From ‘die Alibama’ to ‘die Vredesark’ China’s Peace Ark Naval Hospital Ship is coming to Cape Town

By Jaya Josie

No sooner after China’s Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, Liu Jinchao’s visit to Cape Town on the August 2 and 3, the city’s harbour will soon host China’s Naval Hospital Ship, the Peace Ark (or in Cape Town’s local colloquial dialect “die Vredesark”).

The visits are a clear sign that the bilateral Comprehensive Strategic Cooperation Agreement signed between Presidents Xi Jinping and Cyril Ramaphosa a year ago is in the stage of implementation.

The visit of the Peace Ark underscores Minister Liu’s emphasis that China and South Africa relations are now in the important stage of building a new era of a high-level China - South Africa community with a shared future. The visit of the Peace Ark is a practical example of the cornerstone of China’s foreign policy of cooperation towards developing nations in Africa in general.

The Cape Town community is unique in the country with a mix of different cultures from all over the country and all over the world. Before the Dutch colonised the Cape in South Africa in 1652 Cape Town was home to the indigenous first people called the Khoekhoe and Khoesan.

After the European navigators had discovered in the 13th and 14th century that the earth was not flat and that there was a sea route to the east the indigenous people of the Cape decided to set up a port of call for the European ships to refresh and sail on the East. It was this history that inspired the Dutch to settle there and set up the so-called halfway house and usurp the lucrative trade from the indigenous inhabitants of the Cape and colonise the Cape.

In a stroke of marketing genius, they called the half-way house the Cape of Good Hope. The settler colonial history of Cape Town and South Africa in general is well documented. Having brutally deceived and defeated the indigenous population the settlers formally colonised the country and brought in slaves from the East and Africa to work in the settlement.

However, the settlers also brought in new diseases that decimated, intentionally or unintentionally, many clans amongst the inhabitants of the colony. Out of this cosmopolitan mix grew the unique Cape population and culture much like other populations along the African route of China’s hospital ship, the Peace Ark.

The stops on the African route of the Peace Ark are modern ports that grew out of the European settler colonialism and the slave trade in Africa and the Middle East. Notwithstanding this horrific history, along the Indian Ocean and the East African coast the route also mirrors the Maritime Silk Road that was first established by China in the 13th and 14th century by admiral He Sheng in the time of the Ming dynasty more than a hundred years before the Portuguese and Dutch sailed into the Indian Ocean. During his fourth voyage from 1413 to 1415 He Sheng’s fleet had already reached the Mozambique Channel and perhaps landed in the renowned port of Sofala on the coast of Mozambique.

The east coast of Africa was ruled by Muslim and Arab merchants that traded with the inhabitants of the gold and resource rich hinterland African empires of the Monomotapa and Mapungubwe of what is now Zimbabwe and South Africa. There is archaeological evidence in South Africa to suggest that trade with China and the Muslim world on the East African coast continued well into Sheng’s seventh voyage from 1431 to 1433.

The Peace Ark will visit many of the same ports and this time it will be there to demonstrate China’s commitment to promote cooperation and medical support for China’s own citizens and, the citizens of the ports that the Peace Ark will visit as part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in the Maritime Silk Road.

The Peace Ark was launched in 2007 and commissioned by China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) in 2008 and is designed to provide humanitarian medical assistance internationally. The ship is an emergency medical support platform at sea which treats, cares, and evacuates casualties during wartime and responds to major disasters and emergencies and undertakes international exchanges and cooperation for military medicine.

The hospital ship has advanced medical facilities including 16 departments, eight operating rooms and over 300 beds and a medical rescue helicopter on board. Since its launch and on its mission Harmony the Peace Ark has visited over 45 countries and regions and provided medical care services to more than 290,000 people. In keeping with China’s leading technological capabilities, the ship is equipped with state of the art medical technology, including blood banks, examination rooms, and various diagnostic and treatment facilities.

On its voyage on the Maritime Silk Road to Africa China is living up to its commitment to deliver and provide African nations humanitarian support to spread the message of a shared and common future for humanity especially in the Global South.

On Saturday August 3, the Peace Ark visited the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean and treated over 2,000 nationals and Chinese expatriates. Following the Seychelles, the Peace Ark has 12 other countries on its list, including Tanzania, Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa, Angola, Congo, Gabon, Cameroon, Benin, Mauritania, Djibouti, and Sri Lanka.

All the ports in countries bordering the Indian Ocean were part of the ancient Maritime Silk Road and together with all the countries on the West African coast are now part of the modern-day Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Following the visit of Minister Liu, over the next few weeks, the Peace Ark will also visit Cape Town on its African Mission en route to the West African coast.

The visit of the Peace Ark to Cape Town will underline Minister Liu’s statement on China-South Africa and China-Africa relations, emphasising the important consensus reached by President Xi Jinping and President Ramaphosa on building a high-level China-South Africa community with a shared future.

The visit of the Peace Ark will further develop solidarity and cooperation with African countries as part of China’s foreign policy. It is clear in the backdrop of the profound global challenges the Chinese side is willing to work with African countries to further promote traditional friendship and deepen solidarity and collaboration. The visit of the Peace Ark is intended to promote the in-depth integration of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Global Development Initiative with the African Union’s Agenda 2063.

It is fitting that Peace Ark will visit Cape Town on its journey around Africa. Four centuries ago the Cape Town harbour was the scene of settler-colonial deception and brutality against the indigenous people and violent oppression and apartheid in the whole of South Africa. Many African countries in the Southern African region and members of the SADC block in the African Union experienced similar oppression and the subsequent consequences of underdevelopment.

In much of the hinterland of Southern Africa was the resource rich and prosperous empires of African kingdoms that traded along the East African Indian Ocean coastline before the arrival of European colonialists. Around Cape Town harbour developed the bustling city with its mix of inhabitants from its own indigenous populations and other parts of the world.

Towards the beginning of every year this cosmopolitan population celebrated the arrival of ships from different parts of the world. One such visit was the arrival of the Alabama from the slave owning southern states of the United States of America (USA). It was reputed that the ship transported reeds from the marshes of the USA for the manufacture of reed beds for the newly married daughters of the Malay slaves living in Cape Town.

When the residents of Cape Town heard of the arrival of the ship there was a carnival atmosphere in town and they composed the now famous goema song called in the colloquial dialect of Cape Town “Daar Kom die Alibama” to a fusion of American southern jazz and Dutch rhythm and danced through the streets of Cape Town. This has now become an annual festival in Cape Town on January 2 and is called the Cape Town Carnival in which the descendants of the former slaves and indigenous inhabitants gather to celebrate.

When the Peace Ark hospital ship finally arrives in Cape Town the people of Cape Town may also welcome the ship in a similar manner. In the local Cape Town Afrikaans dialect the Peace Ark may be renamed “die Vredesark” and once again become an annual event for the people of Cape Town to celebrate the town’s intrinsic links with Africa, the Far East and the Global South.

* Jaya Josie, Advisor, China Africa Center, Zhejiang University International Business School (ZIBS), Adjunct Professor University of the Western Cape (UWC) & University of Venda (UniVen).

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.