DOI

10.1080/10462937.2026.2705227

Author ORCID Identifier

Ignatius G. D. Suglo: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9028-936X

Abstract

Since the Mao era, political rhetoric has framed Africa–China relations through a discourse of brotherhood and solidarity, presenting belonging as ontological. I argue instead that belonging in the Africa–China space is achieved through sustained labor across political, cultural, and everyday contexts. Existing scholarship has predominantly examined belonging through spatial frameworks of community-building and place-making. Through case studies of two musicians – Hao Di, a Nigerian performer who achieved prominence in Chinese Mandarin singing competitions, and Akua China, a Chinese musician active in Ghana – I propose the concept of ‘performative belonging.’ Situating discussion on belonging within those of performativity enables us to engage with and broaden our understanding of a wider range of these multiple modes of belonging. This framework reconceptualizes belonging as produced through situated choices across political, theatrical, and everyday domains rather than as a given. It centers embodiment within Africa–China scholarship while expanding understandings of people-to-people relations in Africa–China encounters.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-6-2026

Publisher Statement

© 2026 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group   This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.

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