to grab myself some Chinese management and leadership books…

By Akin Oke