아프리카ㆍ중동

Today international cooperation is quickly moving towards South –South relationship. It is no wonder that many emerging market economies are strengthening relationship among them and exchanging development ideas. Cooperation between emerging market economies and Africa has especially increased in the last decade. Today many Asian countries have forged relationship with Africa. Generally emerging market economies emphasize mutual relationship with their counterparts in international cooperation.

There is tremendous potential for collaboration between Africa and Korea that could contribute positively to their future. Korea is a country with a rich tradition of public planning, a wide range of technologies and a strong tradition of competence, hard work and professionalism. The nations of Africa also have much to offer Korea, not just in terms of natural resources, but also in terms of cultural diversity, sustainable lifestyles and new perspectives on self and society. The challenge is making sure that the collaboration between Korea and Africa can fulfil the dreams of both Koreans and Africans and lead to a truly win-win partnership. Even though Korea’s presence has significantly accelerated in Africa, Japan and China are still leading. However KOICA President captured the spirit of win-win partnership between Korea and Africa when he alluded to the fact that Korea is looking forward to benefit from the Multibillion Projects in Africa, while the continent is poised to equally reap from the infrastructure projects to heighten its development tempo.

But what exactly can foster a dream of true collaboration between two countries of diverse cultures like Korea and Africa! Cultural differences have been singled out by United Nations as an important barrier to international cooperation, not to mention peace and stability. Indeed presently Korea and Africa has yawning cultural gap between them.  While Korea is strongly embedded in a homogenous culture of Confucianism, Africa on the other hand has heterogeneous culture captured in diversity. Cultural exchange therefore appears to be the best way to initiate cultural dialogue between these two players in an effort to pursue the noble dream of win-win collaboration. Cultural dialogue has the advantages that it can bridge the gap between Koreans and Africans. Learning about one’s culture helps to demystify the myths and stereotypes that exist between people of different cultures. But cultural exchange programs are also able to facilitate a learning process in which one country gets to acquaint herself or himself with the business culture of its potential partner. This knowledge is undoubtedly important for successful business relationship and international cooperation.

On the same note, cultural exchange helps to foster long term relationships that are based on mutual understanding and trust. More importantly cultural exchanges help actors to discover shared threads of history and forge common fronts in development cooperation. In this vein Korea and Africa have untold stories of a shared history that should shape their cooperation. These histories are going to be the engine that drives the dream for cooperation and mutuality. From the historical perspective, both African countries and Korea have a past of brutal colonization and humiliation. While Korea suffered this fate in the brutal hands of Japan, Africa on the other hand did on the hands of their European colonial masters. Korean society is still alive to the nature of inhuman treatment their women underwent. On the other hand African men were treated to undignified life and enslaved and some killed. Even worse are the African men who worked in the Saudi Arabian Peninsula as every evidence point that they were in most cases castrated. The evidence of castration of African men is an implicit one, but exemplified by the fact that there are no African races in Arabian Peninsula despite that many they were worked as slaves to Saudi Kings. The only plausible way to explain the absence of Saudi Arabians of African race is castration of the men who worked there. The contrast is that slaves of African descent who worked in the United States raised a generation of African Americans, or black Americans.

Similarly, Korea and Africa share a common history of poverty, under development and inequality. Korea, like many African countries today suffered severe poverty. For example 50 years ago, Korea and Kenya had the same income per capita. But fifty years later the two countries live on different sides of the coin. Korea is today a donor to Kenya and many other African countries. It is no doubt that both have compelling stories to tell. How the two countries have handled their colonial past and underdevelopment is an important tool for analysis in development cooperation. Another unknown thing that Korea and Africa share is the vibrancy of the entertainment industry. Like Korea, Africa is a continent where musical artists have thrived. Famous musical artists include Bob Marley, Ramogi traditional dancers, ‘Lingala’ music of Congo among others. The contribution of these famous artists has been significant such through educative music and performances in the era of colonization and in the fight against HIV and Aids.

It is worth mentioning that culture can impact on long term development. Closed culture can hinder exchange of ideas and development. China’s culture for example hindered the country’s development for a long time. On the other hand a progressive culture is a tool for prosperity. In international cooperation, it encourages the use Technical Cooperation that is fits the needs of the recipient, compliments and stimulates local initiatives, creates awareness and localized solutions thereby leading to ownership of development process. This is primarily because understanding one’s culture in the context of development cooperation motivates coming up with Projects that include knowledge, experience and abilities of the target group. This is an important benchmark of sustainable development.

Indeed a people’s culture is its first given tool for development and it is practically impossible to delink culture from development, or development cooperation for that matter. Looking at the development history of Korea, one would easily concur to that fact. Korea is revered for a culture of diligence. The development tempo of Korea could be nothing if it was not for their diligence in the earlier years of take off. There is also the other cultural trait of Korean society, its business acumen. It is this business acumen that has propelled Korean Corporations to the international level. Today, some of the Korean Corporations that were started as family businesses have solidified their position in the global market. The Chebol companies of Korea have gone against all odds to compete in the global market. Samsung is a known fierce rival of the IT giant, Apple, while Hyundai, and has accelerated its presence in major automobile markets.  Korea is also known for a culture of creativity and innovation. That is why today is it is a dominant player in the field of IT and provides development assistance in this area.

Africa, on the other hand, culture has been embolic of social cohesion, and economic transformation. In many African communities, cohesiveness was the needle that held together communities in times of disaster, and ameliorated the impact of tragic incidences even when there was no disaster aid. For economic transformation, most African cultures to date are a big source of revenue. In Nigeria, Nolly wood which is the second biggest source of revenue is borne out of culture. The same can be said of Maasai culture that drives tourists to Kenya. African cultural objects are today slowly finding a foothold in global markets. Yet African communities like the Maasai whose objects are sold internationally remains in abject poverty. But to a foreigner Maasai culture would appear to be primitive and backward in the twenty first century. In short, no culture is primitive, and no culture is superior. What is necessary is an enquiry into a foreign culture in order to appreciate it.

Due to the complementarities between Korea and African cultures, both can gain from intercultural exchanges. For example while Africa is multi cultural, Korea on the other side is homogenous and multicultural families in Korea are increasingly under pressure. Cultural insensitivity in Korean schools for bi-racial should indeed be a cause for worry for a nation that prizes honor. Similarly, while Africans are resilient, Koreans have low level of resilience in hardship such as financial crises and unemployment. Researches reveal that Korea has highest suicide rate among OECD (In 2012, av. 40 deaths @ day). As Korea peninsula is increasingly becoming a global economic frontier, it is likely that there is going to be an influx of global corporation and increasing number of bi-racial families. Therefore Korea is in dire need for multicultural accommodation.  Korea can learn from Africa’s cultural diversity and resilience. On the other hand Korea can help Africa move out of poverty trap and stagnation. Through Intercultural dialogue Africa can learn from Korea’s business acumen, spirit of diligence and innovation and tradition of planning, while Korea will gain deeper insights into sustainable lifestyle. For example even though Korean culture encouraged a culture of care and reciprocity, that has quickly faded away in the advent of Industrialization and development as people became inward looking. In Africa, the culture of caring for the older members of the society and the disadvantaged is still alive.

Cultural collaboration offers vehicle with which Korea can to share its compelling development story and also tap into business opportunities in Africa. For example Korea can use Nolly Wood film actors, Maasai warriors, famous African musical artistes like Ramogi dancers and the Sulu of South Africa to disseminate good development practices in Africa. It could also use the famous Congolese music called ‘Lingala’ which has a big audience around the globe. Furthermore, such approach to development cooperation can help in establishing and promoting development policies between Africa and Korea, while also reconstructing new cultural identities between them to strengthen their partnership.

What underpins this argument is that cultural perceptions and myths, is a barrier to international cooperation. China is ahead of many Asian countries in terms of market penetration in Africa. It has even surpassed Japan, which moved first to the continent. But China’s hold of Africa began through cultural window. Brusly, who was a famous movie actor, was the first to give Africa an insight into China’s character. His movies became famous and sold widely in Africa. When China finally landed the African market with its industrial goods, the country was not quite foreign to Africa because they had found a commonality through its movie actor.

Nonetheless, it is feared that Korea relates with countries selectively and has a preference for countries it perceives to be having superior culture like the US. That is why plausibly it would not uphold African culture with esteem, though American culture is little known in terms of its contribution to economic gains.

The educational opportunities that Korea has accorded Africa are remarkable and should promote cultural understanding. Indeed today many African governments have the rare opportunity to send their officials to Korea for studies and benchmarking good development practices. However, in some way the opportunities to study in Korea have not had a desired impact to the extent of narrowing down cultural differences and perceptions that hinder development cooperation. One study showed that African students who studied in Korea are more resentful of Korea than those that have not. This finding is worrisome because in normal circumstances, students who study in a foreign county should be that country’s ambassador when they return to their home countries. In some way these educational exchanges have been one way. There has been an influx of African students coming to study in Korea. But there is still few Koreans moving to Africa to explore or study. Therefore, Korea’s understanding of Africa has remained relatively opaque. In future the government of Korea should probably think of sponsoring Korea students to study in Africa so they can insightfully learn about African culture. They could also think of having a program for the exchange of artists and professionals. 

Through intercultural exchanges Korea can support sustainable tourism, creative cultural and heritage based industries to spur local development and encourage creativity in Africa. It can identify some rural communities in Africa and forge development partnerships with them. This arrangement can have direct impact on both Korea and the chosen community. For example among Maasai community in Kenya who are known for traditional commodities but still remain poor, Korea can help initiate a cultural cooperation program in which it hosts the community’s annual cultural events in Korea. During such times Korea can show case the Maasai cultural artefacts in global markets and help the community generate more revenue and fight poverty. An exhibition of African relics in Korea will help Korea to understand and appreciate Africa’s culture and make great contribution to building long term friendship between them. Since such arrangement will require close collaboration, it will also be an opportunity for Korea to learn the community’s culture.

The case of US and Japan would be a good learning point for Korea and Africa in intercultural exchange. The US-Japan Youth educational exchange is an initiative that aims to promote cultural awareness between US and Japan. Focusing on service and learning, this program encourages students from the two countries to visit either country. During those visits the students discuss topics on each country’s development history and sustainability and exchange creative ways to improve business. They are also required to visit communities and experience and appreciate day to day life in the particular community. After the tour, when the students have returned to their home countries they come up with service projects to improve life in the host community. And in order to maintain contact the students further develop follow up activities to continue engaging each other. This has helped to improve cooperation between US and Japan and to foster mutual understanding between the two countries.

In recent years, China has also initiated cultural exchanges and with a number of countries. Presently it has cultural exchange projects with close to 70 countries. The long standing one is the France and China cultural and people to people exchanges. The aim of the program is to blend the two civilizations together. Through the program they conduct youth and tourist exchange and personnel visits.  As a result France hosts Chinese cultural year and has opened Chinese cultural centres. Due to this program the two countries upholds mutual respect and friendship and trade and economic ties have deepened.

In view of the above, cultural exchanges can be an opportunity to broaden strategic cooperation between Korea and Africa and strengthen their bilateral relations. Indeed overcoming cultural barriers to cooperation between Korea and Africa will require development cooperation to be based on local communities and indigenous knowledge.