Return of Admiral Zheng He

By Alfred Oshin

Upon hearing the news that the Navy of the People's Republic of China has set sail for East African waters to protect its mercantile shipping from the cupidity of African pirates, I was deluged, no pun intended, quite enigmatically by a profound sense of pathos.

It was a Janus faced pathos. One part of my soul was sad for a past that had faded, the other was sad for the present. At this point, I suppose, you are wondering why the negative feelings. The actions of the Chinese government are sanctioned by international and, more importantly, moral law.

Also the Chinese navy would bring back tranquility to waters that are currently terrorized by seafaring brigands. Let me elucidate my cryptic emotions.

This is not the first time the Chinese navy has visited Africa, the Chinese have an illustrious naval tradition on African waters. The first time Chinese mariners plied the seas of the African coast was in the 14th century under the command of Admiral Zheng He.

In vast ships some of them with a crew of over 500 men, laden with precious cargo, he sailed the known world to establish or strengthen political and economic ties with those outside the Chinese empire.

History unfavorably and insultingly compares him with Christopher Columbus, but there are many areas in which they differ. Zheng He's maritime voyages were a tour de force of technology and the human spirit.

Chinese bravery and brilliance would remain unrivalled until American mariners crossed the emptiness of space to land on the moon. Columbus's ships were like rafts compared to those of the Chinese. Columbus was a conquistador, his so-called voyages of discovery, as European historians like to name them, were in fact crusading expeditions.

Like all crusading ventures their raison d'etre was to find new lands to plunder and conquer. It is not surprising that Columbus's legacy in America is one of genocide and slavery. I digress.

In 1417 and 1434, Zheng He's fantastic flotilla sailed into the ports of the Swahili cities on the East African coast. Zheng He found organized and opulent cities in Africa who, like the Chinese, were skilled in all the arts of civilization.

This would not have been a surprise to the Chinese of the time, for Swahili merchants had sporadically sailed to the Far East to trade. This was a time when the wisest minds in Europe didn't know that this part of the world existed, or believed if a ship sailed there it would reach the end of the world and would fall off into oblivion.

The surprise was that on the African side they had never seen an armada of such a magnificent size, because this was the biggest the Chinese or anyone else had built. Zheng He succeeded in establishing strong diplomatic, cultural and economic ties with the African cities of the Swahili.

One African ruler went to the extent of presenting the Emperor of China with a giraffe as a gift, knowing that the Chinese believed these brought good luck.

This terrific story had a most tragic ending. The Ming Dynasty of China, after some time, adopted a policy of isolationism. The strong ties with the Swahili cities faded. In the early 15th century, Portuguese ships sailed to the Swahili cities. They were motivated by the zeitgeist of Europe at the time, religious fanaticism and greed, not the higher virtues of discovery that is so often taught.

By the middle of the century, the Portuguese, through a series of unprovoked wars, brought the Swahili civilizations to their knees.

Being a black Briton of African descent, the Chinese naval military operation in East Africa invokes strong feelings of pathos within me. I'm reminded of a time when the genius and greatness of African civilization was the light of the world and known throughout the globe.

Now Africa exists in the abyss of political instability, warfare, poverty and famine ― need I go on? I just hope the next time Chinese mariners return to African shores they see an Africa that Zheng He beheld: a place of civilization that reaches the height of human endeavor.

Alfred Oshin is an English teacher. He taught English at Honam University in Gwangju. He has a bachelor's degree in ancient history and is currently studying for a master's degree in the same field at King's College, London. He can be reached at alfredoshin@hotmail.co.uk.