Opinion | In Africa, China needs ‘donkey diplomacy’

The trade in donkey skins has decimated the animal’s population, adversely affecting poor African families and thus harming China’s reputation

Beijing can support the African Union’s ban on the trade by cracking down on products that use donkey skin and looking into manufacturers’ scientific and cultural claims

Reading Time:3 minutes

Children carry jerrycans of water back home using a donkey cart after filling them at one of the water points within the a camp for internally displaced people on the outskirts of Dollow, in Jubaland state, Somalia, on January 30. Donkeys are used as a means of transport in many African countries. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 6:30pm, 29 Feb 2024Updated: 12:32pm, 1 Mar 2024

On February 18, the African Union, an intergovernmental organisation that encompasses the continent’s 55 states, approved a 15-year moratorium on the trade in donkey skins.

For years, donkey hides have been shipped to China to make ejiao, a gelatin used in an alleged traditional Chinese medicine “cure-all”. The decision to stop the slaughter of Africa’s donkeys, a means of production for some of the poorest on the continent, is a significant milestone.

The China-bound trade is threatening the donkey population worldwide. Having exhausted domestic donkeys, ejiao businesses have in the last decade or so turned to the animals on the African continent. A 2016 study by The Donkey Sanctuary, a UK-based charity, found that the trade resulted in the death of up to 4.8 million donkeys worldwide a year, largely in African countries.

The number of donkeys slaughtered globally rose to 5.9 million in 2021 according to The Donkey Sanctuary. Without preventive action being taken, some 6.8 million donkeys could be butchered in 2027 for the skin trade, the charity’s report this year predicted.

The increase in donkey slaughter in Africa coincided with a 160 per cent increase in China’s production of ejiao, which is said to be good for strengthening the body, prolonging life and enhancing beauty. Unsurprisingly, the rise of the donkey skin trade has followed the expansion of Sino-African trade.

Few realise that every part of the donkey skin trade is flagrantly inhumane. Indiscriminate sourcing, including wanton theft, often send young and old, fit and sick, and even pregnant donkeys to slaughter. Transport often involves moving the donkeys on foot for days under the blazing African sun often without food, water or rest. Holding facilities are deplorable. Slaughter happens in front of other donkeys in cruel ways.

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