The Chinese journey of a Kenyan acrobatic coach: Witnessing the friendship between the two countries

BEIJING, Dec. 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report by China.org.cn on Mathias Kavita, a famous acrobatic artist and top coach in Kenya:

At the Sarakasi Dome arena in Nairobi, a not so spacious office is strewn with acrobatic props, with many of them featuring Chinese elements. Mathias Kavita, the owner of this office, is a famous acrobatic artist and top coach in Kenya. His journey in acrobatics began with a trip to China four decades ago.

Back in 1983, then 13-year-old Mathias was a budding gymnast in Kenya. At that time, he learned that the Chinese Embassy in Kenya, together with the Kenyan government, was selecting local children for acrobatic training in China. According to the agreement, the selected children would return to Kenya after completing the program, and participate in government-initiated acrobatic performances to introduce the art to more audiences. This news greatly enthused Mathias. After several rounds of auditions, he eventually got a ticket to train at the Guangzhou Acrobatics Art Troupe.

Mathias told the press, the school put in painstaking efforts. During the two years of training, they were assigned 16 acrobatics teachers.

The coaches were strict and determined about their training. Under their guidance, these Kenyan students, who had never learned acrobatics before, challenged their physical limits time and again, and managed to finish seemingly impossible moves. Mathias was especially grateful that the coaches had encouraged them to fuse an African touch in their acrobatic routines.

In 1985, these well-trained teenagers came back to Kenya, formed a national acrobatic troupe, and toured around the country. Other acrobats in Kenya were both amazed and shocked by the skills these young acrobats learned in China: Hoop diving, hand-stands on furniture, lion dances, and so on, so they started to imitate such stunts. And just like that, acrobatics became increasingly popular in Kenya. Today, Mathias' performing troupe has also caught the eye of the international community.

Mathias and his fellows were not the only batch of acrobatic proteges. In 2002, China launched the "Training courses on acrobatics for developing countries" project, and since then, over 600 acrobatic learners from more than 20 countries, including Kenya, have benefited from the initiative. Among them, many came from impoverished households, and it was acrobatics that gave them the chance to transform their lives.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of China-Kenya diplomatic relations. Between the two countries, there are grand projects like the Mombasa–Nairobi Railway, and there are also people-to-people exchanges and cooperation that involve and benefit the ordinary. Besides the acrobatic stories, China's men's marathon team travels to Kenya, a successful distance-running nation, to learn and train almost every year; and on the environmental front, many young volunteers from China have been working with Kenyan locals, to work out a sustainable wildlife protection mode…

In the future, there will be more chapters writing such stories of friendship.

China Mosaic 
http://chinamosaic.china.com.cn/index.htm
The Chinese journey of a Kenyan acrobatic coach: Witnessing the friendship between the two countries
http://www.china.org.cn/video/2023-12/14/content_116879800.htm