Guardian

THE erroneous belief that the African continent has no history and consequently no culture, and as such has not contributed to world civilization was put a right at the recent colloquium on African Rock Art And The Pan-African Renaissance held from May 22 to 23 at the African Union Commission Old Conference Centre, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

African Rock Art is one of the most evocative pieces of heritage bequeathed to us by our ancestors. Their existence allows our introspection into, and interrogation of the minds of our forebears, who lived thousands of years ago. African Rock Art heritage is among the world’s best, but least understood and appreciated cultural expression because the continent is yet to harness and utilise the benefits inherent in their importance.

Rock art sites have embedded in them multiples of complex symbolism, metaphors and meanings that can provide clues to the controversies that haunt Africa’s contribution to world civilization. It can provide windows into the understanding and appreciation of many aspects of the continent’s history. There is no better way to experience the continent’s rich cultural endowment than through Rock art.

The period for the celebration of African Union’s golden jubilee is therefore a better time to redirect our attention to the valuable historiographic tool and cultural evidences that attest to the golden period of Africans’ ingenuity and contribution to world’s civilization. It is against this background that Nigeria through CBAAC in partnership with Trust for African Rock Art (TARA) and the African Union Commission organised a colloquium that aimed at extending the frontier of global understanding of African history and culture.

The objectives of the colloquium include: providing a platform for updating research findings on African Rock Art; sharing experiences on the successful application of strategies for managing Rock Art sites across the continent; promoting information sharing and networking among participants to enhance capacity; raising the consciousness of a critical mass of key stakeholders on the project; examining the possibility of reconstructing African history and civilisation through Rock Art.

With the above objectives the conference was expected to use African Rock Art to inspire creativity, generate publicity for the output of the project and diversity of African Rock Art, have the results recognised by the AU and UNESCO, develop strategies and action plan for the protection of the sites and enhance the protection and utilisation of Rock Art sites by communities on sustainable basis.

However, from the ideas generated by participants and taking into congniscance the reports and recommendations of the Niamey Workshop of 2008, it was observed that African Rock Art sites are spread all over the continent thereby serve as leverage to observe, appreciate and celebrate the richness and diversity of African history and culture. Apart from disproving Eurocentric claims that deny Africa’s contributions to world history, they represent the ingenuity of African ancestors’ contributions to world knowledge.

To overcome the numerous challenges, which include poor preservation, funding, inadequate conservation skills and others the colloquium recommended to the AU Commission to create an environment, where African Rock Art could inspire members of the creative industries, using the symbols, designs, forms and other properties of sites; adopt a Declaration of a Decade of Action for African History – promotion, teaching and knowledge of all aspects of African history including African Rock Art; adopted multi, and trans-disciplinary approaches in the study of African Rock Art; partner with host communities through the development and tourism for the discovery, protection, management, preservation and promotion of rock art; build and enhance the capacities of host communities, youths and professionals for the management and sustainability of the sites ; CBAAC and TARA to coordinate efforts towards  the realisation of the above recommendations; strengthen the existing structure of SICADIA to be coordinated by CBAAC, and CERDOTOLA for actualisation of the general history of Africa; and African Governments to invest financial and other resources in the sites.