Dear Colleagues,

I would like to thank those who have proposed the UNESCO convention on
the preservation of intangible heritage, particularly Patrick and
Alissandra.

This is definitely a very important development for World Heritage and
all concerned should be able to contribute in one way or another of what
they feel will enrich this convention.

Unfortunately in most developing countries, particularly in Africa,
national ICOM committees are not members of national UNESCO committee as
in France.  Usually it is the Museum and Archives departments that
are. However, these national committees are underfunded, less equipped
and rarely meet.  They only come to life when there is a trip to Paris
and as such I do not think much can be expected of them.

For Africa, this is an extremely important convention since most of our
knowledge of our heritage is still in oral form. Elders come and go with
this knowledge that touch on areas ranging from origins, medicines,
plants, conflict resolution to music and story telling; while in Japan
and South Korea  people gifted with this knowledge are being declared as
national treasures/heritage, in African countries, they are forgotten
and are a fast disappearing species.

Africa, or at least sub-Saharan Africa, has a special problem in that
for nearly one century, both the colonial powers and the missionaries in
the name of civilizing and christianizing African communities,
consistently and carefully destroyed the heritage. Customary laws,
tradition, folklore, music (drumming etc) were all condemned as evil and
had to be done away with.  This did not only leave a stigma in many
peoples' minds, but has made it very difficult to revert the mindset
that was created.

The various governments in the continent have not done much to change
the mindset where everything good is seen to only come from the West.
And even currently, where both the Catholic Church and other Protestant
Churches are beginning to appreciate the African tradition and include
in their religious practices, the common African brought up under
colonial rule is not very appreciative of the heritage.  This of course
will cause a challenge to the whole exercise of identifying, conserving
, preserving, disseminating and protecting this very valuable heritage.

All these must be taken into consideration while debating over this
convention. At the end of the day,  State parties must not just sign
another important UNESCO conventions, but they must understand why they
are signing and what their responsibilities are.

Even among museums, particularly in the West, the way some of them still
view and portray the intangible heritage from developing countries is -
to say the least - suspect and misplaced.  Such kind of mindset
definitely will influence the documentation, dissemination and
protection of the heritage.  So even among institutions, there is a need
for reflection, flexibility and being able to listen and appreciate
diversity - wherever it comes from.

I do not think it is a clear-cut agreed  subject. We therefore need to
cooperate , communicate and consult thoroughly. UNESCO has set the ball
rolling - doing a very commendable job.

African Museums, Archives, Libraries among others, whose activities
entail the collection of such heritage are in many cases seen as
non-developmental and as such are hardly funded. Thus at a continental
level, both AFRICOM and ICOM must have a clear idea of what it expects
such a convention to contain to address issues that concern the museum
community.

As stakeholders it is our responsibility to help in putting in place a
convention that will not only serve us, but many generations to come:
that will appreciate and recognize the diverse contribution of the
different culture of the world.  More important to us is that in this
part of the world, such a convention will not only acknowledge the
ownership of those who posses the heritage, but will also ensure that
they can gain from, share and retain the heritage.

Best wishes
George Abungu

--

George Okello Abungu, PhD, FCCS
Chairman, Governing Council
Kenya Cultural Centre
Harry Thuku Road
P.O. Box 43031, GPO
00100 Nairobi
KENYA

tel. 254-20-2711663
cell. 254-722-236499
fax. 254-20-3748928

[log in to unmask]


cc. Francesco Bandarin

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Change ICOM-L subscription options, unsubscribe, and search the
archives at:  http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/icom-l.html