AFRICOM - the International Council of African Museums
3rd to 9th October, 1999, Lusaka, Zambia
The Constituent Assembly of the International Council of African
Museums (AFRICOM) will be held from 3rd to 9th October 1999, in
Lusaka in Zambia, on the theme of "Building together with the
Community: a Challenge for African museums".
The meeting is being organised jointly by ICOM (International
Council of Museums) and the National Museums Board of the Zambian
Ministry of Tourism. The basis for AFRICOM has been established
through an ICOM programme for Africa implemented by museums in
Africa and coordinated by ICOM under the supervision of an
African Coordinating Committee. The initiative grew out of the
Encounters What Museums for Africa? Heritage in the Future
organised, in 1991, by ICOM in Lomé (Togo). AFRICOM's sphere of
activity is centred around museum development, protection of
heritage, and access to culture throughout the African continent.
Special projects have been set up, particularly for fighting
against the looting of antiquities, setting up standards for
inventories, and developing suitable educational services. The
meeting in Lusaka will give the programme a new impetus.
AFRICOM is now becoming the International Council of African
Museums, an autonomous non-governmental organisation (NGO) that
will be coordinated, managed and financed under the
responsibility of African professionals. Museum and heritage
managers from 40 African countries, together with international
policy-makers and economic advisers will be meeting in Lusaka to
adopt the statutes of the new organisation, choose the country
for the headquarters, and vote the budget and the activities
programme for the 2000-2002 period.
The meeting of professionals will also provide the opportunity to
assess the various activities that AFRICOM has carried out since
1991, and to examine the present situation of African museums in
order to study innovative ways of strengthening museum impact on
community development. Participants will be divided into three
workshops, focusing on themes including Museums and Community,
Professional Education and Training, and Networking, to share
their experiences and compare professional practices. As an
autonomous pan-African organisation, AFRICOM should promote the
participation of museums in the context of global and sustainable
development, strengthen networks for collaboration and
cooperation among museum professionals in Africa and abroad, and
lastly, involve all components of society in the protection and
enhancement of cultural heritage.
Alpha Oumar Konaré, President of the Republic of Mali and past
President of ICOM stated at the Lomé meeting in Togo in 1991: "It
is time, high time, to call all of this into question, to "kill",
and I do mean kill, the Western model of museum in Africa so that
new methods for the preservation and promotion of Africa's
cultural heritage can be allowed to flourish". How does the
situation stand today? What has AFRICOM done, and how can it go
forward to achieve the above? What are AFRICOM's major prospects
and priority areas? These are questions to which the participants
at the Constituent Assembly will have to reply.
With the support of:
The Ford Foundation, the Getty Grant Program of the J. Paul Getty
Trust, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD)
and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency
(Sida).
Contacts:
Valérie JULLIEN and Armelle DUVAL
Tel.: (33 1) 45 68 28 36/52 Fax: (33 1) 43 06 78 62
Email: [log in to unmask]
Contacts in Zambia:
Francis MUSONDA
Tel.: (260.1) 228.807. Cel.: (260.1) 779 .746. Fax: (260.1) 223.788.
Email: [log in to unmask]
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