Frederick Philander
23 August 2005
Windhoek — AFRICAN governments need to apply their political will to find synergy between culture and education, since education is a vehicle of culture.
This is the view of Bience Gawanas, the African Union Commissioner for Social Affairs, who addressed ministers of culture last week in Windhoek.
She was one of a few speakers who took part in deliberations on a better deal for culture in Southern Africa.
"Africa is immensely rich in both natural and cultural resources.
"Unfortunately, the continent remains poor because these two riches have not been fully wedded, and it is towards perfecting this matrimonial relationship that we have to focus on," Gawanas said.
Gawanas urged the African ministers of culture to promote cultural literacy among their peoples.
"To do this, we in leadership positions should educate ourselves about the values of our culture and should have firm belief in our African identity.
We also need to identify the positive cultural values and practices that can be channelled inclusively and equitably, including those that can influence sustainable development," Gawanas, who alluded to the fact that outsiders talk of harmful traditional or negative cultural practices of Africa, said.
"In doing so, they disregard the age-old adaptive and useful practices and more often we tend to follow their teachings, instead of showing them the parts of our cultures without which we cannot survive as Africans.
Furthermore, we need to recognise the diversity of our cultures and of our multiple identities.
With respect to harmful practices, we should endeavour to ensure that in the process of adaptation, we do away with those aspects of our culture that are indeed detrimental to our very own survival," she said.
She also informed the gathering of culture ministers that the AU sees culture as a powerful instrument for promoting development, integration and poverty alleviation.
"We need to set an African agenda, which includes both tangible and intangible heritages, which are inclusive so as to promote social cohesion," she said in conclusion.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2005 New Era. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
