Youth representatives from China and across Africa gathered in Changsha from October 21 to 23 for the Discover Youthful Changsha, a City of Opportunity
exchange event.
Cultural Exchange in Changsha
The three-day festival in the capital of Hunan province brought together over 150 participants, including students and scholars, to explore the historical and modern ties between China and Africa. For attendees like Rachid El Housseini Hilal, a Moroccan student at Hangzhou Dianzi University, the visit to the Changsha Tongguan Kiln Museum provided a tangible link to the past. He observed ceramics recovered from the Tang Dynasty Belitung shipwreck that featured Arabic inscriptions, noting similarities to traditional pottery from his home city of Safi.
During the dialogue, El Housseini Hilal proposed creating a cultural market for students to showcase artwork and jointly develop products, an idea aimed at fostering deeper economic and creative collaboration.
Scientific Innovation and Food Security
Beyond culture, the program emphasized scientific cooperation, particularly in agricultural and environmental research. Carole Sanogo, an environmental science student from Burkina Faso studying at Tiangong University, toured institutions to learn about new rice varieties designed to accumulate less cadmium in contaminated soil. As an environmental researcher, I found this innovation remarkable because these low-cadmium crops offer a groundbreaking solution for agricultural safety on heavy-metal-polluted soils,
she said.
Athletic Training for the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games
As the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games approach, young African athletes have been training in China to prepare for the continent’s first Olympic event. Senegalese table tennis player Marieme Diallo participated in a training camp in Changsha, where she worked on improving her consistency and technical serves. Her coach, Marie Fara Mendy, observed that the intensive, multi-hour sessions helped the athletes gain confidence and mental resilience, noting that players improved their serves, returns, backhand consistency, and footwork while developing the ability to sustain training sessions lasting four to five hours. Diallo recalled that proper training methods and technical details from Chinese sparring partners helped keep the ball in play much longer.
In Tianjin, wushu athletes from Senegal and Tunisia have been refining their skills in changquan and taijiquan at the Tianjin Huoyuanjia School. The athletes, including Tunisian competitor Zaineb Manai and Senegalese athletes Ndiaye Woreye, Mahib Amar, and Ndiaye Ndeye Ndack practicing alongside Chinese wushu coach Zhao Qingjian, have been working to prepare for wushu’s debut as an official medal sport at the Youth Olympics. The athletes expressed hope that their performances in Dakar will inspire more people to embrace the sport.
Governance and Collective Responsibility
At the 10th edition of the China-Africa Youth Festival in Beijing, which opened on October 29, delegates discussed governance and development strategies. Nestor Hernandez Carvalhal Andrade of Cabo Verde emphasized the importance of investing in education as a foundational element for sustainable growth. Meanwhile, Sudanese PhD student Awab Mustafa suggested that African nations should critically assess their governance systems to ensure they remain adaptable and responsive to the needs of their populations.
Seventy-five per cent of the African population is between the ages of 18 and 35, so it’s important to try to expand as much as we can through youth engagement,
Bangoura said. He plans to promote these ties through his upcoming role with the Beijing Ducks’ Shougang basketball team.