Cultural Connections and Nigeria’s Relations with China

Abstract

The Nigeria-China economic relations has given rise to multi-faceted socio-cultural networks in each country. Over the years, relations between the two countries have grown in space with economic activities taking the centre stage. While it is a truism that Nigeria’s establishment of diplomatic ties with China is in furtherance of efforts to promote and strengthen the objectives of South-South economic cooperation, the pattern of bilateral interaction between the two countries has impacted markedly on the area of cultural relations. In order to foster cultural exchange, China has opened two Confucius Institutes in Nigeria were Chinese language and culture is taught. The establishment of these institutes is a bold attempt at instituting and establishing cultural connections between the two countries. Pertinent questions however are: To what extent has Chinese culture been integrated in Nigeria? What are the contending issues and benefits arising from such cultural connections? The paper attempts to explore and interrogate these and other variegated issues arising from Nigeria-China cultural connections. To achieve the above objective historical, descriptive and content analytical methods are used to evaluate the questions posited in this work. The major findings of the study reveals that the relationship between Nigeria and China has developed a wide range of cultural interactions. Essentially, the paper argues and also demonstrates that despite some challenges, Nigeria has been able to benefit from cultural connections with China.