Pate is not much to look at: a hot, dusty island of coconut groves and unemployed fishermen off the coast of Kenya, near the dangerous waters of the Somali pirates. But it has become crucial to China’s mythology of its ancient links to Africa – and Beijing’s influence on the continent.
It was here, almost 600 years ago, where Chinese sailors are said to have swam ashore from a shipwreck and married into the people of Pate Island, establishing the first bloodline of a foreign power in sub-Saharan Africa, long before the Europeans arrived. Legend has it that one of the island’s villages, Shanga, was even named in honour of Shanghai.
The story is often told in Beijing as a heartwarming narrative of friendly relations, selling the country as a peace-loving partner to Africa. It’s a central pillar in justifying its rapidly growing power in Africa – a presence that already includes hundreds of oil and mining projects and could soon include a controversial $5-billion seaport and oil pipeline terminal on the coast near Pate Island.
There’s a problem, however. Despite years of hype in China’s state media, there is still no proof of a Chinese shipwreck or bloodline on this impoverished Muslim island. The villagers here – even those allegedly descended from the Chinese shipwreck survivors – are skeptical of Beijing’s claims. So are Western archeologists.
When Chinese scientists arrived in his village of Siyu on Pate Island to research the story, Mohamed Sharifu was baffled by the attention they lavished on his family: the photos, the hair samples, the DNA tests. All of this was apparently due to the exotic appearance of some of Siyu’s villagers, whom other villagers jokingly call “Chinese.” Beijing’s state media have claimed that the villagers have “yellow skin” and “almond eyes,” just like the Chinese.
But a visit to the island quickly shows this to be untrue. Mr. Sharifu, an unemployed 24-year-old, looks at his dark skin and dark face and wonders how anyone could think of him as having descended from Chinese sailors. “I don’t understand it,” he says. “I doubt it. We are black, and they are white.”
His doubts are never reported in the Chinese media. They might disturb the legend of his sister, Mwamaka, who has become a folk hero in the Middle Kingdom, where she is dubbed “the China Girl.”
Mwamaka is hailed as a descendent of Chinese sailors who journeyed to Africa in 1415 in the vast naval fleet of Admiral Zheng He, the Ming Dynasty court eunuch whose fleet of 300 ships and 28,000 sailors was the biggest the world had ever known. His ships were said to have been four times bigger than those of Columbus, and his maritime travels were greater than any explorer before him. His travels to the continent are widely accepted by historians – but China wants tangible evidence that it can display to the public.
Mwamaka was a shy 19-year-old when she was discovered by Chinese officials in 2005 through their visits to Pate Island. She was quickly swept away on a trip to Beijing, where she was feted on television shows and at banquets, in movies and ceremonies. She was touted as a symbol of China’s naval prowess, peaceful trading relations with the world, and – by implication – its resurgent future as a great military and trading power. She was rewarded with a scholarship to a Chinese university, where she is studying medicine.
But proof of her ancestry is a problem. Chinese scientists have conducted DNA tests on hair samples from the family, but the results were never released to family members. “Why did they not give us the results?” Mr. Sharifu asks. “We don’t understand why. That’s why we doubt it.”
Salim Bunu, senior curator of museums in the nearby historic town of Lamu, says he hasn’t seen any results from the DNA tests, either. And he’s puzzled by the persistent Chinese claim that the village of Shanga was named after Shanghai. After all, Zheng’s fleet had no connection to Shanghai. And Shanga is actually older than Shanghai. “Maybe the names are just a coincidence,” Mr. Bunu says.
