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In 2004, the Chinese ambassador to Kenya received a very special letter from a Kenyan girl named Sharif, who claimed to be a descendant of Zheng He's sailors, that is, the girl claimed to be of Chinese descent.
This seemed somewhat incredible at the time, you must know that Zheng He of the Ming Dynasty went to the West, although it did pass through Mombasa and Malindi in Kenya, but that was 600 years ago.
Of course, it cannot be ruled out that there were crew members of Zheng He's fleet who stayed in Kenya when they passed through it, but as an alien race, is it really possible to survive there and reproduce for more than 20 generations?
Even if this is possible, the descendants of Zheng He's crew must have been completely assimilated by the Kenyans, and how do their descendants remember their Chinese roots?
With all these questions, the Chinese Embassy in Kenya sent a team to the village of Siyu, Patai Island, Kenya, where the little girl wrote the letter lived.
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When the team arrived in this small, remote village and met with Sharif's people, the staff's first reaction was that the little girl was probably right.
Although the family still has a Kenyan face, their skin color is significantly lighter than that of other local natives, especially in the eye features, where some East Asian shadows can be seen.
As soon as the family saw the arrival of the Chinese, they immediately showed great enthusiasm and told the story of their family's relationship with China.
It turned out that during Zheng He's fourth voyage to the West, when the fleet passed through the Kenyan region at that time, it encountered wind and waves, although the treasure ship that Zheng He was riding was not greatly affected, but two of the merchant ships were left behind and swallowed by the wind and waves, and more than 20 crew members could only drift at sea, and were finally pushed by the waves to today's Patai Island.
At that time, the island was in a state of ignorance both in terms of material life and culture, and the indigenous people on the island did not even have decent production tools, while the Chinese civilization during the Ming Dynasty could be said to be leading the world, so for the locals on the island, these 20 or so Orientals were more like "visitors from outside the world".
According to Sharif's mother, the crew did not intend to be permanently on the island at the time, but planned to wait for the time to return home, but what they did not expect was that the wait would be more than 600 years.
Because Zheng He's fleet did not pass through Kenya on its return voyage at that time, and the limited production conditions on the island could not build ships that could sail far, these crew members could only accept the reality and settle down there.
At first, the island's natives were hostile to these outsiders, until the crew helped the islanders eradicate the pythons that had plagued the island for many years, and yes, these natives only had sticks and stones in their hands, and there were no cold weapons at all, so that the pythons were plagued.
To some extent, these crews from the far east not only helped the island solve the threat of giant pythons, but also brought more advanced civilization and production methods, so that more than 600 years later, the island still retains some Ming Dynasty style architecture.
And some of the island's residents still retain the tradition of using chopsticks.
Although 600 years have passed, and although the descendants of these sailors have gradually been assimilated by the locals, the seeds of Chinese civilization have long taken root in this land, and this bloodline has always had the expectation that one day it will return to its homeland in the East.
Sharif told the embassy staff that she was influenced by her grandfather since she was a child, telling her stories from hundreds of years ago, and that she still has a blue and white porcelain bowl in her home, which is undoubtedly proof that it has been passed down from generation to generation.
After hearing the story of Sharif's family, the team immediately conducted a genetic test on Sharif, and sure enough, the Kenyan girl had some Chinese blood in her body.
Sharif wrote to the Chinese embassy in Kenya because she had listened to her grandfather tell stories about her ancestors since she was a child, so she developed a strong interest in China, and as she grew older, this interest became stronger, making the little girl eager to go to the land where her ancestors lived to see it.
However, like most families in Kenya, Sharif's family is financially poor.
Sharif's mother gave birth to five children, and after her divorce from her husband, Sharif's mother had to sell breakfast to support her five children.
Although Sharif insisted on going to high school, judging from the family's economic situation and the social environment in Kenya, Sharif after graduating from high school is likely to marry and have children like his sister, and repeat the life of the previous generation.
Therefore, Sharif's family conditions alone could not support her to fulfill her dream of going to China, and the reason why she wrote to the embassy was to ask for help, and at the same time to prove her Chinese ancestry.
Soon after, the news about a "Chinese girl" on a small island in Kenya spread, and Sharif naturally became a local star, and in April 2005, the crew of Nanjing TV's "Zheng He Goes to the West" made a special trip to Sharif's house to film.
At this time, Sharif was about to graduate from high school, and when the film crew asked Sharif about his dream, the Kenyan girl actually said in Chinese that she wanted to study in China.
It turned out that Sharif had been teaching Chinese on his own for the past two years, and it was because of her unremitting efforts that many people were moved, and later with the help of the Chinese Embassy in Kenya, Sharif finally applied for a place to study in China at public expense.
In July 2005, coinciding with the 600th anniversary of Zheng He's voyage to the West, Sharif appeared at the Bao Shipyard in Nanjing, where Sharif's ancestors had set off.
Later, Sharif studied at Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and after graduating with a master's degree, he entered Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, where he obtained a doctorate in obstetrics and gynecology in 2018.
After returning to Kenya, Sharif opened a local TCM clinic, using the knowledge she learned from her "second hometown" China to once again benefit the local Kenyans like her ancestors.
In the years since, Sharif has traveled back and forth between China and Kenya many times, and the young girl, who wrote a letter asking for help 20 years ago, has now become a bridge between the two countries.
Information sources:
2023-10-11 11:23·The Paper An African girl who claims to be a descendant of Chinese
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