Interview with a researcher Seifudein Adem: An unexpected journey from Ethiopia to Japan

Safedain Adem

In May 2024, I was appointed a researcher at the Jica Ogata Sadako Sadako Research Institute for Peate and Development Institute. We asked about his research aspirations and portrayed his perspective on Japan's development experience and the potential for development partnerships between Japan and Africa.

Explore what Japan has to offer

– You are from Ethiopia, but you have earned your master's and doctoral degrees from Japan. What motivates you to study in Japan?

My journey from Ethiopia to Japan began by accident in 1991. As an assistant lecturer at Addis Ababa University, I attended a meeting in the Middle East. On my return flight, the attendant handed me the latest issue of The Economist, a weekly British magazine. Economists included an invitation to apply for graduate studies from international universities in Japan. I was immediately intrigued by this opportunity. Once we landed, we wereted no time submitting our application. I was pleased to accept and begin researching Masters in International Relations in 1992. After completing the program, I went to Tsukuba University, pursuing doctoral studies in international political and economics.

Usually people choose to study in other countries because they are already familiar with it or know little about it. In my case, it was the latter. I was attracted to studying in Japan. Because aside from some basic facts I learned during my high school and undergraduate years, I knew little about Japan, including the fact that Japan and Ethiopia have a long history as countries and neither country has been colonized. Another factor that sparked my curiosity was that Japan was the first non-Western state to modernize, and it contradicts the general Western notion that modernization requires Westernization. When I first arrived in the far snowy countryside of Nigata, the countryside where Nigata was located, I realized it was too different to Ethiopia, where I felt like I had arrived on other planets. However, I opened up my mind and explored what Japan had to offer, and by the time I completed my PhD in 1999, my research focus began narrowing down Japan's economic development. It's been over 30 years since I first set foot in Japan, and this year my curiosity about it has grown. I still study and learn about Japan every day.

-What kind of research have you done so far?

My research includes five important areas: Japan-Africa relations, African insights into Japan's developmental experiences, China-Africa relations, Kenyan scholar Ali Mazurui's scholarship, and international relations research.

I began writing about Japan-Africa relations in 2005. In the same year, my edited volume, Japan: Model and Partner was released by Brill in the Netherlands. Looking back, it was particularly important just six years after completing my PhD and four years after starting my stumbling college education career.

My research on China-Africa relations is even more extensive. A notable publication in the region is China's East African Diplomacy (Routledge), edited book in 2013. It focused on its perspective and East Africa that distinguished the book from other publications on topics at the time. It is characterized by contributions from academics, mainly in East Africa, including Kenya, Zambia, Ethiopia, Uganda and Madagascar.

These two books address Japan and China's foreign policy and diplomatic approach to Africa. However, the latest book released in 2023 attempted to integrate previous works on these subjects and use lessons from Japan and China in particular to explore the importance of East Asia's developmental experiences to Africa. The book is titled “Springer”: A Exploration of African Modernity: Lessons from Japan and China.

Examining the shortage of intra-African immigration

– After being educated at Binghamton University in the United States and Doshisha University in Japan, he joined the Jica Ogata Research Institute and launched a new research project entitled “Journeys for Humanesceulty for African Human Security.” What is the importance of this project?

First, please tell us why you are interested in working at a laboratory named after the late Dr. Ogata Sadako, the former United Nations High Commissioner? Dr. Ogata had dedicated an important part of her professional life to improve the lives of refugees, so her name symbolized the act of human kindness in my best condition for me. Additionally, the late Kenyan scholar Ali Mazurui, who worked at Binghamton University in New York for about a decade, knew Dr. Ogata and gave her great respect.

There is research on immigration in Europe and North America than on the issue of immigration in Africa itself. And I thought this was a huge gap as Africans tend to migrate to other African countries more frequently than to other continental destinations. Therefore, one of the main objectives of this project was to provide a deeper understanding of the living experiences of African migrants.

A unique aspect of this project is its focus on the perspectives of African immigrants themselves. The project covers all stages of the moving process, from prenatal birth to the possibility of a return. It sees how the human safety of immigrants is challenged through their difficult journeys. I think this approach provides deeper insight into the phenomenon of intra-African immigration.

Our contributors are made up of Japanese and African scholars and experts to nurture a diverse and rich dialogue. The findings are expected to have important policy implications as they provide a nuanced understanding of the transition experience. Use semi-structured interviews to capture the personal stories of African immigrants at different stages of the migration process. Our goal is to clarify the complexities of migration and inform policy in order to better support and protect African migrants.

A comparative study of the ideas of Fukuzawa Moto and Ali Mazurui

– Are there other topics that you are interested in pursuing?

In particular, I am exploring the possibilities of conducting a comparative study of ideas from Japanese thinker Fukuzawa Motoshima and Kenyan scholar Ali Mazurui. Fukuzawa (1835–1901) was one of the first politicians in Japan today. He was also an intellectual who introduced Japan to Western education, institutions and social thinking. Mazrui (1933–2014) was a scholar, professor and political writer in the African and the Islamic world, as well as the North-South relations. He is best known for his television documentary entitled “Africans: Triple Heritage.” This explores how African society was shaped by Western, Islamic and Indigenous influences.

Below is how my interest in the subject emerged and solidified. This year was 2018. As an African Asian Options Fellow at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, I was working on a paper entitled “Reasons and Numbers: African Reflections on Japan.” From an African perspective, I was trying to apply the Meiji Japan (1868–1912) experiences to postcolonial Africa. In my view, the challenges that Japan encountered in the 19th century are somehow similar to those encountered by postcolonial Africa. This paper was included in a later published book and reconstructed the territorialization in the Global South (Springer, 2020). While preparing that paper, I met and got used to Fukuzawa's ideas about what is called modernization today. He also used Mazurui's ideas extensively when examining the state of Africa. However, I have never linked Fukuzawa to Mazurui in my previous analysis.

The idea of ​​comparing Fukuzawa and Mazurui was that one of my young colleagues recently said, “Who is Fukuzawa's most comparable African figure?” I was not expecting such a question and could not provide an answer right away, but further reflecting, I realized that some of Mazurui's ideas are surprisingly similar to Fukuzawa's ideas despite the separation of space and time. Ali Mazurui was not familiar with Fukuzawa's works.

Fukuzawa witnessed the birth of modern Japan in the second half of the 19th century. Meanwhile, Mazurui saw the emergence of postcolonial Africa since the mid-20th century. Both lived during the time when each of the Japanese and African societies was undergoing major transformations, and directly observed the systemic changes that were taking place in their respective societies. They also affected this very different degree of change. Fukuzawa, at the age of 33, brought about the dissolution of Japan's feudal system during the Meiji Restoration (1968), a coup, or a kind of revolution from the above. Mazurui was also in his 30s in the 1960s, a decade of Africa's decolonization, and was working on the question of how Japan and Africa could bring about better change through social transformation, respectively. What struck me the most was Fukuzawa and Mazurui's conceptualization of their ideas about modernization challenges and how these challenges could be overcome. At my judgment, their ideas are comparable. This is something I would like to see more systematically in the future.

Comparative analysis of Africa and Japan provides three important insights into the challenges of modernization. First, the problems faced by society are limited in the sense that they are summarised in the question of how to improve the human condition. Second, the scope of solutions is also finite, but is influenced by the unique beliefs and worldviews of society. Third, every culture has potential solutions to address modernization challenges in a unique way. In other words, the possibility of overcoming modernization challenges is universal, but the approach to doing so is not. Africa is no exception to these generalizations, with a “triple heritage” made up of Islam, indigenous values ​​and Western culture.

Applying the Japanese experience to Africa's growth and peace

– Do you think Japan's modernization model can be applied to Africa?

I don't think it can be applied directly. Development experiences in Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam may be related to more direct regional applications such as poverty reduction and overall economic growth. Nevertheless, the experience and knowledge of Japan's development can be related to Africa for stimulation purposes, including how to learn and how to learn quickly. This means that Japan's support for Africa does not need to be primarily a capital transfer. Rather, it may be a form of ideas, knowledge, and experience. Examples include the model of Japanese industrialization and the Kaizen approach.

Another field that Africa can learn from modern Japan: it is worth it truly needs. Today there are many conflicts in Africa. Many of them are because of what is called a crisis of legitimacy. Certain groups do not believe that other groups can control them. In particular, those who were not culturally connected to each other due to colonialism were united under the umbrella of one (national) state. This became the source of ethnic conflict. For this reason, politics in most Africa remains a zero-sum game. In other words, you'll win or lose. In many cases, there is no victory. Therefore, one lesson Africa can learn from modern Japanese politics is about the peaceful transition of political power. thank you.