Friendship Through Football
Lin Yuexin, a student at Beijing No.12 High School, stands in front of a long roll of paper and looks closely at it. In the centre of the scroll are silhouettes of young Chinese and Africans playing football. In the background, cultural symbols of China, such as the Temple of Heaven and the Great Wall, stand alongside those of Africa, represented by the pyramids of Egypt and other emblematic images. On the left is an inscription in Chinese: “We are family,” symbolising the continued commitment and development of cultural exchanges between the two sides.
“Although thousands of kilometres separate China from Africa and I have never had the opportunity to visit the continent, I feel deeply connected to my African brothers and sisters. Together we form a community of destiny, sharing both challenges and opportunities,” she emotionally told ChinAfrica.
When a group of young Africans arrived, she did her best to explain to them in English the content and meaning of the scroll that her friends had made, while at the same time encouraging them to take up a paintbrush and contribute to its creation. The delegation was made up of diplomats from 22 countries and their children who were part of the African Mission to China. They visited his school on 21 September to take part in a friendly football match.
A friendly match
Organised in two separate categories, youth and adult, the football match pitted young Africans against students from Beijing No.12 High School in the youth category. After an even match, which ended 1-1, the school team won 7-6 on penalties. Wang Runyu, a student at the school, praised the physical strength and speed of the African players.
In the adult category, the Dream Team, an offshoot of the Sports Association of Diplomats and African Nationals Resident in China founded in 1996, defeated the school teachers 4-0, thanks to a strong team and effective tactical execution. Guy Arnaud Pambou Mavoungou, cultural counsellor at the Gabonese embassy in China, stressed the importance of friendship and exchange beyond the results of the games. According to him, the two teams showed true team spirit and healthy competition.
“Football is a team sport and an excellent way to get to know each other. This is exactly what we are doing today with our Chinese brothers in a very strong spirit of friendship,” Kouakou Koffi Lambert, manager of the Dream Team, told ChinAfrica.
This football match is nothing new. In fact, a similar event was organised in 2018 on the initiative of Zhou Qingjie, professor and director of the Sports Exchange and Research Centre at China Foreign Affairs University. As Zhou pointed out, football may be modest in size, but it has the power to forge bonds of friendship by bringing together African and Chinese fans through its magic. With this in mind, an extraordinary football tournament was organised in Benin from March to May, bringing together the local community and a team of Chinese agricultural experts working in the country.
From white gold to the joy of the ball
Benin is one of Africa’s leading cotton producers. The Parakou region, located in the heart of the country, plays a central role in the cultivation of cotton, often referred to as “white gold,” which is a vital source of income for many local farmers. For the past decade, a Chinese mission has been based in Parakou, providing training in modern cotton-growing techniques, technical advice on the use of agricultural machinery, and equipment support. Its contribution has been crucial to the development of agriculture in the region.
Long-term technical assistance has enabled the Chinese mission to build strong bonds of friendship with local people. When the Chinese experts were informed that the villagers’ old football pitch had been expropriated, they mobilised agricultural machinery and recycled materials to build a new pitch for the community. After several months of hard work, the Friendship Stadium was inaugurated in March 2023 and quickly became the local people’s favourite football pitch.
Football is very popular in Benin, with each village having its own team and passionate supporters. Inspired by viral videos of China’s Village Super League (VSL), also known as “Cun Chao,” a village football tournament initiated in Rongjiang County in southwest China’s Guizhou Province, the Chinese mission wanted to create a similar league in Parakou. So from March to May, Chinese experts, with the support of the local farmers’ association, organised the first VSL in Benin.
The tournament brought together 12 teams from six villages and the University of Parakou, with players from a wide range of backgrounds, including cotton farmers, tractor drivers, carpenters and students. Over the years, the crowds grew from a few dozen to hundreds. Every weekend, villagers would travel by motorbike, often accompanied by their families and children, to watch the games and enjoy this celebration of football.
As well as the thrills and spills on the pitch, the VSL also provided an unforgettable cultural spectacle at half-time. The fusion of Chinese wushu and Beninese dance has created a distinctive cultural bridge between the two countries, offering spectators the opportunity to experience the joy of football and the depth of this cultural exchange.
As a pioneer of the VSL, the Rongjiang County is establishing itself as an inspiring model for the inhabitants of Benin’s villages. According to the VSL Office of Rongjiang County, from 13 May to 31 December 2023, VSL received more than 58 billion page views online, and the livestreams of the matches attracted more than 6 billion views online.
To encourage greater participation from football fans in Benin, Rongjiang-based Guizhou Yueqian Legend Clothing has made a donation of 200 shirts, valued at 20,000 yuan (about $2,800). Chang Longping, an employee of the company, explained that the shirts feature the bull’s head logo, the emblem of the Guizhou VSL. The objective is to convey the fighting spirit of this team to African fans.
