Welcome to Africa, Madam President

By Benson Kamary

President Park Geun-hye embarked on her maiden trip to Africa in her presidency Wednesday. President Park is scheduled to make stops in Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya. Of the three nations, the president’s visit to Nairobi will perhaps be the most interesting, owing to the coincidence it unveils.

Picture this. In February 1964, Korea’s former president, Park Chung-hee, and Kenya’s first president, Jomo Kenyatta, established diplomatic relations between Nairobi and Seoul. About 50 years later, Park Chung-hee’s daughter (Park Geun-hye) and Jomo Kenyatta’s son (Uhuru Kenyatta) are the presidents of their respective countries. If your guess is as good as mine, we can predict the context of their first light moments ― their fathers!

Beyond the coincidence, President Park’s visit to Kenya is significant. Kenya and Korea have progressively expanded their bilateral engagements, diplomatically and economically. Park’s visit is therefore a gesture that the two countries remain strategic partners five decades on.

In fact, Kenya and Korea share a history of supporting each other. It is said that Kenya aided Korea’s reconstruction by donating some funds after the 1950-53 Korean War.. According to some scholars, Kenya’s economy was better than Korea’s at the time.

On trade engagements, though still imbalanced in favor of Korea, the two countries have improved transactions significantly. In 2006, for instance, exports from Kenya to Korea was valued $5,573,000 compared to $17,979,000 in 2015. Similarly imports to Kenya from Korea were valued at $164,653,000 in 2009 compared to $253,951,620 in 2014.

On tourism, nearly 10,000 Korean tourists visited Kenya in 2012 when Korean Air launched direct flights from Seoul to Nairobi compared to 5,505 in 2006. Unfortunately, the three-day a week direct flights to Nairobi were suspended in 2014 due to the Ebola crisis impacting tourism considerably such only 3,434 had visited Kenya byNovember2015. Perhaps President Park’s visit will lead to some substantial review of the factors that can rebound economic exchanges, including reinstating Korean Air flights.

It will also be interesting to see the impact of President Park’s visit regarding her objective of expanding involvement Korean companies in Africa. When her predecessor, President Lee Myung-bak, visited Africa in July 2011, he noted the continent’s robust potential for growth urging Korea to play a great role. President Lee essentially referred to Africa as the "hope for the future of this planet." At the time, six of the 10 nations with the highest economic growth globally were in Africa.

Conceivably, President Park now has a core agenda in the name of “Korea Aid,” South Korea’s new official development assistance (ODA) program for health care support, food production and cultural related exchanges in Africa. On whether this will be effective or not depends on the approaches from launching to implementation of the related projects.

Personally, I have my reservation about the use of the phrase “Korea Aid.” My critique is on the word “aid” which has traditionally been used to represent a donor-recipient concept. The alternative, I would argue, is to use of the term “partners.” As I always suggest during my open lectures on Africa-Korea relations, the concept of partnership ought to be central in bilateral engagements because it characterizes shared values, mutual trust, and interdependence. You see, even our definition or the term we ascribe to things that matter often discloses our worldview, the overall perspective from which we see and interpret the world. Not a big deal?

Madam President, welcome to Nairobi ― a green city in the sun!

Benson Kamary is a professor at Tongmyong University and the Chairman of Kenya Community in Korea (KCK). He can be reached at bkamary@yahoo.com.