Chiefdom has lasted for thousands of years in Africa, especially among the tribes of Nigeria, where chiefs have a high status, not only ruling vast fiefdoms, but also having three wives and four concubines, usually only hereditary.
However, on April 21, 2019, in the palace of the Nigerian Emperor Moussa, Kong Tao, a post-80s Henan boy, completed his coronation ceremony and officially became an African chief.
When the news reached China, netizens were shocked, and people were wondering: What did this young man who looked weak and could not help the wind rely on to become the chief of Africa?
However, after learning about his deeds, everyone said, "He deserves it!" ”
Be motivated and grow into a promising youth
Kong Tao was born in 1985 in a small county town in Puyang City, Henan Province, his parents are public officials, the family is not bad, he is an only child, so his parents have devoted all their efforts to his studies and character training.
In this way, Kong Tao, who grew up under love and care, has been optimistic and positive since he was a child, honest and kind, and is very loved by teachers.
Kong Tao was thin and white, and his body was always surrounded by a breath of books, but he was not weak, on the contrary, he had always been a young man with ideas and dared to act.
From elementary school to high school, he never needs the supervision of teachers and parents to consciously complete learning tasks. He is always one of the most active people in the class, and as long as there is an event, he will definitely appear.
And under the influence of his parents, no matter who has difficulties, he will take the initiative to help solve them. Every time there is a parent-teacher meeting, the teacher's comments to him are "smart and self-motivated, enthusiastic and helpful".
In 2003, with his long-standing efforts and good attitude, Kong Tao was admitted to Beijing Jiaotong University, a key national university, to study the mechanical manufacturing and automation major he had always aspired to. After entering the university, he was like a sponge immersed in water, constantly absorbing knowledge, often before his classmates got up, he was already sitting in the study room.
However, for his major, it is difficult to have a big development after graduating from the undergraduate degree, so four years later, Kong Tao, who has great ambitions, was admitted to the graduate school of the university to continue his studies.
His mentor Professor Li Jianyong often said when talking about Kong Tao, "He has always had his own ideas and plans for life and study, never let me worry about it, and he always treats people and things with a smiling face, and his brothers and brothers like him very much." ”
In 2010, Kong Tao got a master's degree in engineering from Beijing Jiaotong University with excellent results, just when the China Civil Engineering Group went to the school to recruit talents, Kong Tao was still very unconfident at first, just holding the mentality of trying it out, he submitted his resume, and did not expect to receive an olive branch from China Turkey Group soon.
China Civil Engineering Group is a large central enterprise directly managed by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, with business scope in 106 countries and regions around the world, and has great prestige in China's construction industry, but because many of the group's projects are abroad, many employees, especially engineers, need to be sent to other countries.
Long before that, Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, began a comprehensive modernization of domestic railways, and the China Civil Engineering Group contracted all its operations, so a large number of engineers were successively sent to Work in Africa.
Newcomer Kong Tao did not escape, he had just joined the company shortly after receiving a notice of assignment, need to stay in Nigeria for a long time, before the company gave him a period of preparation time.
20 years old is full of energy, for Kong Tao to work in Africa is a wonderful experience, he can rely on the knowledge he learned to create better transportation conditions for hundreds of millions of African people, can make himself achieve higher value in life, so he does not have any negative dissatisfaction, but when he told his parents the news, he was greatly hindered.
For a long time, people have seen on television and newspapers that Africa is poor, and there are often turmoil and plagues, so Kong Tao's parents heard that their son was going to stay in Africa for a long time, and their first reaction was to hope that their son would resign. Kong Tao understood his parents' concerns, but at that time, his heart had flown to the distant African continent, and he could only constantly introduce his parents to the security situation of his unit, and assured his parents that he would often go home to visit them.
Although Kong Tao's parents were full of worries, they knew that their children had ideals and opinions, and once they made a decision, it was difficult to turn around, so after some struggle, they finally agreed to this trip to Nigeria, but they did not expect that ten years later, their son would "return home" and become an African chief.
Dedication, he was awarded the title of chief
In early 2011, Kong Tao embarked on a wild African land with his colleagues with curiosity and ambition, and as a result, as soon as they got off the plane, they encountered a dismount, the dry and hot air rushed in, everyone felt a tingle in the nasal cavity, and the staff who came to greet them saw their reaction and laughed and said: "Just get used to it slowly."
Kong Tao put down the idea of running away and threw himself into his work, but the language barrier made him greatly troubled.
In addition to Chinese employees, they work in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, and there are many local engineers and mechanics, and although most of them communicate in English when they work, some workers only speak the local indigenous dialect, Hausa.
In order not to affect the progress of the project, Kong Tao took the language textbooks he entrusted to buy everywhere to chat with the local engineers, he spoke humorously and politely, many people saw that he was so serious and willing to take the initiative to help, over time, Kong Tao not only learned the dialect but also became a local cultural pass, and soon mingled with the nearby indigenous people.
Once, the leader gave him a task to find the soil that could be used to build the railway roadbed. It should be known that the roadbed is the foundation laid by the railway, not only to be able to withstand the weight of the track structure and the dynamic load of the train, but also to be able to resist the invasion and destruction of natural conditions, so the requirements for soil are very high.
Through consulting local geological data and field visits, Kong Tao spent three days to find the right soil.
He then communicated with the tribesmen in a slightly stagnant indigenous dialect for half a day before finding the owner of the land, but the owner, after learning that he was going to buy the land, politely refused him.
According to the owner's explanation, all the land in the vicinity belonged to the tribal chief Moussa, and the land could only be sold with the consent of the emperor.
Before Kong Tao went to Nigeria, he knew about the local customs and customs, and he knew that the tribal chieftains had great power in the local area and could even influence politics, so he reported the situation to his superiors.
The Sino-Turkish Group and Nigeria have been cooperating for many years, and the tribal chiefs are also very supportive of the work of the group, and after negotiations, the two sides quickly completed the land purchase, and Kong Tao, who was in charge of this area, and chief Moussa, gradually became acquainted.
Nigeria is mainly rice, noodles and meat, vegetable cultivation technology is relatively backward, so it is expensive and less, Kong Tao lived according to Nigeria's dietary habits for several months after the body appeared to be uncomfortable symptoms.
In order to improve his life, he asked a friend in China to mail a large box of seeds and mobilized his colleagues to grow various vegetables in the open space of the living area.
Nearby residents felt very fresh after seeing it, and they asked Kong Tao for advice on planting methods, and Kong Tao saw their backward living environment and thought that selling vegetables could also make money, so he agreed to their request. Later, he not only enthusiastically bought a large number of seeds from China, but also paid for himself and found various channels to purchase a number of agricultural machines to teach the local people pesticides, shelves, irrigation and fertilization and other skills.
In 2013, Kong Tao was hired as the manager of the sidian department with excellent working ability, and when he inspected the train tracks, he found that the local train drivers did not have the concept of speeding and often rampaged, which was not only not conducive to the maintenance of the track, reducing the service life, but also prone to accidents, resulting in loss of life and property.
At his call, the company held a number of trainings on safe driving knowledge, but those drivers still went their own way and did not comply with the requirements of the work.
At this time, he thought of a tribal chief who was echoing, and then he personally visited the door and asked Moses to contact the local chiefs to persuade the drivers to drive carefully.
Knowing that he was concerned about the safety of the Nigerian masses, Moussa readily agreed to his request, and the matter was quickly resolved.
Nigeria is one of the lowest-paid countries in the world, the government has long relied on aid from countries to run, its economy is lagging behind, most of its two hundred million people are unemployed, and millions of people die of hunger every year.
The construction of the railway is a huge project, the number of workers needed is also very large, Kong Tao has been fighting for the company during his tenure, hoping to use local hired workers as much as possible, increase the income of some people, and thousands of Nigerian people have been employed under Kong Tao's struggle.
And in order to curb the vicious habit of employees "making money and not supporting the family", he also issued a circular requiring Nigerian employees to receive their salaries to their families before they can receive the next month's wages, a measure that has greatly changed the local atmosphere.
In addition, Kong Tao and his colleagues raised funds to repair the only public primary school in the local area, Pai Pei Village Primary School, building houses, paving roads, adding football fields, he personally supervised the construction, and later sent teaching materials to children out of his own pocket.
His series of actions were not only sincerely thanked by the local people, but also looked at by the tribal leader Moussa.
In July 2018, The Middle Earth Nigeria Company set up the operation division, Kong Tao was promoted to general manager, taking this opportunity, Moussa added the icing on the cake, he took the initiative to meet Kong Tao, and solemnly said to him: "After the vote of the twenty chiefs of the tribe, ready to grant you the title of 'WAKILIN AYYUKA' chief", Kong Tao was stunned, he did not expect that he could win this honor.
Chinese chiefs, hold up the façade of a big country
With the consent of the company, Kong Tao accepted the invitation of the Emperor Musa, and on April 21, 2019, in the luxurious palace, Kong Tao was dressed in a white robe, wearing a white hat and veil on his head, sitting cross-legged on the carpet, and a shaman dressed in national costume chanted a blessing and sang a prayer, and he put on a crown for Kong Tao to symbolize his status.
In the presence of the indigenous people and representatives of the Middle-earth group, Emperor Moussa personally delivered the chief's scepter and certificate to Kong Tao.com.
In Africa, chiefs have long been considerable power and are regarded as "natural rulers", but in modern society, the power of tribal chiefs has weakened, but it is still a political force to be reckoned with large tracts of land and the admiration of the people.
Chiefs in Nigeria are generally divided into three levels, the first level is the tu emperor such as Musa, who controls a vast area, the second level is the feudal official, who has hundreds of acres of fiefdom, the third level is the county and town level administrator, and the chieftain title granted by Kong Tao belongs to the second level.
Since Kong Tao was a Chinese and did not need to participate in the management of regional affairs, but the 500-acre fiefdom and the "class privilege" of three wives and four concubines were still valid, after being knighted, local colleagues would often ridicule him as "not shallow", but Kong Tao would solemnly declare that he was married every time and would only have one wife.
In his view, the title of chief is an honor and a mission, which symbolizes the deep friendship between China and Nepal for fifty years, and also gives Kong Tao a more important mission, that is, to build a bridge of friendly exchanges and common progress between the two peoples, and to create a better environment for cooperation between the two countries.
In fact, Kong Tao was not the first Chinese to be awarded the title of chieftain, before him there were already four elites from all walks of life who had been awarded different chieftain titles for their outstanding contributions to the local economic development and social life.
The earliest African chief Chinese is Fang Yibo, in 2004 Shandong Electric Power Construction Group contracted the construction of power stations in the Papalando region of Nigeria, Fang Yibo served as the project manager, less than three years after the completion of the project, the local electricity problem was finally solved, in order to express gratitude, Arkham Tuwang awarded Fang Yibo the title of chief of "Bai Amri", meaning "messenger of light".
In 2012, under the leadership of Cao Baogang, general manager of China-Turkey Group Nigeria, the railway in the Ycombe region was fully opened to traffic, and the local transportation facilities were greatly improved, and the chief of the Ycombe region thanked him and finally decided to award Cao Baogang the title of chief of "infrastructure development and progress".
In 2015, Li Qingyong was awarded the title of "Bobasona" chieftain by the king of the Ikolodo region for building a road in the remote and backward lagos state to facilitate the travel of locals, meaning "royal road builder".
In November of the same year, The digital base station of Star Times was laid in Abi Asia, and the quality of local residents' viewing was greatly improved, and CEO Liu Jinquan was awarded the title of "Nku Nuzu" by the Tuwang of the Utoru region, meaning "a person with advanced technology".
Today, with the advancement of the "Belt and Road", more and more enterprises have gone abroad, bringing a modern life to remote and backward countries, and the emergence of Chinese chiefs is a praise for Chinese talents and a gratitude to Chinese enterprises. It is also an affirmation of the strength of the great powers in the East.
At the beginning of 2021, Kong Tao ended a decade of travel to Africa and embarked on a plane to return home and reunite with his family, and when someone asked him if he would feel unwilling, he smiled and replied, "Nigeria is my second hometown, and in the future I will definitely ride back to my hometown to inspect the territory." ”
bibliography:
1. "Interview with the Chinese boy who became the African chief: he has returned to China, when the chief is approved by the organization", Beijing Daily client.2021-12-05