Unesco project seeks to bring out Africa’s real image

THE United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has launched “The Great Trading Empires of Africa”, a project whose intention is to bring to life the knowledge of the lost kingdoms of Africa using the recognition of the UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites and the general history of the continent.

The project will be spearheaded by Daves Guzha of Creative Native and Simon Bright of ZIMMEDIA.

In an interview on the sidelines of the launch in Harare recently, Director and Representative for UNESCO Regional Office in Southern Africa Professor Hubert Gijzen said they were excited by the project.

He said the project is intended to bring out the real image of Africa.

“We are here in a continent that I would call the wealthiest continent on the planet and I am not only referring to the mineral wealth. I am also referring to the human wealth, the cultural wealth, the natural wealth of the continent and that has a history to it and that history is largely unknown as we have often been provided with a limited edition of it,” said Prof Gijzen.

He added: “We want to reach out to these different audiences and stakeholders not only inside Africa because there is a lot of work to do here for people in Africa, especially young people to understand their own history, but also to the rest of the world to generate a more balanced and honest picture about Africa.”

Prof Gijzen said Africa’s future was bright.

“As I always say, the coming decades are for Africa - its development and all the indicators are that it will take-off and go up,” he said.

Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Vice President Kembo Mohadi, Reverend Paul Damasane pledged his support for the project.

“It is a very good project and it should be supported. I am one Pan-Africanist who believes that it is the time for Africa to tell her story, but through her own perspective - even going backwards so that our moving forward may even be much stronger,” he said.

“I see the approach mainly looking at trade because of the present day understanding of our globalisation and globalisation as it is today is really centred on this movement and trade between continents.”

The project will cover empires in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Mali, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

Documentaries showing Africa’s trading histories will be availed in snippets to be circulated on social media to increase awareness, especially among young people.