UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC
AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION (UNESCO)

Keynote address by H. E. Professor Michael OMOLEWA
President of the UNESCO General Conference
and Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria to UNESCO at the dinner
in honour of the African World Heritage Experts’
meeting, and the African World Heritage Fund
Workshop held at Lord Charles Hotel, Somerset West
South Africa: 17 March, 2005

Your Excellency, Chair of the Portfolio
Committee of Arts and Culture,

Chairman of the World Heritage Committee,

Assistant Director-General: Africa Department,

Director, World Heritage Centre,

Excellencies,

Distinguished Delegates,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Friends,

Good evening,

Let me begin my appreciation with warm words of praise and the expression of profound gratitude for the kind hospitality to all the guests and me from our very point of entry at the airport. You honour me by this privilege to make an intervention when you should all be busy toasting yourself with more wine.

Perhaps I should confess that when I was in South Africa, in Cape Town, just last September I had expressed a wish to be back because of the joy that I had at the time. My joy this time around has surpassed that of September and I will not be surprised if I am back again in this great country sooner than you expect! Indeed, it is a pleasure to be here tonight. It is true that we have missed our dear hostess, the charming Deputy Minister of Arts and Culture, Ms. N. G. W. Botha, who has been a great supporter of the cause of heritage promotion and an inspiration to us all. But the joy of it is that a Member of Parliament is standing in for her as further demonstration of the importance of the legislative arm of governance all over the world.

The past few days have been intense for all of us. Some have been involved in the African World Heritage Experts’ meeting, while others took part in the deliberations surrounding the African World Heritage Fund. The former was dedicated to the elaboration of the African Position Paper to be presented to both the African Union and the World Heritage Committee while the latter

considered innovative, long-term, and sustainable strategic partnership approaches in the context of African World Heritage. In light of this, I shall not monopolise the rostrum for too long dear friends. I shall simply spend some time to reflect and shed some light on my term of duty as President of the General Conference of UNESCO. I was also invited to speak on the importance of UNESCO faced with the complex global challenges to be confronted by us as a continent.

I was elected as President of the 32nd session of the General Conference just less than two years ago. The LORD has helped me throughout this period to continue the excellent work started on September 29th, 2003 when I was invited to lead the 32nd session of the General Conference. As many of you will recall, we had a historic session as the United States returned to UNESCO after almost two decades of exit, and I had the honour to invite Mrs Laura Bush, the First Lady of the United States, to address the General Conference. Thereafter followed the adoption of some very important Conventions including that on the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage. Several Resolutions were also adopted to assist our organisation meet the important challenges of the new century. Later this year, in October, I shall be ceding my position, when new elections are held at the beginning of the 33rd session of UNESCO’s supreme governing body.

I must admit that these past two years have been extremely exciting and challenging. Most of all, however, these two years have been very fulfilling. I have been privileged to have had the opportunity to travel the globe preaching the laudable and noble goals of UNESCO, representing the Organization I cherish and believe in, not only for my country, Nigeria, but also for all of Africa. I have made presentations on such wide-ranging issues as literacy, the abolition of slavery; quality provision in cross-border higher education; the relationship between UNESCO and NEPAD; Adult Literacy; Education for All; Dialogue among cultures and civilizations; all the way through to the protection of cultural diversity and artistic expression to the subject at hand this week – tangible and intangible cultural heritage. I have also had the opportunity to establish a working group as resolved by the General Conference to examine the relationship between the three organs of the governance of our organisation, the General Conference, the Executive Board and the Secretariat. The report of the group is now ready and will be examined by the 171st session of the Executive Board in April and later by the General Conference in October.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Let me quickly spend some time on the subject that has brought all of us together tonight, namely the protection of the cultural heritage of Africa. Africa has a rich cultural heritage. Indeed, as we have seen, this great Heritage is opening other doors. Gatherings such as this, with men and women representing every region, many cultures, languages and religions – and an array of public, private and civil society interests – provide important opportunities to create partnerships, to build synergies and to strengthen relationships. The common interest that brought us together these past few days is the need to do more to reduce the vast disparities between the lives of the rich and the lives of the poor – ultimately making globalization work for the benefit of all through the celebration of our cultural diversity and the promotion of our common cultural heritage. We must take into consideration the social, economic and technological challenges that we face and, especially, those in Africa's developing countries.

Yet, paradoxically, it is through more intense globalization that more and more peoples and communities have begun to recognize the importance of their own cultural heritage – whether tangible or intangible – as a contribution to the world’s cultural diversity. Communities in every land have come to realize that their cultural heritage, which is by nature fragile, plays a crucial role in their identity and that their engagement in safeguarding activities contributes to a sense of continuity. As a result, while globalization has undeniably contributed to the dissemination of cultures, its effects on cultural diversity can, if we are not careful, also be negative.

How will Africa respond – how can it respond – to this challenge? I know that this was on all of our minds these past few days as we all deliberated in order to prepare for the Durban meeting. Let me just say, to paraphrase an old expression, that we have to do our own growing no matter how tall our grand father was. To do so, Africa must cultivate partnerships with those who have traditionally been her friend through support so such initiatives of continental importance as the abolition of slavery and the dismantlement of apartheid. For we must remind ourselves that the difficult challenge of the abolition of slavery was the combined effort of people across the colour and geographical barriers, men and women who worked together for the noble goal of restoring dignity to the victims of slavery. The same goes for apartheid as people across races saw an end to the evil that had sought to use the colour of skin to promote the evil of discrimination and oppression.

Africa ought to ask all these friends throughout the world who have benefited from the contributions of Africans to their own development to show fairness and objectivity and re-invest some of their gains towards the development of our region as a gesture of recognition for the price we paid in their own economic development. Here, I do not necessarily imply an increase in aid benefits, as some have suggested recently, rather through increased relationships on more equal footings such as increased trade and exchange.

In this vein, it should be considered of extreme importance to have the capital influx necessary for heritage conservation and its promotion. Here governments and the civil society in Africa must be encouraged to seek investments in tourism and capacity-building, thus increasing our own capacity to capitalize on increased world travel. However, tourism must be made responsible, and the people ought to gain an increased awareness of the sensitive nature of the need for conservation when visiting our diverse land.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

We cannot ignore intra-African trade, for it too ought to be considered as an important catalyst toward greater understanding and exchange between all our peoples. Today it is incapacitated, faced with excessive trade barriers between our peoples increasingly making us poorer and poorer. Intra-African trade is also hindered by ignorance and disease. Investing in the education and health of our peoples therefore, is vital. Environments need to be created to encourage both Africans and friends of the continent to invest – and indeed reinvest – their wealth in the continent.

Chair of the Portfolio Committee, ladies and gentlemen, before concluding, please join me to convey my thanks to the people and Government of South Africa for your warm hospitality, conveyed not only to me, but to the participants of both the African World Heritage Experts’ meeting, and the African World Heritage Fund Workshop. I am sure you will agree with me, without their expertise, we would not be where we are today in promoting African heritage. UNESCO has always believed in the experts, the brilliant minds that have always worked to provide quality advice and options. I want also to thank each and every one of you for the privilege of addressing you this evening. Please permit me to single out a few more people for attention. My dear friend and respected brother, Mr Tidjani-Serpos, and our highly committed and professional Director of the World Heritage Centre, Mr Francesco Bandarin. I would be amiss if I did not congratulate all staff and members of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre especially its African Unit and in particular the quiet but very effective Elizabeth Wangari for a job well done. I wish to congratulate my dear friend, Temba Wakashe, our beloved Chairman for an outstanding outing this week. I want to assure him of my personal commitment to the success of his tenure and the vision which he represents. My office will be delighted to join him on his challenging journey to Durban. Let me sound a note of warning that we must ensure that our adoption of culture should be broad and should include both the tangible and the intangible and the cultural diversity that is currently on board for discussion in UNESCO because we may not have another opportunity soon to bring cultural issues to the attention of our leaders. I am also confident that Temba will ensure that he works together with the rich pool of experts on cultural heritage in South Africa that may perhaps constitute 80 per cent of the participants in Durban. I am sure that South Africa is not short of experts in the field. I wish to thank the Ambassadors of Egypt and Benin that came all the way from Paris to demonstrate their support to this initiative in Cape Town, and it is refreshing to have the Chairman of the Africa Group at the Executive Board here with us. It has been such pleasure having with us our main host, the energetic, Ambassador of South Africa to France and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO, our beloved sister and ebullient Excellency N. M. Sibanda-Thusi, for the exemplary demonstration of commitment since she arrived to join us in UNESCO.

It is imperative for me to thank those who are not here but who have been such blessing to us: the interpreters, drivers, typists, receptionists and secretaries, all of whom played an important part in making our visit the great success it has been.

I shall finish by expressing my satisfaction and joy for the excellent meal we were served. It truly has lived up to South Africa’s world-famous reputation for warm hospitality, excellent cuisine and subliminal wine. Indeed, food here bears witness to a positive effect of globalization: it is an eclectic mixture of ethnic cuisines with indigenous spices and fruits. Our meal exhibited richness and freshness; it boasted elegance in its complex simplicity. The expression “Rainbow Nation” perfectly describes this exceptional meal. Cape Town is supposedly the “hub of all things culinary” in South Africa. Let me tell you, Groot Constantia is as good a rival as you can get! My compliments to the chef and through you, Chair of the Portfolio, to the Government of South Africa. Thank you very much for such wonder hospitality and warm welcome in you beautiful country. God bless you all.

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