BIRTH
of a pan-African organisation of museums
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
in Zambia:
Francis MUSONDA
Tel.: (260.1) 228.807. Cel.: (260.1) 779
.746. Fax: (260.1) 223.788.
Email: nmboard@zamnet.zm
Governing
Bodies
