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The Africa-China Reporting Project (ACRP)

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 a fusion of African and Chinese elements

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

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.

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.

Africa-China Reporting Project Advisory Board

Dr Yu-Shan Wu
PhD (International Relations), Postdoctoral Research Fellow @UPtuks.
Yu-Shan was the ACRP’s Research Associate from mid-2018 until the end of 2019. She completed a Doctorate (International Relations) at the Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa in 2018/2019 and a Masters (International Relations) at the University of the Witwatersrand in 2011. She was Senior Researcher (Foreign Policy Programme) at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) from 2015 to 2017, and Researcher (China in Africa Project and Foreign Policy Programme) at the same institute from 2010 to 2015.
Professor Chris Alden
Professor of International Relations, Department of International Relations, London School of Economics; renowned author and Africa-China expert.
Professor Chris Alden is the author/co-author/editor of numerous books, including China and Africa – Building Peace and Security Cooperation on the Continent (Palgrave 2017), China and Mozambique: From Comrades to Capitalist (Johannesburg: Jacana 2014), Land, Liberation and Compromise in Southern Africa (Palgrave/Macmillan 2009), China Returns to Africa (Hurst 2008), and China in Africa (Zed 2007); as well as numerous articles in internationally recognised journals. Professor Alden has held fellowships at Cambridge University; Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo; Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto; Ecole Normale Superieure (Cachan), Paris; CERI, Paris; and the University of Pretoria.
Professor Anton Harber
Caxton Professor of Journalism, Wits Journalism; long-time overseer of the ACRP.
Anton Harber has a 35-year career in journalism, media management and training. He was founder-editor of the anti-apartheid newspaper the Weekly Mail (now the Mail & Guardian), Editor-in-Chief of South Africa’s leading television news channel eNCA, and chief executive of Kagiso Broadcasting. He is a board member of the Global Investigative Journalism Network and a former chair of the SA Conference of Editors and the National Association of Broadcasters. Anton’s books include Southern African Muckraking: 300 Years of Investigative Reporting From the Region (Jacana, 2018); Diepsloot (Jonathan Ball, 2011), The Gorilla in the Room (Mampoer Shorts, 2013).
Dr. Bob Wekesa
Research and Partnership Co-ordinator and Media and Diplomacy Scholar, African Center for the Study of the United States; long-time Research Associate and advisor the ACRP.
Yu-Shan was the ACRP’s Research Associate from mid-2018 until the end of 2019. She completed a Doctorate (International Relations) at the Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa in 2018/2019 and a Masters (International Relations) at the University of the Witwatersrand in 2011. She was Senior Researcher (Foreign Policy Programme) at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) from 2015 to 2017, and Researcher (China in Africa Project and Foreign Policy Programme) at the same institute from 2010 to 2015.
Gérard Guedegbe
CEO/Chairman, Network for Education Journalists and Communicators based in Cotonou (RJCE-Benin); ACRP partner for Francophone Africa.
Gérard is a media consultant and training expert. In 2006 he was appointed peer mentor for Francophone African newsrooms by the Forum for African Investigative Reporters (FAIR). Gérard is also the Chairman of the African Initiative for Communication and Freedom of Expression (ICLEAF), an NGO based in Benin that works to extend communication and open government in Africa. Gérard has assisted the ACRP to engage Francophone African journalists and French-language reporting via a series of Francophone Africa Themed Grants in 2017 and a training workshop in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, in October 2018.
Huang Hongxiang
CEO of China House and long-time partner of the ACRP; ACRPpartner for China and Chinese communities in Africa.
Hongxiang is a freelance journalist who has written for the Mail & Guardian, Southern Weekly (南方周末) and The Atlantic, among others. In 2013 he graduated from the Journalism School of Fudan University and Development Practice at Columbia University. Since 2011, working with international media and NGOs, he has been reporting and researching Chinese overseas business, social and environmental conflicts in about 20 countries in Latin America and Africa. He started China House in Kenya in 2014 to connect Chinese overseas investment and global sustainable development through research, projects and youth engagement. He was featured in a Oscar-shortlisted film The Ivory Game as an ivory trade investigator and was featured with Dr. Jane Goodall in one of the most influential TV programs in China called The Reader. He was also nominated by Forbes China as one of the “30 Under 30” in the category of social enterprise in 2018.
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