` China in Africa : Does history repeat itself ?

Once upon a time, an emerging Asian economic power made inroads on African markets. The entry of this newcomer aroused a flurry of criticisms from established European merchants. They claimed that this competition was unfair as it employed cheaper labour who toiled far longer hours than Europeans. Not only did this intruder base its competitiveness on the undervaluation of its currency but its financial practices were disloyal as it proposed three year maturity loans while established exporters offered a three month revolving credit. Last but not least, it infringed copyright. This issue was raised by Lieutenant Commander Astbury at a meeting of the House of Commons on November 1933. There, he showed to the assembly a pattern of cloth which had been sent from Manchester to South Africa at 33d. per yard and a copy of that same pattern which was sold at 19d. per yard. He then declared “How on earth can we meet that devastating competition? Within six months after we put a new pattern into the market that pattern is copied and a similar cloth is offered by this Asian competitor at a price which is 75 or 100 per cent below (..). What hope is there for the Lancashire cotton trade unless that competition is stopped?” 1

Once upon a time, an emerging Asian economic power made inroads on African markets.The entry of this newcomer aroused a flurry of criticisms from established European merchants.They claimed that this competition was unfair as it employed cheaper labour who toiled far longer hours than Europeans.Not only did this intruder base its competitiveness on the undervaluation of its currency but its financial practices were disloyal as it proposed three year maturity loans while established exporters offered a three month revolving credit.Last but not least, it infringed copyright.This issue was raised by Lieutenant Commander Astbury at a meeting of the House of Commons on November 1933.There, he showed to the assembly a pattern of cloth which had been sent from Manchester to South Africa at 33d. per yard and a copy of that same pattern which was sold at 19d. per yard.He then declared "How on earth can we meet that devastating competition?Within six months after we put a new pattern into the market that pattern is copied and a similar cloth is offered by this Asian competitor at a price which is 75 or 100 per cent below (..).What hope is there for the Lancashire cotton trade unless that competition is stopped?" 1 These criticisms sound familiar to the reader as there are now used against China.The criticised new competitor in the 1930s, however, was Japan.
Japan's entry in Africa started at the end of the 19 th century and its exports surged after the Great Crisis (see part 1 of this article) and there are some interesting parallels to the 21 st century rise of China in Africa.Japan's relations with Africa went beyond trade as illustrated by its special relationship with Ethiopia (see part 2).And as the emergence of this new power challenged Western historical domination, Japan was considered as a model by some African countries (see part 3).

Japan and Africa
Today the eruption of China into Africa is sometimes perceived as an exotic illustration of globalisation.However, Asia and Africa relations predated the arrival of Western powers as the Indian Ocean had been the main trade link 2 between these two continents.In a book written between 20 to 40 BC (-The Periple of the Erythrea Sea‖), a Greek trader based in Egypt described the Indian merchant activity on the East coast. .Late-comers to the colonial adventure, Japanese were interested in the military lessons they could draw from wars (in South Africa and Ethiopia) and also in the Western experiences in managing colonies.In 1897, Dr. Tomizu Hirondo, a professor of law at Tokyo Imperial University and an admirer of Cecil Rhodes, published a short pamphlet (The Future of Africa) where he forecasted that Africa and China would become major actors in the 20 th century (Aremu Fatai Ayinde, 2009).He advised his government to participate in the scramble for Africa before Europeans completely controlled the continent.While the government did not heed his advice, the administration made efforts to gather information on Africa (Katsuhiko Kitagawa, 1990).In 1903, having spent two months in South Africa, the Japanese consul in Singapore and an official of the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce published the first report on an African country 4 .In 1917, the same minister published a report on the foreign trade of South Africa and investigated the possibility of sending Japanese migrants; it admitted that SA immigration laws would represent a major hindrance to the development of trade.
During World War I, commercial information was collected by Japan's honorary Consul in Cape Town and after the war, consulates were opened in Mombasa (1932), Addis Ababa and Casablanca (1936) and legations in Cairo (1936) and Cape Town (1937).A 1932 British foreign office memorandum stated that at a time when almost all of Africa was under colonial rule, the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry organised an All Africa commercial exhibition (Kweku Ampiah, 1990).The gathering of this information proved to be helpful for the promotion of Japanese exports to Africa.
Up to the end of the 19 th century, Japanese overseas trade had been handled by European and Chinese merchants but by 1905, large Japanese trading companies had established trade relations with Europe, North America, Australia and British India while small and medium merchant houses handled trade with Asia, the Middle East and Africa.During World War I, the disruption of trade between Europe and Africa offered a window of opportunity for Japan to enter the British African colonies since Britain had adopted an open door policy in place of the old system of imperial preferences.Even if some protectionist measures were taken during the 1930s, East African colonies remained open to free trade (Kweku Ampiah, 1990).
While the records of Japan's contacts with Africa during the pre-Meiji era are fragmentary, they can be traced back to the 16th century.Japanese exports to Africa flourished during World War I; and while they decreased after their wartime boom, they still remained greater than their pre-war value (Figure 1).In the 1920s, the falling cost of cotton thread and the abolition of the gold standard in 1931 which diminished by 50 percent the value of the Japanese yen against the pound, gave a strong impetus to Japanese exports.In the meantime, the drop in commodity prices caused by the crisis reduced the ability of British colonies to import manufactured products and encouraged them to turn more towards Japanese products.The Economist (3 January 1925) wrote that Japanese low priced products are appreciated by -the natives who put cheapness above quality (..) British machinery holds its own as do British goods of high quality but cheap cottons come from Japan, America and India‖.Between 1927Between -1929Between and 1936Between -1938, Japan's share in the imports of Britain's African colonies (Egypt and South Africa excluded) grew from 1.6% to 7.9% in spite of the quotas imposed on them by Nigeria and the then Gold Coast (today's Ghana).
Textiles represented a significant share of Japanese exports to Africa.From 1927 to 1929, Lancashire firms were shaken by the surge of Japan's textile market share while Indian exports also shrank.Japanese competition in West Africa was not as serious, as the British colonies had imposed quotas, and French colonies had kept to the imperial preference.
Japanese exports to Africa flourished during WW1; and while they decreased after their wartime boom, they still remained greater than their pre-war value.1906 1915 1924 1933 19421951 1960 1969 1978 19871996  In South Africa, the surge of Japanese exports led the government to a tariff reform, the adoption of protective measures and legislation prohibiting Japanese from residing and doing business (Richard Bradshaw, Jim Ransdell 2011).Nevertheless, as South African exports felt the pinch of the crisis, the government allowed Japanese wool purchasers to enter the country.A gentleman's agreement (October 1930), allowing a one year visa to Japanese was strongly criticized in the press which denounced a predicted invasion of retail traders and employees and of Japanese -spying out the land‖.It was strongly felt in the textile and in the shoe industries: -plimsolls were selling at one third the price of local hide shoes‖, and, according to an issue raised in the House of Commons 5 , Japanese traders were dumping motor cars into South Africa with British names!In the 1930s, Japanese were often accused of selling -watches by the kilo‖ and, this could explain why, some years after World War II, the -made in Japan‖ label has remained synonymous with low quality goods in East Africa as well as in Morocco where Japan was its second largest exporter (well behind France).

Beyond trade: Japan"s special relationship with Ethiopia
The relations between Japan and Ethiopia went beyond trade.Both countries were Empires ruled by very old dynasties.Like the Japanese, the Ethiopians first admitted the Portuguese in the 16 th century when it suited them and both abandoned their attempt to live in a hermit kingdom in the 19 th century and acquired Western military techniques.In April 1896, the Japanese Ministry of Defence wished to send three observers to follow the Italian campaign in Ethiopia.This request was rejected by Italy who had suffered a serious military defeat at the battle of Adowa in March 1896.Consequently, Ethiopia enjoyed some prestige in Japan.(The first victory of a nonwestern nation was followed nine years later by the Japanese victory over Russia).At the occasion of the first Japanese official visit in 1927, a draft proposal of a Friendship and Trade treaty was discussed (Hideko Faërber 1998).This treaty was signed three years later when Japanese representatives attended Haile Selassie's coronation.In the wake of this signature, Japanese government representatives as well as private entrepreneurs visited Ethiopia to explore commercial and political ties.By 1930, Japan was the largest exporter to Ethiopia and it took the lion's share of Ethiopian imports of textiles In South Africa, the surge of Japanese exports led the government to a tariff reform, the adoption of protective measures and legislation prohibiting Japanese from residing and doing business.In Ethiopia, reformers whose influence peaked in the 1920's and 1930's, were called -Progressive Intellectuals", "Young Ethiopians" and "Japanizers" : each of these appellation emphasized something different: the need to reform, the need to find an appropriate model for reform and the impact of Japan's transformation from a feudal society-like Ethiopia's-into an industrial power.For these young educated Ethiopians, Japanization was a means to an end-to solve the problem of underdevelopment.One year after his signing of the Friendship treaty, the government promulgated a constitution closely modelled on Japan's Meiji Constitution of 1889.The same year the Foreign Minister Heruy Welde Sellase went to Japan to seek commercial and political ties as well as military aid.He spent one month there and on returning to his country, he wrote a book published in Amharic --The Source of Light‖ -which introduced Japan to Africans.This publication played into western fears that Ethiopia would take Japan for its model for modernization.

Conclusions
A significant share of Japanese exports, 7 per cent in the late 1930s (Figure 1), were directed to Africa before World War II which interrupted these trade relations.The links that had been created before the war explain the rapid resurgence of Japanese exports to Africa in the late 1940s.In the 1950s, Japanese were able to regain market share in Africa and up to the mid-1950s, and, at the time, it traded more with Africa than with the European core (France, Germany, Benelux, Netherlands and Italy)!Japanese share of Sub-Saharan African trade reached a maximum in the 1960s but then it diminished.This Asian rise in Africa was succeeded by South Korea, whose trade share increased up to 2000, and China's share which shot up after 2000.
Chinese irruption in Africa caused the same critics as did Japan in the 1930s, and it was also accompanied by the same propagation of (unfounded) rumours concerning land grabbing!Historical comparisons are -false friends‖ and, generally speaking the lessons one can draw from them are not particularly convincing.Indeed, the only truth they bring is that men rarely heed the lessons from history.

Table 1 :Share of Japanese imports
BoylyoBaenga (1992)described the fascination exercised by Japan on Malagasy elites at the end of the 19 th century.Nationalist sentiment against French colonial had emerged among a small group of Merina intellectuals who had been educated by Europeans and exposed to Western intellectual thought.The group was led by a Protestant clergyman, Pastor Ravelojoana, who was especially inspired by the Japanese model of modernisation.In 1912, he wrote: "To know that a non-European people living in a far away, a people in love with progress has been able to succeed a true revolution based on European knowledge, has moved me deeply".For Ravelojoana, while the French Revolution had brought the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, the Meiji revolution of 1868 brought to the world the universal route to break from absolute poverty.One year later, he established a secret society dedicated to Malagasy cultural identity which called itself Iron and Stone Ramification (Vy Vato Sakelika--VVS).On Christmas day in 1915, Ravelojoana was arrested by the colonial authorities.Together with 300 young followers of the Japanese model, Ravelojoana was tried and sentenced to spend the rest of his days in jail.Although the VVS was brutally suppressed, its actions eventually led French authorities to provide the Malagasy with their first representative voice in government.