What do you think of when you mention chiefs?
Is it a burly man wearing a tiger skin and holding a spear and sword, or an old man with dark skin, a serious and solemn expression.
They are often tribal leaders, or even the supreme rulers of tribal unions, with absolute power. They have hundreds of mu of land and can marry any wife they want.
Because of this, the selection of chiefs is very strict.
Only those who have made important and outstanding contributions to the local area of Africa are eligible to be elected.
And the chief system is generally hereditary, and basically it is continued by the bloodline of a family.
But what is unexpected is that a young man from Henan broke this “tradition”.
01
Time goes back to 2019.
On April 21 of that year, in a palace in Nigeria, Africa, a grand ceremony of enthroning a chief was broadcast live to the world.
When the new chief came out, the whole world went wild!
Because he didn’t have dark skin or a strong body, but he had fair skin and was gentle and refined!
“Is this chief a Chinese?”
For a while, this “Chinese version of the chief” became a hot topic.
People couldn’t help but wonder why Africa would choose a Chinese as the chief?
This guy is called Kong Tao.
From Henan.
He has no background, he is just a child from an ordinary civil servant family.
The reason why he became the “chief” of Africa has to do with his work.
In 2010, Kong Tao, who had just graduated with a master’s degree, received an olive branch from China Civil Engineering Corporation.
Because of his calm personality and good business ability, Kong Tao was quickly appreciated by the company.
It happened that the company had a project in Nigeria at this time, and the leader thought that he could give Kong Tao more opportunities to learn and hone his skills, so he sent him there.
Although Kong Tao knew that this was the company’s “good intentions”, he couldn’t be happy at all.
Because everyone knows that Africa is a poor and unsafe place.
Plus the long distance, Kong Tao felt like he was “exiled”.
Before leaving, his family repeatedly told him to take care of himself, and his mother shed a lot of tears for this.
Although he was well prepared, Kong Tao was still shocked by Nigeria after arriving.
As soon as he got off the plane, the heat hit him.
The houses on both sides of the street were dilapidated, flies were flying around, and the sanitation was worrying.
The local guide told them:
“Try not to go out alone, it’s easy to get into trouble.”
After hearing this, Kong Tao couldn’t tell whether the eyes everyone cast on him were “with ulterior motives” or because he was a “foreigner”.
As a result, Kong Tao rarely went out for a long time except for work.
And he found that Nigeria was not exactly the same as he imagined.
He thought the prices here would be very cheap.
But a bowl of ordinary egg fried rice in the restaurant costs fifty or sixty yuan.
Not to mention vegetables, which are more expensive than beef and mutton.
“No wonder Chinese people grow vegetables everywhere. It turns out that vegetables are not as cheap as in China.”
Besides, it is difficult to have a normal meal in Nigeria.
In Nigeria, you will see many incredible foods, such as roasted bats, roasted mice, etc.
Everyone knows that “game” is the source of many viruses, so what Kong Tao fears most in Nigeria is getting sick.
Coincidentally, the location of their company’s project is what the locals call “the hometown of pythons and monkeys.”
Some of Kong Tao’s colleagues were infected with malaria.
Vomiting and diarrhea, and the bones all over the body will also ache…
For a whole week, I was tortured and lost 20 pounds!
Some people asked, why not go to the hospital?
Because the medical conditions here are very backward and there is no effective treatment at all.
02
Although every day in Nigeria is difficult, the biggest headache for Kong Tao and his team is the problem of language and regional differences.
They came with a mission this time!
Everyone wants to complete the work and return home.
But when they really started working, everyone started to worry.
English is the official language of Nigeria, but there are many local languages that no one can understand.
This led to people speaking at cross purposes and not being able to solve a problem for several days.
In order to improve work efficiency, Kong Tao decided to start learning some local languages.
Although he couldn’t communicate without barriers, he could gradually express his own opinions, which gave Kong Tao hope.
“Instead of complaining about life, it’s better to find a way to change it.”
After the problems in life gradually got on track, Kong Tao encountered new problems.
The company’s project requires the construction of a soil excavation site.
After many investigations, they found that the soil samples from the neighboring Hulumi Village could perfectly match the indicators of various experiments.
So they decided to build it here.
In fact, this project is beneficial to the local villagers, but when they were about to start construction, the villagers came over cursing:
“What are you doing!”
“Who allowed you to do this!”
Although there are relevant laws and regulations on land acquisition in the local area, everyone generally listens to the chief.
In the eyes of the villagers, these lands are given to them by the chief for farming, and if they want to build a soil excavation site, they must first obtain the chief’s consent.
There is no way. In order to make the work go smoothly, Kong Tao decided to ask the chief for help.
In fact, before going, he had already made plans for failure.
The first is that the attitude of the villagers is very tough.
The second is that the chiefs in TV dramas are all “terrible” and unkind.
But unexpectedly, when the chief learned about Kong Tao’s purpose, he welcomed him very much.
He even went to the site in person to measure the data step by step with his feet.
This meticulousness and seriousness also changed Kong Tao’s stereotype of this place.
Kong Tao decided to let go of his guard and try to accept every flower and tree here.
During the contact process, he found that the locals were very simple and kind, and they were also eager to develop, so Kong Tao gave up many opportunities to return to China and decided to stay here to help this group of lovely people.
03
In 2013, the Aka Railway was officially started.
This railway is 185.6 kilometers long and is a key railway project undertaken by Kong Tao’s company.
Considering Kong Tao’s previous good performance in Nigeria, the group decided to appoint him as manager to be responsible for all matters related to the construction of the railway.
This is both an opportunity and a challenge for him.
If he does a good job, he will be promoted and get a raise in the future.
If he does a bad job, he will not only lose the company’s people, but also the country’s people.
Therefore, Kong Tao dare not slack off.
You know, this is the first railway in Africa built with Chinese standards.
Previously, the materials used to build the railway here were all European standards.
So it takes a lot of effort to complete the transition between the two.
For this reason, Kong Tao almost never sleeps to supervise the project, fearing that something will go wrong.
The project was proceeding in an orderly manner. At this time, the chief who had helped Kong Tao before came to the door.
He hoped that Kong Tao could give some job opportunities to local residents.
The chief said:
“The price here is very high, but the average monthly salary is generally only 600 yuan. If you can enter a Chinese company, the salary will be much higher.”
Kong Tao thought this suggestion was feasible.
Because the project is huge, manpower is really needed.
If you transfer people from China, it will be troublesome, and the salary alone will be a huge expense.
So, after thinking about it for a while, Kong Tao agreed.
Unexpectedly, the company’s leaders disagreed.
They thought that the locals were lazy and uneducated, and it was easy to cause trouble. Hiring them would be a trouble for themselves.
For this reason, Kong Tao developed a training program for local residents, which not only included skill training, but also details of hierarchical management.
This dispelled the concerns of the leaders.
In this way, Kong Tao provided nearly 5,000 jobs for local people!
The chief also came to thank him specially.
With everyone’s concerted efforts, the Abuja-Kaduna Railway was perfectly completed in 2016, and everyone cheered.
The Abuja-Kaduna Railway makes everyone’s travel more convenient, and it takes very little time, so it is often difficult to get a ticket.
As a result, many scalpers on the black market began to sell tickets at high prices.
In order to put an end to this phenomenon, Kong Tao immediately contacted the government to strengthen management and maintain the fairness of railway ticket prices as much as possible.
After seeing Kong Tao’s ability, the company decided to give him the Abuja City Railway project.
And promoted Kong Tao to general manager.
Kong Tao, who has greater power, decided to use his ability to help more people.
Once, he found that a school nearby was crumbling and very dangerous.
So he paid out of his own pocket and asked someone to renovate the school and built a football field for the children.
The children were very happy and affectionately called him “Principal Kong”.
When he was free, Kong Tao would come here to play with the children, teach them to grow vegetables, and tell them about the outside world.
In this way, Kong Tao stayed in Nigeria for 9 years.
Everyone had already regarded him as a friend, and this place became Kong Tao’s second home.
After learning about all the contributions Kong Tao had made, the local local king (that is, the biggest chief) proposed to make Kong Tao a chief.
Kong Tao thought it was a joke at first, but he didn’t expect that everyone would hold a grand coronation ceremony for him.
Faced with this honor, he said:
“I know that in Africa, to become a chief, you must make outstanding contributions to the local economic and social development, and the reason why I received this honor today is the best affirmation of me by the local government. I am also very honored to be awarded the title of chief. I hope I can live up to expectations and continue to serve as a bridge for China-Africa cooperation and communication.”
Although Kong Tao has ended his overseas life, he still misses the days of living in Africa.
Now he still calls the local king or chief when he has nothing to do, and everyone welcomes him back again.
As for the question of “marrying a wife casually” that everyone is concerned about, Kong Tao said this:
“I am Chinese, of course I want monogamy!”
In fact, as early as 2014, Kong Tao had already married and had a lovely daughter.
For Kong Tao, the chief is just an “identity”.
Whether he has this title or not, he will stick to himself.
For him, “no pain, no gain” is the most important thing.
I think this is why he can succeed.
After all, not everyone has this perseverance and determination!