Office of the Special Adviser on Africa - Africa Dialogue Series; ADS; African culture: African heritage

Culture as a trigger for Africa’s development

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 22:26:00 +0000

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“I want my children to live in a world where Africa is represented and African stories are told by Africans, and not a narrative that is crafted by somebody else who doesn’t know what is happening on the continent,” says Elizabeth Kperrun-Eremie, an innovator from Nigeria.

The realization that African languages are dying, and the next generation of Africans might grow up unable to speak indigenous languages and not knowing their culture, and the desire to preserve local languages, drove her to create Tesem, an interactive phone application that teaches children words in English and some indigenous African languages.

In a conversation with African innovators during the recent Africa Dialogue Series (ADS), Kperrun-Eremie, who previously built a folk story-telling app, said Tesem was her contribution to preserving culture through technology.

The app was well-received in both Africa and the diaspora, meeting growing demand for such products.

The conversation was among several activities during the recent fourth edition of the ADS in May under the theme “Cultural identity and ownership: reshaping mindsets.” The theme was drawn from the African Union theme of the year, “Arts, Culture and Heritage: Levers for Building the Africa We Want.”

Both themes are anchored in Aspiration 5 of Agenda 2063, which envisions an Africa with a strong cultural identity, common heritage, shared values and ethics.

In efforts to reshape mindsets and change the narrative about the continent, daily throughout May, the ADS showcased the continent’s rich and diverse cultural heritage. This year’s broad and inclusive ADS activities provided an opportunity to increase the participation of a cross-section of people in discussions about the continent. It celebrated the continent’s identity, culture, history and achievements, and brought together key stakeholders to discuss challenges and opportunities for Africa. The conversations, which took place in the first three weeks of May, fed into the three-day public policy forum, which was organized around plenary meetings at a political level, thereby contributing towards influencing policy.

Virtual activities included art and innovation exhibitions, conversations with academics and experts, artists, film makers and youths among many others, music and documentaries on African history, all of which reflected Africa’s rich cultural heritage and diversity. Activists, anthropologists, archeologists, architects, civil society, economists, educators, historians, innovators, media practitioners, researchers and policy makers among others, shared their wealth of knowledge and ideas for accelerating Africa’s development.

The role of cinema to promote cultural identity, the use of culture for innovations that address emerging challenges, the power of museums to foster unity and social cohesion, the role of art in peacebuilding and the value of indigenous knowledge in tackling modern problems, were among the wide range of topics discussed.

“Through these activities, we promoted debate about culture, in the understanding that culture goes beyond artistic demonstrations and entails a deep feeling of belonging to a community that it is ready to exercise ownership of its own development. This is the real power that culture has as a trigger of sustainable development,” Cristina Duarte, Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa said.

Ms. Fatima Kyari Mohammed, Permanent Observer of the African Union to the UN, added that understanding how culture and traditions have helped people in Africa to survive and adapt for generations in the past, could be key to developing sustainable policies to mitigate future challenges and fast track development.

Issimail Chanfi, Permanent Representative of Comoros to the UN and Chair of the African Group for May, stressed the importance of reshaping mindsets and changing perceptions so that Africa ceased to be addressed as a continent in need of aid and was perceived as an equal player on the global arena.

“Africa’s past and present are full of success stories, as seen during the ADS,” he said, noting that great civilizations were born in the continent without the help of external players. He added that ambitious projects like the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) were underway, indicating that African countries were ready to lead a new approach to development but to achieve this, they needed committed partners who respect Africa’s role as a global player and ensure that past inequalities are not used to maintain a global imbalance.

“Certainly, culture evokes ancestral traditions, a connection with our proud past and our powerful sense of identity today, but it also provides us avenues to chart our future, one that is prosperous and peaceful,” Prof. Eddy Maloka, Chief Executive Officer of the African Peer Review Mechanism said.

“Culture can and must play a role to help Africa rewrite its narrative and its developmental aspirations, particularly those in Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” he emphasized.

The ADS gave a voice to African experts, exposed the world to unknown facts and untold stories about the continent’s diverse cultural heritage, history and knowledge base, and created a rich repository of information about Africa that can be used for reference beyond the event.

“During this month of the ADS, we have witnessed that a new narrative is indeed possible, if only we give voice to African experts,” Mr. Chanfi said.

The annual ADS is the Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA)’s flagship event. It provides a platform to advocate for Africa and her development challenges. It also aims to create a new narrative that reflects Africa's vision as enshrined in Agenda 2030 and the African Union’s 2063 Agenda.

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USG Duarte talks about the Africa Dialogue Series

Anonymous — Mon, 03 May 2021 03:27:00 +0000

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The annual Africa Dialogue Series (ADS) 2021 will take place throughout May, under the theme “Cultural identity and ownership: reshaping mindsets”. It will celebrate the continent’s identity, culture, history and achievements, through exhibitions and conversations with African academics and experts from various fields, bringing together key stakeholders to discuss challenges and opportunities for Africa, and effectively turning May into Africa’s Month at UNHQ.

Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa, Cristina Duarte sheds light on what promises to be an exciting ADS.

Q. What is the ADS?

CD. The ADS is the Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA)’s dedicated advocacy platform. It provides a stage to advocate for Africa and her development challenges. Beyond that, it aims to create a new narrative that reflects Africa's vision as enshrined in Agenda 2030 and the African Union’s 2063 Agenda.

Q. Can you please tell us the theme for 2021 and what we should expect?

CD. The ADS theme is inspired by the African Union (AU) theme of the year. This year’s AU theme is “Arts, culture and heritage: Levers for building the Africa We Want.” OSAA approaches this theme from a development and forward-looking standpoint, recognizing that behind the disruptions created by the COVID-19 there are opportunities, that can only be seize by completely reshaping our mindsets.

This is why the 2021 ADS theme is “Cultural identity and ownership: reshaping mindsets,” because we strongly believe that the AU theme is an appeal to us as Africans to revisit our roots and our soul, creating fertile ground to reset and reboot our way of thinking; to leave behind the colonial and post-colonial mindsets and adopt a forward-looking and re-shaped mindset that will enable us to exercise higher levels of ownership.

OSAA proposes to reboot our thinking in three key areas: peace, the economy and human capital, through three sub-themes:

The first one, “Sustainable peace for development: factoring in history”, invites us to look back into our history to understand and seek solutions for present conflicts.

The second sub-theme, “Harnessing Culture and Heritage for economic transformation,” understands culture as an important ingredient that feeds into a much-needed structural socio-economic transformation, that needs to start from within Africa, leveraging our strengths, recognizing our weaknesses, facing our threats and seizing every opportunity.

The third sub-theme is “Human Capital: culture and heritage unleashing the potential.” COVID-19 has taught us that not prioritizing human capital was a huge mistake. In building forward better and recovering for the better, we have an opportunity to address this issue by putting human capital at the center of policy making. From the point of view of culture, this means, for example, that we need to cultivate the sense of identity in children, so they become adults who are ready to exercise the ownership and responsibility needed to embrace modernization from inside.

Q. How can arts and culture shape the mindset of Africa and the perception of Africa?

CD. Arts and culture create perceptions and, consequently, influence how the rest of the world sees Africa. We need to go beyond the narrow concept of culture as crafts, paintings, dance or music. These are demonstrations and symbols of a pre-existent culture. But if you go to the etymology of the word, it means cultivating the mind, the spirit, all those intangibles that create a society. In this regard, the most important aspect of our African culture is belonging to a community and the exercise of ownership by that community.

For centuries, African culture has been reduced by colonial powers to artistic and colourful expressions. It's important to acknowledge the value of African art and traditions, but we need to understand – and to show the world- that African culture goes beyond artistic decorations. That it is in fact a strong set of values and representations, that can embrace change, generate innovations and is ready to contribute to the world’s cultural diversity as an important asset. From a cultural standpoint we should not promote uniformity, but celebrate the world’s diversity.

Q. How do you feel that culture drives sustainable development and the opportunity to reset and reboot, as you said?

CD. The essence of culture is a set of values that instills the sentiment of belonging to a community, which in turn constitutes the basis of sustainable development. For example, when I was Minister of Finance in Cape Verde, I exercised my political function with this strong feeling of belonging to the Cape Verdean community and leveraged this sentiment to serve my community. This is applicable to a minister, but also to a businessowner or to a youth. As long as you have a feeling of belonging, a common culture that unites you to your community, you are not going to evade taxes, you will not embezzle, you will not radicalize and attack your community, because you will be aware that every little step you take, impacts your community. This relationship between culture and belonging to a community is a pre-condition for taking ownership, accepting your responsibility in developing your life, your community and your country. Consequently, culture is a first and necessary step toward developmental leadership.

Q. How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected development in the continent, as well as culture and heritage?

CD. COVID-19 affected Africa in different ways. The first impact was socioeconomic. Before the virus landed, Africa was already suffering its negative impact through disruptions to global value chains. The second shock was when the virus landed in Africa and governments had to address its health impact and socio-economic effect of containment measures. We need to remember that the starting point of most African countries was one with a very small fiscal space to address these situations. After 25 years of relatively strong economic growth, Africa had to face economic recession, a huge lack of financial resources to address the pandemic from a health standpoint as well as to address socio-economic issues. In these cases, when you have very little financial resources, you need to make very painful budget reallocations. Most African governments injected additional resources in the health sector by taking them from medium to long term investments, such as social, institutional and economic infrastructure. So, unless critical measures are taken to bridge the gap created now in those areas, the bill that Africa will pay for making these necessary short-term budget allocations will be felt, even harder, in the coming years.

Q. What opportunities have been created by the pandemic and what is your view of the youth response?

CD. I think it's clear that Africa has innovation in its DNA and COVID-19 just created an opportunity for that potential to be unleashed. More than 1,000 COVID-19 innovations came from Africans and youths have been incredibly creative in response to the pandemic. I believe that COVID-19 is an opportunity to assess first if we have set ecosystems for innovation, and if not, what is missing in this puzzle, because building forward better will not be possible if these innovations are not factored on a permanent basis from a policymaking standpoint. These innovations should be captured in a such way that down the road they become solutions to Africa’s problems. Maybe we need to pay more attention to building ecosystems to unleash Africa's potential from an innovation standpoint.

Q. Would you like to comment on the role of young people?

CD. African youth have been using arts as the main channel to unleash their creativity. COVID-19 innovations are evidence that indeed the creativity of the African youth is not just colourful artistic expression African youth creativity is a huge intangible asset. If duly harnessed, it can contribute to Africa’s economic transformation, because transformation is about innovation. The absence of eco-systems on innovation has been preventing our societies from linking and leveraging creativity to promote economic transformation.

I believe that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), will create a common market and the required economies of scale, thus paving the way to industrialization. If the eco-systems for innovation are implemented concurrently, allowing Africa’s young generation to be an active part in building the AfCFTA, we might succeed in boosting employment generation accompanied by strong value addition.

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