Fabrice Mba's passion for Chinese culture and martial arts budded in the southern Cameroon town of Sangmelima, where he grew up watching kung fu movies.

Mba (right, front) instructs a young man in martial arts movements in Yaounde, capital of Cameroon. [Photo provided to China Daily]

His elder brother was a projectionist and as a youngster, Mba often helped him sweep the theater.

For the first time, he saw Shaolin monks on the screen. "I discovered kung fu and Chinese culture. It spoke a lot to me."

He and his friends would imitate characters from the movies, but there was no kung fu club to train them.

When he was 8, he left home with his elder sister to settle in the capital, Yaounde.

Life was difficult, his father was absent and his mother could not take care of all her children.

"I grew up on the street," he says.

Mba's life changed with the arrival of a group of Chinese engineers in the 1980s. They built the Yaounde Conference Center, a China-aid project that remains one of the landmarks in Cameroon to this day.

He and his sister lived not far from the center. One of the Chinese engineers at the construction site was skilled in martial arts and trained regularly, to the amazement of Mba and his friends.

"I often went with my friends, and we stood and watched (him training) from afar," he says.

One day, the man called to them and asked them to take a posture, with knees slightly bent as if holding a tree in their arms. "We stood facing the wall. It hurt," says Mba.

After that, he came every morning to learn kung fu. He trained hard, learning the fundamental elements.

Mba returned briefly to Sangmelima to help his brother, but life was difficult there, and he returned to the capital, where he did odd jobs to survive.

Fabrice Mba gives a lecture on traditional Chinese medicine to his students at the Confucius Institute at the University of Yaounde II in Soa, Cameroon, in February. [Photo provided to China Daily]

His life took another turn in 2011, when he encountered a codirector of the Confucius Institute at the University of Yaounde II, during one of his training sessions.

Mba enrolled in the institute. "That marked a turning point in my kung fu journey."

Thanks to a scholarship, he got the opportunity to train in martial arts and traditional Chinese medicine at the Shaolin Temple in Henan province. Between 2015 and 2019, he visited the temple three times.

Today, Mba is a household name in Cameroon when it comes to kung fu and traditional Chinese medicine.

"I am president of the Cameroon Kung-Fu Federation. I am a specialist in Chinese traditional medicine. I have been the president of the Association for the Promotion of Chinese Martial Arts since 2010, and I am also a Shaolin cultural ambassador of the time," says the 46-year-old disciple.

He runs a program that offers free short-term training in physiotherapy and other subjects to disadvantaged young people to help them find work. He also teaches kung fu in several schools.

"Be your own boss" is the slogan of his Lotus and Water Lily program.

"I train them to be morally upright and useful to society," Mba says. "I went through difficulties as a child, and I do not want them to face the same hardships."

Martin Mangwandjo was one of Mba's students. About seven years ago, Mangwandjo started learning kung fu, which changed his life. Now 29, he also teaches martial arts and runs a kung fu club of his own.

"Kung fu has enabled me to fit into the social milieu more easily," says Mangwandjo, who has a congenital disability in his left leg and walks on crutches. "It has given me a winning mentality, because I've understood that a man's strength lies not in his physique, but in his mind."

Now, he wants to emulate his mentor and help promote Chinese culture. "I'd like to encourage other people, who have full mobility but still hesitate to take the plunge, telling themselves that these things are not feasible or not attainable, to really encourage them to embrace Chinese culture as I have," he says.

Mba's knowledge and love of Chinese culture is also visible in the literary world. He has published several books of poetry and prose focused on kung fu, Chinese culture and nonviolence.

"Martial arts is about moral values, peace, respect and life," he says. "Cameroonians and Africans who read the books always come back to me, and say they now have a better understanding of Chinese people and their culture."

Mba says that as more people take up kung fu in Cameroon, he hopes to continue to offer valuable training.

"Promoting Chinese culture in Cameroon does not mean turning Cameroonians into Chinese," he says. "It's like putting Cameroonians in front of a mirror, enabling them to understand that through hard work, they can reshape their mentality, shed poverty, and achieve the results they want, just like the Chinese."