Africa and Diaspora conference on cultural diversity
11 September 2006
On behalf of our government and people, I am honoured to welcome you all to
this Africa and Diaspora Conference on Cultural Diversity for Social Cohesion
and Sustainable Development and to extend our best wishes to you for a pleasant
and fruitful visit to our country.
I convey an especially warm welcome to the Ministers here present, who
considered this occasion important enough to travel to South Africa.
We welcome you all to the shores of South Africa as fellow combatants in the
struggle to eradicate poverty and under-development from our continent. We
welcome you as specialists in culture whose impact on both the quality and the
content of African lives is very significant.
Hopefully this conference will afford an opportunity to collectively map out
a strategy that makes evident to the masses of our continent and those Africans
scattered across the world in the diaspora, its relevance and potential.
The important deliberations that will commence today speak directly to the
challenges facing us as we enter the 21st century. The dignity of all Africans
was assailed for over a century by the burden of colonial dominations which
ended only in 1994, when South Africa was welcomed into the family of free
nations as one of the youngest democracies.
South Africans, despite the teething problem that inevitability confronts
any emergent democracy, are collectively redefining our place in the world. The
end of statutorily enforced racism has created new opportunities that are
steadily beginning to improve the situation of the majority of our people. The
people of this nation are learning to respect each other. By virtue of mutual
respect amongst us, South Africa as a country and a nation, is winning the
respect of others throughout the world.
The convention on the protection and promotion of the diversity of artistic
expressions and cultural contents was adopted at the general conference of the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in
2005. South Africa staunchly supported the adoption if the convention during
the 33rd session of the UNESCO general conference in October 2005 because in
our estimation this was in the best interest of the developing countries. Is it
not critical that Africa and the Diaspora create this opportunity to reflect on
key aspects of the convention; tease out the implications of its
implementations; examine what benefits developing countries in this pan-African
region in particular? We submit that our proactive engagement with the
convention and its content is best served by a dialogue amongst us. Africa, the
Diaspora and particularly African communities who are members of UNESCO, should
be in a position to strategise jointly about the implementation of this
convention.
Our dialogue must unavoidably focus on:
* the measured needed to correct the current imbalances in the trade of
cultural goods and services
* capacity building of the cultural industries, cultural institutions and
autonomous arts centres in the developing countries
* facilitation of increased South-South trade and co-operation
* establishment of financial support mechanisms of the cultural industries in
the developing countries.
The convention is compelling national governments to develop coherent
policy: Policy that can synergise cultural industries across all sectors and
Departments of the Government such as culture and trade and industry, culture
and education, culture and communications, etc. It is the first normative
international instrument dealing with the protection and promotion of cultural
diversity at the global level.
This Africa and Diaspora conference on Cultural Diversity for Social
Cohesion and Sustainable Development can serve as a lobbying platform to
develop a common position on fundamental issues. We should jointly explore the
possibility of: regional strategies; asses the role of Cultural Industries in
Africa and the Diaspora and their future prospects. There are possibilities of
pro-active engagement with the international find cultural diversity.
Innovative bilateral partnerships promoting cultural diversity are an
additional possibility deserving our attention. This may intern foster regional
strategies integrating the growth of cultural diversity into the development
agenda.
The "term cultural diversity" under-girds certain intangible, yet very
important human rights. In the South African constitution, alongside the right
of freedom of expression, the right to artistic creativity, freedom of media,
is the right of citizens of this country to use the language of their choice,
and the right to participate in the cultural life of the country as they
choose.
The urgency of these discussions is directly related to the real, perceived
and sometimes misconstrued threats to cultural diversity abroad in the world
arena.
South Africa comes to this international debate with a particular experience
as a country and as an emergent democracy. Our history abounds with the debate
around culture and cultural issues. One might say too that culture and cultural
traditions are among the most abused in the policy-making of this country.
During the days of colonial and apartheid rule culture was deployed alongside
and as synonymous with race. We bear that abuse in mind when debating cultural
issues. That experience carries with it an important warning signs alerting us
against the glib use and misuse of nations of culture, of cultural integrity,
of cultural authenticity and the preservation of cultural diversity.
We proceed from the starting point of our shared humanity, that we are all
members of the same human family. Amongst families, common descent has not
reduced the individual members of any family into a colony of ants, all the
same and identical in every respect. So too our common humanity does not lead
to sameness, but rather a diversity of individuals with multi-dimensional
characters.
The second premise from which I proceed is that culture embraces virtually
the totality of socially transmitted behaviour patterns, including language,
belief systems, institutions, customs, traditions, the arts and all other
product of human work, the human imagination and human thought. By extension,
we also accept that since culture is the location to another, from one group of
people to another, from one person to another, from one environment to another.
This suggests that culture is not coded in the genes, is not transmitted
genetically and is exceedingly dynamic, it is always in motion and never
static.
The third premise I would like to submit is that this human family of ours
has over the ages built up a huge fund of knowledge and experiences that have
been shared amongst us in a myriad of ways. No section or portion of the human
family can therefore claim to be the exclusive repository of wisdom, knowledge,
valid experience and worth.
We all have something to teach to others; we all have learnt from others; we
all have been enriched by such inter-action with others; and, what is more, it
is precisely that capacity to teach, to learn and to be enriched by such
exchanges that makes us human.
Cultural diversity proceeds from the recognition that human civilisation has
been shaped by constant interaction within, between and amongst differing and
diverse cultural communities. Mutual cross-fertilisation among cultural
communities has been and continues to be the leavening of progress within the
human family. It is the actual experience of Africa, the African Diaspora and
African communities spread across the world. It is something we welcome. The
South African experience demonstrates the dangers that can lurk behind
misguided attempts to seal-off cultural communities from each other like silos
of different grains. The Orwellian buzzword, "separate development" barely
conceals such assumptions. But "separate" in this case did not foster diversity
because it was rooted in absolute inequality.
Intolerance towards cultural diversity is the other face of this destructive
force, with its paternalistic notions of "assimilation", rooted in racial
oppression and cultural aggression. Diversity is advanced when based on
equality, which must translate into equalising capacity and the empowerment of
the previously disadvantaged.
A universe of one monotone of grey would be uninspiring and extremely dull.
The nurturing and valuing of diversity among cultures is critical not only to
make the world a more interesting and inspiring place, but also as an
affirmation of the multi-dimensional qualities of our human family. Cultural
diversity is the living expression of our very humanity.
From a primeval groups of hominids there evolved the human family with its
rich medley of hues, hair textures, facial features and the like.
We all have a very strong sense of that common identity, though it is very
far in our past. What we call "humankind" is the outcome the dynamic
interaction, over thousands of years, of the diverse, yet associated and
associating branches of this human family.
Here in our African shores we find intertwined at least three streams of
human culture â the African, the European and the Asian. We readily accept this
outcome as the verdict of history. What is there in the current international
environment that makes us feel threatened by the daily bombardment with
cultural wares from other parts of the world?
This cultural bombardment is often described as an "onslaught", which barely
conceals the suggestion of some form of aggression, or at the very least
aggressive behaviour.
The issue has to be squarely posed: What is it about globalisation that is
perceived as a threat to the preservation of our cultural heritage of
diversity?
What is it about the current wave of interaction amongst human cultures that
compels us to seek to promote and protect diversity of cultural contents and
artistic expressions?
I am certain that is a question that our commissions and breakaway sessions
would want to dissect.
As developing countries, globalisation faces us with several
challenges:
* promoting and preserving cultural diversity by defending our cultural
integrity in the face of trade liberalisation and ever advancing
technology
* preserving our capacity as a state to maintain or adopt measures we deem
appropriate for the preservation and promotion of cultural diversity
* reinforcing international co-operation and solidarity aimed at enabling
particularly developing countries to preserve and promote cultural diversity
and to create and maintain their own cultural expressions
* ensuring that the specificity of cultural goods and services is
respected
* ensuring that the importance of intangible heritage, indigenous knowledge
systems and cultural diversity as a mainspring for sustainable development is
recognised by the developed world.
The development of the international convention to protect cultural
diversity was spearheaded by UNESCO. South Africa was accorded the privilege of
chairing those meetings at UNESCO and I congratulate Professor Abd-el Kader
Asmal on the splendid job he did.
Today's conference is the first step in response to the UNESCO convention.
We are confident that the discussions here will greatly enrich the quality of
the inputs we collectively and individually make in international discourse on
cultural diversity.
This conference can also be a stepping-stone towards our engagement with
promoting and protecting cultural expression, the role and place of cultural
diversity within the NEPAD framework, as well the involvement of the Diaspora
in the NEPAD agenda.
Both are fundamental to the sustainable development of the pan-African
region and it is imperative that governments and civil society are seized of
this matter.
An international instrument on cultural diversity poses opportunities as
well as challenges. We must carefully tease out the implications for us, for
the region and for the continent of a convention that could easily be turned
into an additional means of marginalising the African continent. We must take
care in defining cultural diversity not to steer our ship too close to the
reefs of cultural anarchy and, worse yet, the discredited theories of "separate
development".
In an intercontinental region and on a continent which are both extremely
diverse, both in terms of culture as in wealth, what economic muscle do Africa
and the Diaspora collectively in fact packs?
What role can this productive capacity play in the preservation of cultural
diversity of our continent? What can this productive capacity do to promote
greater cultural diversity by marketing Africa and Diasporic cultural wares on
the international marketplace?
What capacities do the countries of Africa posse to promote the products of
their indigenous culture? Is the only way to promote African culture to market
it aggressively in every part of the world?
All these are critical issues relating to cultural diversity in the world in
Africa and each region that must be addressed.
A convention like this one, provided it is honestly handled, could assist by
encouraging partnerships and co-operation with the developed countries. Deeper
co-operation between Africa and other developing countries has already emerged
in the process of negotiating it.
Hopefully this will also contribute to creating broader and more
collaborative coalitions among our cultural industries, civil society
organisations and our national commissions for UNESCO. Linking our discussions
to NEPAD and its programme for cultural development is also critical to our
deliberations.
I wish you success in your deliberations and you can all look forward to an
exciting few days as the collective wisdom in this room engages on one of the
most important topics of the African Century.
I thank you.
Enquiries: Sandile Memela
Cell: 082 800 3750
E-mail: sandile.memela@dac.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Arts and Culture
11 September 2006
