The Africa-China Reporting Project (ACRP), hosted at the Wits Centre for Journalism of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, aims to improve the quality of reporting on African and Africa-China issues by providing facilitation and capacity building for journalists via reporting grants, skills training workshops and other opportunities. The ACRP facilitates journalists to investigate complex dynamics and uncover untold stories, with an emphasis on on-the-ground impact and perspectives to illustrate how the lives of the people of Africa are changing amid the comprehensive phenomenon of Africa-China interactions.
Visit the How to apply for a grant page for guidelines on how to apply for reporting grants, or see Opportunities for journalists to keep up to date with all the ACRP’s new opportunities for journalists such as workshops and calls for applications. See Investigations for the latest Africa-China journalism supported by the ACRP.
The ACRP’s online training and dissemination partner is the China Global South Project (CGSP) Co-founded by Eric Olander and Cobus van Staden. The CGSP is a multimedia resource dedicated to exploring every aspect of China’s growing engagement with Africa and the Global South.
The ACRP’s dedicated journalism training website is located at https://www.africachinatraining.com/.
The Africa-China Reporting Project is funded by the Ford Foundation.
The ACRP team is Barry van Wyk (Research Associate), Bongiwe Tutu (Project Coordinator) and Thomas Lethoba (Digital Editor).
The ACRP logo is based on the Chinese character 人 (rén), meaning people, person or humanity; while the patterning seen on the rén character is based on the Owo Foro Adobe, an Andinkra symbol from West Africa showing a snake climbing a raffia (palm) tree, which is native to West Africa and Madagascar. The Owo Foro Adobe signifies steadfastness, prudence, diligence and valour, as it is difficult for the snake to climb the tree and it has to be persistent to succeed.
The use of the rén character as central element in the new logo is representative of the core ethos of the ACRP, i.e. to enable and support journalists to tell stories of how the lives and experiences of the people and communities of Africa are being changed and impacted by the comprehensive
phenomenon of Africa’s engagement and interaction with China. This signifies the people-focused, non-political nature of the ACRP and its activities.
The Owo Foro Adobe is one of the Adinkra visual symbols, originally created by the Ashanti people of West Africa in the early 19th century, that represent concepts or aphorisms. The symbols have a decorative function but also represent objects that encapsulate evocative messages that convey traditional wisdom, aspects of life or the environment. The Owo Foro Adobe is an authentically African element and points to the ACRP’s identity as an African institution that supports Africa-China journalism that puts the interests of Africa and its people first.