Press Release No.2002-39

GUINEAN STORYTELLER NAMED UNESCO
ARTIST FOR PEACE

Paris, June 25 - Guinean singer and griot (traditional storyteller) Sayon Camara was named a UNESCO Artist for Peace by the Organization's Director-General, Koïchiro Matsuura on Friday, June 21.

Her nomination was announced during the presentation of the Felix Houphouët Boigny Peace Prize to Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and a former President of Ireland.

Sayon Camara, who is considered to be among the great griots of the Mandingo civilization of western Africa, is the first African woman to be named a UNESCO Artist for Peace by Mr Matsuura. She will strive to serve the Organization by drawing attention to the different activities undertaken in its fields of competence.

Several eminent personalities attended the nomination ceremony. Among them were former presidents Abdou Diouf (Senegal) and Henri Konan Bédié (Côte d'Ivoire, Henry A. Kissinger, the president of the Felix Houphouët Boigny Peace Prize, Pierre-André Wiltzer, the Minister-delegate for Cooperation and Francophonie and representative of the French government, and the representatives of the presidents of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, and of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Ould Taya.