Confucius Institutes in Africa, or How the Educational Spirit in Africa is Re-Rationalised Towards the East

Abstract

This article argues that current efforts in parts of Africa to teach Chinese language and culture to university students is an example of how sometimes polarised understandings of education as ‘western’ or ‘northern’ are re-mapped on to an East Asian-oriented future. The first part of the article applies a Weber-inspired theory of rationalisation to a rethinking of liberal traditions within academia, arguing that discourses of development and critiques of colonialism are partly displaced by African students’ uptake of Chinese. Inspired by recent work that rethinks the relation of the global north to the global south, the article uses three ethnographic moments, drawn from 2014 field research, to illustrate cultural manifestations and contestations surrounding the re-rationalisation of education towards the east: opening events at the fifth annual Julius K. Nyerere Intellectual Festival Week held at the University of Dar es Salaam; private Chinese-language schools catering to Tanzanian students and business owners; and efforts within the university to teach Chinese-language classes.