Heads of State from all over Africa recently gathered in China for the China Africa Summit. The reception involved the heads lining up and going to greet the China’s President one by one. Symbolic that China is putting African countries in its basket one by one?

In what is seen as the greatest wooing of Africa since the emergence of the West in the continent, China pledged a number of goodies in the economic, education, agricultural and health sectors. China will give Africa $ 3 billion in preferential loans; $ 2 billion in preferential buyer’s credits and debt relief on all interest free loans that matured at the end of 2005.

Chinese   universities are churning out the largest PhDs in science and engineering in the world. In the US, Chinese and Indian students are taking over some of America’s best engineering and science schools. After getting their first-class PhDs in science and engineering, the Chinese have infiltrated America’s exclusive research shrines, outnumbering Americans at such strategic scientific research centers like the MIT Lincoln Lab and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena California, once reserved only for America’s best and the brightest weaponry, space science and engineering researchers.

China has pledged to set up 10 agricultural technology centers in Africa and dispatch 100 senior agricultural experts. China will train 15 000 African professionals, dispatch 300 volunteers, build 100 rural schools and offer scholarships to 4000 African students every year. It will build 30 hospitals and disburse $ 37.5 billion to fight Malaria on the continent.

What is China’s secret? What is making China flex its muscles to the amazement of the West? Could it be a result of its powerful and networked Diaspora? Or could it be as Chika Onyeani puts it, a result of its “spider web doctrine,” an impenetrable social and economic network?

China has not only mastered the act of exploiting its large local market but is cheering its entrepreneurs to act aggressively. Drawing from 19^th century European history, it is taking advantage of the huge market incentive that drew European investors to America and economies of scale available in manufacturing, distribution, marketing, and research processes.  China has realized that a productive population increases the middle class and acts as a consumer. It has also realized that small and medium size sectors are key to a nation’s development and that a country need not reinvent the wheel, but rather repackage it, and send it back to the market.

What can Africa learn from the Sino-Africa ties? Learning from history is very important. Decades of aid have not reclaimed Africa from economic stagnation. Will history be repeated, this time, with China on stage? There is need to see population not in terms of a “time bomb” but a resource that is key to production and consumption. If Africa does not align its education to meet market demands, it will continue to be servant to other continents. It is surprising that Africa has a large number of highly educated professionals in diaspora yet they do not work closely with their African counterparts, like the Chinese and the Indians do, to help jumpstart continental economy. Africa’s well-trained scientists and engineers are roaming the streets devoid of mobilization and self drive. The understanding that the future of Africa’s economic development not only  lies in the mobilization of its entrepreneurs but also providing a conducive environment for business such as low taxation, has not been fully grasped. Lack of entrepreneurial dynamism will continually separate the continent from the developed economies of the West and Asia.

As the continent absorbs Asia’s largesse, it should realize that solutions to its economic problems must be home-grown. It calls for resolve to steer the process, learn from history, and form a united front to reclaim African civilization. Africa should choose between remaining an egg that will be an omelette on other peoples’ breakfast tables or hatching into a chick that will give rise to other chicken. African states need not be eggs in China’s basket.