CULTURE

Commitments:

Safeguarding and revitalization of the tangible and intangible heritage

• Assistance granted to African States by the World Heritage Fund during the 1998-1999 biennium amounted to a total sum of US $925,635 disbursed for a variety of uses: preparatory assistance, technical cooperation, training, on-site promotional activities, overall strategy. As regards the latter, two theme-specific meetings of experts have taken place to take stock of the cultural landscape of Africa: one held in Kenya in 1998 and the other, the fourth meeting of Overall Strategy for West Africa, held in Porto Novo (Benin) from 16 to 19 September 1998.

• The 1998-1999 biennium has coincided with the final phase of the Preservation in Museums in Africa (PREMA) project led by UNESCO in collaboration with ICCROM and made possible as a result of extrabudgetary funds from the Government of Germany. The project has conducted a wide range of national and subregional activities in the field of training (for specialist staff, trainers, museum managers, and so on) and museum work: conservation, restoration, exhibitions, documentation, drawing up and implementation of programmes and fund-raising.

It has made possible the emergence of a large network of African heritage conservation and enhancement professionals, and has been responsible for running:

In its closing stages, the project has set about preparing African structures capable of continuing such action into the future. The Ecole Africaine du Patrimoine, established in Benin in November 1998, is expected to take over the training of specialist museum staff in French-speaking Africa. A similar school is expected to open in Kenya, where it will play a similar role vis-à-vis English-speaking Africa.

• Within the framework of the Special Project: “Museum outreach programmes in West Africa”, a workshop was staged in Bulawayo (Zimbabwe) and gave managers and specialist staff from museums in West Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger and Togo) an opportunity to share their experience with colleagues from Southern and Eastern Africa (Botswana, Ethiopia, Lesotho, South Africa, Zimbabwe and others). The aim of this Special Project, which forms part of the AFRICOM Programme launched by ICOM, is to perfect innovative methods and techniques tailored to local traditions and practices, and to teach young women how to use them.

• The following activities have been carried out at country level.

(i)- In Madagascar, restoration work at the Rova Antananarivo palace has been completed on some of the cornicing and towers. Efforts are under way to raise fresh funding to restore this landmark of Malagasy culture, destroyed by fire in 1995.

(ii) In Benin, extrabudgetary funds from the Italian Government are enabling UNESCO and ICCROM to see through the third phase of a joint project for the conservation and enhancement of the Royaux d’Abomey Palace, due for completion in December 2000. This phase of the project involves a variety of work designed to upgrade the running of the museum: staff supervision, training of museum professionals in the use of specialized management tools, visitor reception facilities, production of guidebooks and other documents, introduction of income-generating cultural activities. An Internet website has been set up to introduce the Musée d’Abomey and the heritage of Benin to a wider public (http://www.chez.com/3a/projets/abomey2.htm). Also in Benin, UNESCO has carried out restoration work on the tombs and sacred temples of the Musée Honme (Porto Novo), thanks to funding supplied by the Government of Germany. Contacts are being established with other donors to enable work in this particular area, as well as on the Museum as a whole, to continue.

(iii)- In Eritrea, the Government of Italy has help to finance a UNESCO report presenting a preliminary blueprint of the conservation and development work needing to be done on the old town of Massawa. The document, which includes a series of recommendations, has been submitted to the Eritrean authorities.

(iv)- In Ethiopia, UNESCO organized a workshop in Addis Ababa (1999) on the conservation and management of cultural heritage as a result of a joint operation involving the Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Planning and Cooperation, the Orthodox Church and Ethiopian Islamic Council. The event was attended by delegations from all parts of the country, and gave them the opportunity to share their views on, and experience in, all manner of heritage-related issues. It served to pinpoint a wide range of problems, to which suitable solutions were found; and the projects devised for the safeguarding, restoration and enhancement of heritage will be submitted to potential donors with a view to securing the necessary backing for their implementation. The success of the workshop has encouraged those who took part to begin planning a meeting towards the end of the year of donors interested in protecting the cultural heritage of Ethiopia.

• During the Pan-African Conference on Sustainable Integrated Coastal Management (PACSICOM), the Culture Sector organized a special session to explore the socio-cultural aspects influencing sustainable integrated management of coastal areas in Africa. It served to highlight the relevance of the integrated and transdisciplinary approach to the sustainable management of coastlines being suggested by UNESCO, and showed that any failure by science and technology to take account of social and cultural dimensions, would reduce their efficiency and prevent them from reaching their objectives. Those dimensions were incorporated into the Conference’s final documents, and the approach itself now forms part of the follow-up to the recommendations of the Intergovernmental Conference on Cultural Policies for Development, held in Stockholm (Sweden) from 30 March to 2 April 1998. The special session at PACSICOM has produced two important results. First, it has helped make African scientific experts and decision-makers much more aware of the importance of the human and cultural resource, as much in terms of its creativity as its heritage value, to the implementation of sustainable development strategies. Second, the Culture Sector, as part of the follow-up to the Conference, is now proposing to create a UNESCO Chair in cultural tourism for peace and development at the Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo (Mozambique), associated with the development of a tourist park in “Maputoland”, a region stretching across the States of Mozambique, South Africa and Swaziland.

Promotion of living cultures

• Creativity and copyright law

• In the field of copyright law, the African Regional Consultation on the Protection of Expressions of Folklore took place in Pretoria (South Africa) from 23 to 25 March 1999. This, the first regional meeting to be organized with WIPO under the plan of action adopted at the UNESCO/WIPO World Forum on the Protection of Folklore (April 1997), drew participants from 18 countries around Africa: Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia. A number of regional IGO representatives also figured among those attending.

Debate at the meeting highlighted the desirability for African countries of having national laws specifically attuned to providing traditional and popular culture, whose promotion serves as a key factor fuelling cultural and economic development, with effective protection. A recommendation addressing the African States was adopted to that end. UNESCO and WIPO, for their part, were asked to step up their programme offering legal and technical assistance, training for specialists in the fields of inventory, documentation and conservation, and support in the form of equipment and financing.

• In the context of its support for high-profile regional and international events in the field of creativity, UNESCO attaches much importance to one of the leading showcases of talent in Africa, the African Performing Arts Market (MASA), organized for the fourth time in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) from 20 to 27 February 1999. First created by the Agence de la Francophonie (ACCT) in 1993, this project is now independently managed with the help of funding from the Government of Côte d’Ivoire, ACCT, the European Union and UNESCO (US $60,000 p.a. since 1996). Bringing together approximately fifty groups of performers (musicians, actors and dancers) from 23 countries in English-, French- and Portuguese-speaking African countries, as well as a thousand distributors, professionals and journalists from around the globe, this market also stands both as a Forum for exchange and a Festival of the people. The support UNESCO grants to MASA fulfils the Organization’s objectives of opening eyes and ears to the creative potential of contemporary artistic and cultural expression in Africa.

MASA figures among the events at which those eligible for the UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Arts (worth US $20,000) may be awarded. This year, the Prize has been awarded to 11 companies: 4 dance (from Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo), 4 musical (Angola, Central African Republic, Guinea [Conakry], Zimbabwe) and 3 drama (Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali). UNESCO has also helped to organize two major meetings of professionals within the MASA framework. The first, organized jointly by the International Music Council (IMC) and International Council of Organizations for Folklore Festivals and Folk Art (CIOFF), drew participants from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Togo and Senegal. It tackled the themes of music and dance on school curricula and the adaptation of traditional music and dance for the modern stage. The second was organized by the International Federation of Musicians (FIM) with the agreement of MASA and prompted by UNESCO. Forming part of the general joint action led by FIM and the FIM African Committee and geared to improving conditions for performing artists in Africa, it focused on the status of musicians in Africa and brought together, for the very first time, every leader of the professional musicians’ associations of English- and French-speaking Africa alike. Participants came from: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo and Zimbabwe. This extremely important workshop had two immediate repercussions: first, the creation of an African observatory to help combat piracy; second, an invitation from the Government of Cameroon to hold a meeting on the issue in Yaoundé in January 2000.

• During the Ouagadougou International Crafts Fair (SIAO’98) held from 30 October to 8 November 1998, the UNESCO Crafts Prize for Africa (US $10,000) turned the spotlight on three creative craftspersons from Ghana, Senegal and Mauritania. The UNESCO booth featured textile-based craftwork from Western Africa, and provided an opportunity to showcase the practical results of the training that four craftspersons (from Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire and Togo) had received during a workshop in Cotonou (Benin) in December 1997.

• The International Festival of African Fashion (FIMA), organized with financial and intellectual input from UNESCO, took place from 12 to 14 November 1998 in the heart of the desert-lands of Niges (Aïr-Ténéré). Centred on the theme of Culture, Peace and Development, it brought together some thirty African fashion designers whose creations were displayed by models used to working with some of the biggest names in fashion. The Desert Catwalk and Opera were broadcast live by the Canal France International television company, with edited highlights shown later on CNN, TV5 and France 2.

• UNESCO contributed to the organization of the Southern African Film Festival in Harare (Zimbabwe) in October 1998, offered drama classes to marginalized youngsters in Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo) in May 1999, launched a series of studies on African Art and Women with experts, under contract, from Congo, Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, and helped stage the Festival panafricain de musique et des arts (FESPAM) in Congo in August 1999, with a workshop on Copyright, neighbouring rights and the involvement of the music industry, and also a scientific conference on traditional music in Africa. UNESCO sponsored prizes for the best young male and female performers delivered at the 1998 and 1999 KORA African Music Awards. Within the framework of the Music Crossroads project, which offers young musicians a chance to take part in stage performances and workshops, and with financial support from SIDA and NORAD, five festivals were organized in Zimbabwe and Mozambique involving the participation of some 600 musicians.

• The UNESCO-ASCHBERG Bursaries for Artists programme enabled 13 young artists and a performing group from African countries (see below) to travel to European countries and the United States for short-term residencies of between one and twelve months (extrabudgetary: US $34,840). In the field of the visual arts: seven artists from Angola, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa. In the field of performing arts: one artist from Mali and a group from South Africa. In the field of creative writing: three artists from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti and Senegal. In the field of dance: one artist from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the field of media arts: one artist from Cameroon. Under the same scheme, three institutions in Africa have acted as hosts to five visiting artists from Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe: The Bartel Arts Centre (performing arts), South Africa; Espace Solo Bade (performing arts), Senegal; Compagnie de Dance Contemporaine (dance), Côte d’Ivoire.

• Under the Special Project “Popular creativity in deprived areas implemented for adolescents and young people”, UNESCO has financed popular creativity workshops designed for young people living in deprived areas in four African countries: Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Africa (total budget: US $38,802). These courses, delivered within the framework of the formal education system, municipalities or national NGOs, sought to introduce the young people in question to the techniques of artistic creation in three specific disciplines: fine arts, music and drama. Three of the projects are still under way. First, the South Africa Project led by “Ubuntu 2000”, a pan-African cooperation and development movement, which involves the setting up and running of a fine arts studio offering disadvantaged young people the chance to develop their creativity, and concerns 30 artists. Second, the Cape Verde Project, led in cooperation with the country’s National Commission, which has set out to establish a School of Music for young, self-trained musicians with a view to promoting the musical education of the younger generations and facilitating their socio-cultural and occupational reintegration into society. The project offers places to 50 young children and adolescents, and its social agenda is turning musical training into an arm in the war on drugs, AIDS, premature parenthood, child prostitution, crime and marginalization. UNESCO has allocated funds to see the School through its first year, after which time it is expected to be able to become self-financing. Finally, the Côte d’Ivoire Project, devised by the playwright and artistic director Naky Sy Savane, which sets out to produce plays in workshops for 30 young children and adolescents.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo Project has reached its conclusion. It was implemented in cooperation with the local UNESCO National Commission by the Democratic Republic of the Congo Collective Consultation of Youth NGOs (CONAJO), which organized a workshop seminar from 23 November 1998 to 12 January 1999 to help boost the popular creativity of young, untrained, Kinshasa artists without proper studios of their own, and ultimately sought to involve them in the country’s reconstruction. Thirty such youngsters took part.

The target results of the CONAJO project were achieved through an ever-deeper involvement on part of the young students in the national reconstruction of Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as the setting up of a young informal artists’ guild (CEMI) and the higher standard of quality in the works of art produced. Findings stemming from the project evaluation show that constant follow-up is needed in the training of young artists, and that a lack of adequate management would prevent them from giving free rein to their creativity. The experiment nonetheless provided conclusive evidence that these types of workshop are capable of changing the course of their careers, not to mention approaches to teaching, and can enable them to take greater responsibility for their own welfare. Via the impact that they have on their immediate environment, young people can develop their role in the life of the nation. Special attention will be paid to the follow-up and repercussions of this project at national level.

Books and cultural industries

• Africa’s mobilization for World Book and Copyright Day does indeed seem to be growing in scale. That is probably partly because the event has gradually become more deeply ingrained with each passing year since the General Conference of UNESCO decided to launch it in 1995. It also has something to do with the energetic approach of certain National Commissions (Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon and Gambia, for example), and consistent media support (press and radio, e.g. Africa No. 1).