For this episode, we invited Ghanaian academic and professor for African Languages and Literatures, Adams Bodomo to talk about language and identity, Africa - China - Europe relations, narratives about the Belt and Road initiative and cultural diplomacy. This episode is hosted by Linda Ammann Gerlach in collaboration with John Njenga Karugia and Daniel Kossmann.

The De:link // Re:link podcast explores local insights and new knowledges. We invite intellectuals from different backgrounds to engage them in conversations about new spatial configurations and local perspectives on transregional infrastructure projects. We value open conversations with our guests and understand our podcast mainly as a plattform to share our guest's perspective. The Podcast is produced by members of the research consortium "De:link // Re:link - Local perspectives on transregional (dis-)entanglements", which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Content:

00:00:00 – 00:02:04  Intro

00:02:05 – 00:07:13  BRI, Chinese Dream and Narratives

00:07:14 – 00:13:06  Chinese investment in Africa and debt trap debates

00:13:07 – 00:18:55  Africans in China and cultural diplomacy

00:18:56 – 00:22:54  Chinese presence in Africa and the effect on the African job market/economy

00:22:55 – 00:34:23  Confucius Institutes in Africa and cultural diplomacy

00:34:24 – 00:37:59  The BRI and perceptions of BRI projects in Africa

00:38:00 – 00:46:18  African cultural institutions in China / symmetrical cultural diplomacy and the role of languages

00:46:19 – 00:50:10  Language, identity and migration

00:50:11 – 00:50:44  Outro

Note: This podcast is published under CC BY-ND 4.0. Intro and outro are using Aemyn's soundscape "Tuning In To Planet Earth Every Day At 7pm" (published under CC0 1.0) and Holizna's song "Tube TV" (published under CC BY 3.0). We appreciate their work and want to invitite you to explore their artwork deeper.