Road to Shanghai - from Lusaka, Zambia

D: We as an association here at Kabwata cultural Village we have been invited by the Zambian development agency under commerce and trade industries we have been invited to Shanghai Expo in 2010.

M: My name is Masiya Mubita I am an artist in this place and I am also the chairman for Kabwata cultural village.

D: My name is Dickson Sikute, I am thirty seven married with two children. I come from Mkoundi village, Southern part of Zambia.

M: Basically there will be an exhibition in China specifically in the city of Shanghai that’s an exhibition that will start from the 1st of May to somewhere around October it will be therefore six months and knowing Shanghai is one of the commercial cities in the world we feel its worth us participating that side.

D: We have products which the local Chinese here buy a lot of ebon products so as we go to Shanghai we will take more ebon stuff, that’s the animals like elephants, Rhinos, hippos and the human faces, that’s the main thing, the main product that the Chinese people do buy here. So its an advantage for us that when we go to Shanghai we can take more of that products.

M: The relationship between Zambia and China is actually a good one in the sense we have a good number of Chinese investors who have actually invested in Zambia. We have some Chinese investors in terms of mining and it being a governmental programme it will strengthen the relationship between Zambia and China especially because it will mean cultural exchange and the other skills exchange when we happen to visit China.

D: This exhibition is more important for us as Zambians because we share a cordial relationship between China and Zambia because now the Chinese help us a lot in Zambia and we have more Chinese.

M: This is very important to us as we can learn from China the way they are doing their stuff and probably there will be a few things actually China will learn from us. So I think this will strengthen the relationship between Zambia and China as it stands right now.

Video: D J Clark

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