The 8th China-Africa Youth Festival ended today with a Dialogue sesion in Yiwu village in the Zhejiang Province of China with a call to hold the next one in Africa.

Convening 68 youth from 52 African countries with their counterparts from China, the festival, which forms part of pre-FOCAC (Forum on China-Afrca Cooperation) events, began in China's capital, Beijing, before relocating to Zhejiang towns of Jinhua and Yiwu.

This year’s FOCAC Summit of Heads of State and Government will be helf in Bejing, September 3- 4 and will be preceded by the 8th Ministerial Conference.

Botswana was represented at the Youth Festival by Gabz's radio personality, Tebogo Mokoto whose poignant and pointed remarks during the closing sessiion of the Youth Dialogue shook the foundatiions of the Ruyi Hall of Your World hotel's International Conference centre.

Making a radical departure from the earlier apologetic African youth speakers, Mokoto urged his fellow youth compatriots to approach the partnership from a position of equality and strength considering the wealth of Africa’s resources and minerals.

Equally, he urged African youth to come united at such forums so that they can speak from a "place of power" with one voice.

It was clearly evident that Africa's colonial languages -English, French and Portuguese -play a largely divisive role in Africa.

Arabic, spoken largely in north Africa's Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania, Morocco and Western Sahara - also complicates matters further since the people of these countries align themselves not wuth Africa but with western Asia, which is erroneously called the Middle East.

In-fact most of these states are also members of the Arab League.

Mokoto’s parting shot was a salutation to ‘Africa Day’, which the Youth could not commemorate the previous day for reasons of their packed schedule, which entailed a visit to the Zhejiang Vocational and Technical University of Construction and the imposing larger than life Yiwu Interntional trade Market.

But it was the Malawian Pempho Chabvuta, the African Union's Officer responsible for Partnerships and Member States Engagement, who shattered the glass ceiling.

He made bold assertions and calls for Africa to harnes and leverage her demographic dividend to come up with policies and frameworks that allows the youth's participation in forums like the China-Africa Youth Festival, to shape "the future that we want".

Such a future in Africa, he said, must be one whose development is ‘people driven, and relying on the potential of young people and women, as well as caring for children”.

Emboldened by the African Youth Charter - the first of its kind in the world, which gives every young person the right to participate in all spheres of society and commits state parties to develop measures to ensure youth’s active participarion – Chabvuta also seized the moment to educate his audience about yet anothe AU Ciommission’s youth framework – the One Million Next Level.

He said this project marks the next phase of the African Plan of Action for Youth Empowerment. Its objective is to provide 300 million new opportunities to young people by the year 2050.

Chabvuta’s parting shot was the call for African countries to be givenn a chance to also host the China-Africa Youth Festival, saying such a feat would provide a “unique opportunity” to invest “our Chinese frriends” in the rich cultural tapestry and innovation potential of Africa.

Other speakers at the Youth Dialogue included Liu Hongwu, the Director of the Institute of African Studies at Zhejiang Normal University; a journalist from Jinhua News Media Centyre, Ding Siwen; Hadia Bayoumi, Attache’ of the AU Department of Foreign Affairs, Egypt; Joseph Brighton Malekela, Chief Operations Officer of the Africa-Asia Youth Foundation; Zhu Shun, the President of the China-Africa Chamber of Commerce in Yiwu; Firas Ben Saad, Journalist from the Tunisian State television; Babacar Ndiayem Member of President Ousmane Sonko’s Cabinet and Special Advisor on Youth Issues of Pasef in Senegal.

There was also Huang Meimei, a Deputy to the National People’s Congress (NPC) and Member of the Zhejiang Youth Federation as well as Amadou Biga Maiga, President of the Malian Human Rights Association and Albertine Dina Koussou, News Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Gabon.

The Dialogue ended with the launch of a China-Africa Youth Initiative, whose contents were not openly shared and will presumably be presented at the Sepetember FOCAC Summit as the position of the China-Africa youth.