Victor Nze
13 November 2009
Brasilia — Participants at the international colloquium on teaching African and Diaspora history and culture, holding in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, have called on governments to deploy education and information as platforms to correct misinformation against the race. The call is coming on the heels of the Nigerian Senate assuring of its readiness to fast-track policy formulation aimed at addressing Nigeria's cultural issues.
The conference which is being attended by over 300 delegates from several African countries and those in the Diaspora is a collaborative effort of the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization (CBAAC), a parastatal in the Federal Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, along with the Secretaria Especial de Politicas de Promocao da Igualdade (SEPPIR) of Brazil, Ministry of Education of Brazil, and the Pan-African Strategic Group (Panafstrag), and is holding at the University of Correios, Brasilia, Brazil.
Addressing delegates at a ceremony held at the Ministry of External Affairs complex of Brazil, Director-General of CBAAC, Prof Tunde Babawale, said Africa was yet to maximise its potential for growth and development due to ignorance and misinformation on its history to its peoples on which it could have built on for growth.
"The continent and we in it are yet to maximize our full potentials largely because we don't know our history which we would have used to build our future development on. Hence the significance of this colloquium which is underscored by the fact there is a need to teach African history to those us in the Diaspora as well as the Diaspora experiences to be revealed to those of us at home," said Babawale.
The CBAAC boss said it was the hope of the colloquium conveners that the positive fallouts of the conference would not be swept under the carpet or confined to the book shelves, as there was need to include the curricular of African history in schools in the Diaspora.
"It has remained the bane of the continent that we are unable to centralize our problems to the various situations and experiences that has characterized the evolution of the Black Race from history," he said.
On his part, Secretary of SAPPIR, Mr. Eloy Ferreira de Araujo, said Brazil stood to gain immensely from colloquium as it would help in his country match towards the path of racial equality that has begun with the acceptance by the government to sign into law the teaching of African history in schools.
"Sharing our history will consolidate our identity. Over time the history of our people was manipulated along with the situation of our people. We like to wish that the conference will bring positive results in this critical stage of our history as a country by providing an environment of racial equality and opportunities in a national identity with no restraints," said de Araujo.
According to him, 237 works were submitted for this colloquium as against the 150 his agency had expected thus confirming the huge interest and awareness the event had created in the people.
Member, Senate Committee on Culture, Tourism and National Orientation and also member Senate Committee on Women Affairs, Senator Yisa Braimoh in his remark, said because of the importance the government of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua attached to issues being addressed by the international colloquium, the federal government has indicated its willingness to host the third edition of the conference.
Senator Braimoh later told Daily Champion that it was the desire of his committee on culture and also that of women affairs to leverage on the white paper from the colloquium as framework to effectively address the problems which characterize the culture sector of Nigeria.
While House of Representatives Committee Chairman on Culture, Tourism and National Orientation, Kanayo Oguakwa, on his part, expressed the optimism that the colloquium would provide synergy needed by his committee to forge in the facilitation of stronger cooperation among the Black Race.
Meanwhile, Nigeria's Ambassador to Brazil, Mr. Kayode Garrick, has said that the newly-opened Nigeria House in Brazil receives about 400 visitors monthly since its commissioning by Yar'Adua last month.
Garrick said this on Wednesday while receiving at his residence the Nigerian delegation to the second international colloquium on teaching African History to the Diaspora in Brasilia, Brazil.
The envoy who also noted that the over 1,600 of Nigerians residing in Brazil have 'generally been of good conduct,' said that the high number of visitors to the Nigeria House was an attestation of the good relations Nigeria enjoyed in Brazil.
While pointing out that the desire by Brazilians to connect with their ancestral roots in Africa also informed the high number of tourists to the Nigeria House, the Nigerian envoy commended CBAAC for signposting the way forward for Diaspora relations with Africa and providing the framework for stronger relations by way of the colloquium through which awareness is created.
"A few weeks ago, the President, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua visited Brazil and as part of that visit commissioned the Nigeria House in Brasilia. That was a good opportunity for us to reaffirm our relationship not just with the Brazilian government but also with the greater part of the Africa in Diaspora because Brazil with a 65 per cent Black population also boasts of the largest Black African population outside Africa.
"That Nigeria House as of today receives about 400 visitors monthly which is a good sign of our position in terms of acceptance in the country considering that culture and history are the two main bridges that connect Brazilians to Africa as a whole and Nigeria in particular," said Garrick.
He therefore assured of government's preparedness to continue facilitating platforms for improved relations between both countries which he told Daily Champion the ongoing colloquium represented.
Nearly 150 papers are billed for presentation at the five-day colloquium hosted for the second year by Brazil under the same theme as last year's edition; "Teaching and Propagating African History and Culture to the Diaspora and Teaching Diaspora History and Culture to Africa."
Participants include academics drawn from Nigeria, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Canada, Brazil, Cameroun, South Africa, Mozambique, Denmark, Namibia and Mexico.
The colloquium is also sponsored and endorsed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).
The international colloquium ends today.
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