Kenyan girlI am a descendant of Zheng He and want to come to China
An unexpected letter from Africa came as a shock to Guo Chongli, the plenipotentiary ambassador of the Chinese embassy in Kenya. In the letter, a Kenyan girl named Mawamaka Sharif said she was a student about to graduate from high school and a descendant of Zheng He's fleet hundreds of years ago.
She wanted to return to distant China and asked the ambassador for help. Although there is no historical record of anyone staying in Kenya, Guo Chongli decided to contact experts from the National Museum of Kenya and go to the hometown of Sharif, the girl who wrote the letter, to Patai Island in Mombasa Province.
Sharif was very happy to see the ambassador coming, because she had expected her letter to be lost, but she did not expect the ambassador to come. The story is reminiscent of the descendants of Ming Dynasty sailors, and this descendant is in Kenya in Africa.
While the historical record may not be exhaustive, this story reminds us that historical memories can be found in unexpected places, and that these memories can bridge bridges between different countries and cultures.
Sharif's mother revealed to Kwok that Sharif's account was true and stemmed from an ancient story passed down by word of mouth. The story follows that hundreds of years ago, a Chinese ship sank in the nearby seas, and some sailors came to the island of Patai while escaping.
At that time, the African inhabitants of the island had never seen the Yellow ** people, so they were hostile and reluctant to accept the sailors. However, the Chinese sailors quickly demonstrated their abilities, causing a change in the attitude of the locals.
It turned out that there was a giant python on the island that harmed the inhabitants, and due to the backward productivity, the local residents were unable to make iron tools. And the arrival of Chinese sailors found out exactly this problem.
They set a trap and succeeded in killing the python and removing the threat. This news caused a sensation among the local population, whose attitude changed in an instant, and began to warmly welcome the residence of Chinese sailors.
These Chinese sailors in a foreign land never gave up their dream of returning to their homeland, but, after Emperor Xuande, due to the weakening of the Ming Dynasty, they could not sail again. However, their heroic deeds and noble sentiments have deeply influenced the local people and left a historical story of China-Africa friendship.
Zheng He's voyage to the West was a feat during the Ming Dynasty, but due to more political significance than economic significance, the treasury was empty, and the voyage had to be suspended. Coupled with Zheng He's death, the Ming Dynasty never organized a voyage again.
Unable to return to China, the Chinese sailors decided to rebuild a new village and named it Shangjia, a name similar to the place from which they had started, Shanghai County.
In order to reproduce, they intermarried with local women, but it was stipulated that the children born must marry each other in order to maintain the authenticity of the bloodline. These sailors lived by the sea and often went to the shipwrecks to salvage porcelain shards, which they regarded as their treasures as a source of homesickness.
They used porcelain shards as funerary objects to express their deep nostalgia for their homeland. Although Shangjia Village once prospered, the village's fortunes changed due to the development of Western navigation technology and the invasion of colonists.
When the Portuguese first arrived in Africa, they went crazy and plundered, and the prosperous Shangjia Village naturally could not escape its clutches and was completely destroyed by them. In order to survive, the descendants of the sailors were forced to leave their homes and move to the village of Siyu.
Although many of them remember themselves as of Chinese descent, over time they gradually intermarried with local residents, looked more and more black, and more and more moved to other places.
Today, there is only one family left in the village of Siyu – the Sharif family, the only ones who still claim to be descendants of Chinese sailors. Sharif's mother even took out their ancestral blue and white porcelain as a testimony to the family's history.
Guo Chongli checked the relevant information and found that Zheng He's fourth trip to the West was indeed from Taicang in Shanghai County, and a shipwreck of the Ming Dynasty was indeed found in the sea near Shangjia Village.
From an early age, Marwamaka Sharif believed that she was a descendant of Zheng He's sailors, as she and her mother had many physical traits that were different from those of the local residents. Although after several generations of intermarriage, their ** turned black, their hair was not naturally curled, and their lips were not as thick, other local children still called Sharif "Chinese girls".
In 1999, after graduating from primary school, Sharif entered a vocational secondary school on the island of Lamu. In this school, there are a lot of books about China in the library, and in order to get a sense of what China is like as much as possible, Sharif often reads books about China in the library.
Sharif was eager to learn Chinese, but struggled with not having access to Chinese books. By chance, she heard that there were merchants from China in the provincial capital of Mombasa. So, she began to save up for the journey, hoping to find Chinese people to learn Chinese.
Sharif used her spare time to earn money, picking up garbage and selling it for money, and after two years of hard work, she finally saved enough money to travel to the provincial capital Mombasa alone in the summer of 2001.
In the provincial capital, Sharif found that she could not find any Chinese merchants, but she saw a sign in front of a restaurant that appeared to have Chinese characters. So, she plucked up the courage to walk into the hotel and found a boss from China, Zhao Hanqing.
Sharif expressed his desire to learn Chinese to Zhao, who was so moved by her perseverance that he not only promised to teach her Chinese, but also funded her with 20,000 shillings.
Sharif was touched by the kindness of the Chinese and firmly believed that he was the descendant of Chinese sailors. At the end of the summer vacation, she returned to the village of Xiyu to continue her education. One day, while working at home, she found an expedition group, one of whom was the same as her, with black hair and yellow **.
She thought he was Chinese and was very happy, thinking that the Chinese were kind and deserved her return. So, she invited the delegation to her home and took the initiative to show their ancestral blue and white porcelain bowls.
However, the guest accidentally broke the porcelain bowl. Although he kept apologizing, Sharif was still very sad and silently put all the pieces away and put them in a box.
It turned out that the people in the delegation were not Chinese, but Japanese, which made Sharif very angry. But with the help of Chinese students, Sharif's Chinese skills have improved rapidly, and he even successfully completed high school, which is very rare in poor areas of Africa.
However, despite the fact that Sharif has become a true top student, she still hopes to go to China and make her dream come true. In 2004, she summoned up the courage to write a letter to Ambassador Guo Chongli in crooked Chinese.
In 2005, Ambassador Guo Chongli visited the village of Siyu on Patai Island for the second time and asked Sharif and his daughter to lead him on a tour of the former Shangjia Village. However, they found that it was deserted, with only a few tombs and porcelain fragments remaining on the mountain walls.
On the tombstone of one of the graves, they even saw the vague words "Wang Zongbing".
Guo Chongli was full of deep respect for these sailors who buried their bones in a foreign land, and he picked up a handful of soil and sprinkled it on their graves, and poured a bottle of wine to commemorate their heroic deeds.
After returning to China, he told the Ministry of Education about Sharif's wishes, and director Wu Jianning was filming "Zheng He Goes to the West", and when he heard about it, he immediately went to Kenya to collect materials.
At home, Guo Chongli immediately asked people from the embassy to bring a film crew to Sharif's home. Wu Jianning listened carefully to Sharif's story, photographing the salvaged Ming Dynasty utensils and the details of the lives of local residents influenced by Chinese culture.
There were even ancient coins salvaged by locals and two large urns with obvious dragon motifs on them, which he thought were supposed to be a return gift from the Ming emperor to African countries.
These findings have strengthened Mr. Wu's belief that some Chinese have indeed lived here, and that what Sharif said may be true. Sharif showed his ancestral blue and white porcelain bowl to Wu Jianning, and at the same time told the reason why it was broken, looking at the sad Sharif, Wu Jianning comforted: "Don't worry, we can glue it up." ”
China's Ministry of Education has granted a government-funded study place from Kenya to China, and Ambassador Guo Chongli in China is also pleased with the news. In July 2005, Sharif set foot for the first time in Nanjing, China, the land that her ancestors missed day and night.
The high-rise buildings and the busy traffic made her full of curiosity about this big city, and she couldn't help but sigh: "China is so beautiful, Kenya can't compare." Xu Huiling, the deputy mayor of Nanjing, personally met with this special international student and presented her with a scarf.
Sharif's trip to China will last seven years, with her two years of Chinese language in Nanjing, followed by five years of Chinese medicine. In order to better integrate into China, she gave herself the Chinese name "Xia Ruifu", but later she felt that this name was not appropriate, so she changed her name to "Zheng Hua".
During his days of studying in China, Sharif had a great time and was often warmly entertained. Although her mother was very worried and often called her to ask about the situation, Sharif always told her mother with a smile that she was doing well in China.
During these seven years, Sharif not only learned fluent Chinese, but also obtained a degree, and was even regarded by the Taicang people as a descendant of Zheng He's fleet. Sharif's story tells us that no matter where we come from, as long as we have dreams and determination, we can find our place in China and realize our dreams.
China's doors are always open to the world, welcoming every foreigner who is curious and enthusiastic about it.
Sharif returned to China after completing his studies, giving up the opportunity to develop in China, and chose to return to Kenya to provide medical services to local residents, continuing to write a new chapter in China-Kenya friendship.