Chinese Cultural Centers in the Age of Belt and Road Initiative: The Role of Confucius Institutes in the Implementation of “Belt and Road Initiative” Project in Africa (2013–2020)

In the quest for its global influence in Africa, China has used various channels. That is why he integrated into its approach the installation of cultural establishments on the continent commonly called Confucius Institutes. Since the opening of the first establishment in November 2005 in Kenya, the multiplication of these establishments on the continent has evolved in step with economic exchange. If their creation constituted the vanguard in the implementation of the “Belt and Road Initiative” project mentioned for the first time in 2013 by President Xi Jinping, it is clear that the Confucius Institutes play a central role in Chinese economic strategy on the continent. This study covers all countries hosting Confucius Institutes in Africa, which constituted a Chinese economic corridor. It is therefore important to go back to 2005 to examine the genesis of this important agent of China to understand his role in Beijing’s economic policy on the continent. This reflection is an analysis of the place of the Confucius Institutes in the Chinese ambition in Africa. It responds to the central concern, which is to know what is the role of the Confucius Institutes in the realization of Chinese ambitions in Africa? From a historical perspective and a methodological approach that associate the exploitation of written sources with the constructivist and liberal theory, it emerges that the creation of the Confucius Institutes in Africa constituted an important economic step in the implementation of the “Belt and Road Initiative” project.