Culture
Cultural renaissance in Southern Africa?

afrol.com, 19 July - The South African Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology has taken the initiative of organising a Forum and a Cultural Awareness Program between the South African Government and representatives from the SADC countries to promote co-operation between South Africa and the Southern African Region in the field of Arts, Culture and Heritage. The "Kopano" Conference, meaning "coming together" or "gathering" will take place from 19th - 26th July 2000 at Dikhololo, a private game farm North of Pretoria.

Deputy Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, Ms. Mabandla, told the the press yesterday that  "this initiative to get together our neighbours from the SADC family for 6 days to debate arts and culture issues of common concern, will help us to realise how our common heritage will, not only help us to understand who we are by interrogating our creativity and innovation, but also by establishing partnerships in Development of our common Heritage. In short, this is the African Renaissance In Action, and where better to start than with ourselves and with our SADC Family."

 The purpose of the Kopano Conference, with its theme, The role of Arts, Culture and Heritage in the African Renaissance will be:

•  To promote cultural co-operation between South Africa and the Southern African region;
  
•  To bring delegates from 13 African countries together with 36 delegates from the nine Provinces of South Africa to communicate and exchange knowledge;
  
•  To learn from each other's culture and expose delegates to expertise of the various individuals in the fields of arts, culture, heritage, language, archives and libraries;
  
•  To devise manageable pilot projects in these fields;
  
•  To advance goodwill and address areas of common interest;
  
•  To devise a common strategy to bring arts to the foreground and to promote cultural industry growth and spatial development; and
  
•  To benefit countries through cultural tourism and the development of cultural industries.

Countries that have been be invited to the conference are Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Representatives from all the Provincial Departments of Arts and Culture as well as arts and culture parastatals will constitute the South African delegation. Key topics to be addressed by international speakers include:

•  Empowerment in the areas of arts and culture which will include arts education, the role of technology, arts management and arts business (Prof A Hull: Director of the Victorian College of Arts, University of Melbourne);
  
•  Cultural industries and cultural tourism (Dr R Adam: Director-General: Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology);
  
•  Access indigenous information (Prof B Alegbeleye: Department of Library and Archival Information Studies, University of Ibadan, Nigeria);
  
•  Language, Oral History and traditions (Prof A Bangbose: Department of Linguistics and African Languages at the University of Ibadan); and
  
•  The role of arts and culture regarding issues of concern such as aids, crime prevention, stabilisation of the youth and gender equality (Prof R Mkandawire: Head of the Centre of Youth Studies, University of Venda).

During the conference three formal functions will be arranged, an opening function, a cultural concert displaying the diversity of the South African arts and culture and a closing function. During Saturday, 22nd July 2000 and Sunday, 23rd July 2000 the delegates will go on a cultural awareness program to a few cultural institutions in the area. An exhibition named "A window to Africa" by the Northern Flagship institution will be officially launched at the opening function.

Source: S.A. Deputy Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology

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