Often found at theaters and museums, Kwon Mee-yoo has covered a wide range of cultural fields from K-pop and dramas to theater and fine art for over a decade. Now as K-Culture Desk editor, she tries to connect Korean culture with global readers through fresh perspectives.
African ambassadors share experiences in Korea
African diplomats in Korea and former Korean diplomats to Africa talk about their experiences during an Africa Week talk concert at the Dohwaseogil Cultural Complex in central Seoul, May 31. From left are moderator Lee Eun-bin, former Korean Ambassador to Tanzania Song Geum-young, Tanzanian Ambassador to Korea Togolani Edriss Mavura, former Korean Ambassador to Democratic Republic of the Congo Kwon Ki-chang, Rwandan First Counselor Claude Ganza, Kenyan Counselor Lorraine Owele and moderator Ndagijimana Frank Aimee Rodrigue. Courtesy of the Korea-Africa Foundation
By Kwon Mee-yoo
By Kwon Mee-yoo
The Korea-Africa Foundation (KAF) hosted 2022 Africa Week from May 25 to June 6, commemorating Africa Day and enhancing understanding on Africa in Korea.
Co-organized with the African Group of Ambassadors in Korea, this year's Africa Week was headlined by an African art exhibition as well as a seminar on public diplomacy, an African music concert by Hareem and two talk concerts on Africa.
During the second talk concert held May 31 at the Dohwaseogil Cultural Complex, Tanzanian Ambassador to Korea Togolani Edriss Mavura, Rwanda Embassy First Counselor Claude Ganza and Kenya Embassy Counselor Lorraine Owele shared their experience in bridging their countries and Korea.
Ambassador Mavura, who visited Korea for the first time in 2012 with his foreign minister and served as an ambassador here for about six years, said the changes he saw in Korea over the past decade were very impressive.
"There are so many unique things I've seen so far. One of which is very striking to me is the how many times you like to say cheers ― 'geonbae.' In my country, there's one and then and that's enough. But here, we are used to doing it 10 times and then somebody could do it again and do it again," Mavura said of his experiences.
"In our country, and I'm sure to my neighboring countries as well, there is the assumption that all Koreans play taekwondo, because when you watch (Korean) movies everybody is doing taekwondo. Since I came here, I've never seen anybody practicing on the street."
The ambassador said that the distance between Korea and Africa is more a matter of cultural distance than of geographical distance.
"When somebody says Africa is so far, I understand. Yes, Africa is very far, but far from where? It's a fourteen-hour flight to go to Los Angeles and New York and about the same distance you can go to Nairobi, Kigali or Dar es Salaam. That's another prejudice I see. To me the answer is we need to interact more. Simple," Mavura said.
Rwandan first counselor Ganza also has about seven years of experience living in Korea.
"Korea was my first time on the continent of Asia. So, coming to Asia, a totally different continent and environment than my own continent, Africa, was learning a new culture, and landing in a country like Korea was kind of a soft landing," Ganza said.
Ganza said people in Africa are also curious about Korea, always asking about how to get to Korea and whether Korea is a good place to live in.
"Korea suffered from colonization like many African countries and it is positive in a sense that we can understand each other better (through the experience). We face the prejudices as challenges, but we have an opportunity to get much closer than any other people,” Ganza said.
Owele from Kenya said that she struggled with differentiating Asians when she first arrived here.
"Generally before (coming to Korea) we didn't have so much differentiation between the Chinese, Japanese and Korean... I think this kind of acuteness and diligence and focus on processes and results is what made Korea stand out so much," Owele said.
Owele agreed that the notion of distance is becoming more conceptual due to the development of technology and social media.
"K-pop, K-culture, K-food are as popular in Korea as they could be anywhere else, mostly because of technology," she said. "I think most of us are coming to the realization of the importance of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in terms of bringing cultures closer and deepening engagement and people-to-people interaction," Owele said.
Kwon Ki-chang, the former Korean ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Song Geum-young, the former Korean ambassador to Tanzania, joined African diplomats to provide differing perspectives on the continent.
Song shared the role of an embassy and how he communicated with Koreans living in Tanzania, as well as how Korean culture is becoming known in Tanzania, as he was able to find Korean music CDs in a Tanzanian flea market.
Kwon gave an example of an official development assistance (ODA) project in DR Congo that was the first museum built through ODA. Kwon also noted that Korea's interaction with Africa tends to center on English-speaking African countries, but two-thirds of African countries speak French, so there is greater potential for cooperation if speaking French as well.