In the morning of 15th November, the Launching Ceremony of the Swahili Edition of “Pipiru na Safari ya Gari Nyekundu” written by Zheng Yuanjie was held at the Confucius Institute at the University of Dar es Salaam. Mr. Tan Yue, the President of China Publishing Group; Mr. Gao Wei, Cultural Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Tanzania; Mr. Walter Bgoya, Director of Mkuki na Nyota Publishers Ltd; Mr. Chen Qi, President of Modern Education Press; Mr. Liu Zhong, Director of the Department of International Cooperation ,China Publishing Group; Mr. Chen Xiaowen, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Commercial Press; Mr. Chang Shaomin, Deputy Editor-in-chief SDX Joint Publishing Company; Ms. Lin Liying, Deputy General Manager, China National Publications Import & Export (Group) Corporation; and Prof. Aldin Mutembei, Tanzanian Director of CI UDSM attended the conference. The ceremony was hosted by Prof. Liu Yan, the Chinese Director of CI UDSM .
The Launching Ceremony
The Swahili edition of the book was jointly launched by Mr. Tan Yue and Mr. Gao Wei. Mr. Zheng Yuanjie, the author of the Chinese version, also sent a video from Beijing to congratulate the launching ceremony .After that, new books were presented by Mr. Liu Zhong to Mlimani Primary School pupils as the first batch of small Tanzanian readers.
Donation Ceremony
The ceremony started with "Three Character Classics" sung by the Mlimani Primary School pupils, bringing a happy and relaxing atmosphere to the event. Mr. Emmanuel Richard Legonga, the Swahili translator expressed his gratitude for all the support and help from Confucius Institute and China Publishing Group during his translation and his belief in greater development in cultural communication between China and Tanzania with the joint efforts of both peoples.
Mr. Emmanuel Richard Legonga
Mr. Walter Bgoya, the Director of Mkuki na Nyota Publishers Ltd, congratulates the release of “Pipiru na Safari ya Gari Nyekundu”. He claimed that Mkuki na Nyota Publisher Ltd would do its best to support and contribute to the cooperation and communication between the two countries. He also called for Tanzanian writers to translate more Chinese works, which played an important role in educating and serving the public.
Mr. Walter Bgoya
Prof. Aldin Mutembei pointed out that reading books in childhood would have a very big impact on one’s life. He expressed his gratitude to Mr. Zheng Yuanjie, the China publishing Group and Mr. Zhang Feng. He hopes that more outstanding Chinese children literature will enter Africa in future, and will be promoted to various schools to enrich the learning life of Tanzanian teenagers and promote the literary communication between China and Tanzania.
Prof. Aldin Mutembei
Mr. Gao Wei said that book publishing was a very important part of cultural communication. This year marks the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Tanzania. The Chinese and Tanzanian publishers have played a very important role in promoting the good relations between China and Tanzania.
Mr. Gao Wei
Mr. Chen Xiaowen delivered a speech on behalf of the China Publishing Group. He stated that the country’s contact lay in the closeness of the people and the closeness of the people lay in the spiritual connection, and that the publication of this book would contribute to strengthening cultural communication and friendship between the two countries.
Mr. Chen Xiaowen
It is worthy of mentioning that the Chinese Translation Publishing House, the Mkuki na Nyota Publishers Ltd. and the Confucius Institute at the University of Dar es Salaam formally signed a cooperation agreement on 30th November 2017 to establish the Tanzania International Editorial Office, aiming at promoting the cultural communications between China and Tanzania by translating Chinese works into Swahili and getting them published in Africa and translating Swahili works into Chinese and getting them published in China.
Group photo
Zheng Yuanjie is a well-known writer of children’s books in China. It is the first time that his book has been translated into a foreign language and Africa is the first stop in the introduction of his books. Prof. Liu Yan stated in the closing remarks that CI UDSM would continue to actively promote and participate in the translation and publication of Chinese and Tanzanian books as the link and bridge between the publishers of the two countries.
The new book launching ceremony was also reported by such media as Xinhua News Agency, Habari Leo & Daily News, Uhuru and Overseas Chinese Weekly.