Guardian

IN addition to participating actively in other programmes of activities lined up for the 50th anniversary of the African Union (AU), Nigeria’s involvement in the golden year package became robust with the staging of a colloquium and exhibition on Africa Rock Art and the Pan-African Renaissance, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The two event ran simultaneously from May 22 to 24, 2013.

The AU, at its fourth Session of the Conference of Ministers of Culture (CAMC4) held in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from October 29 to November 2, 2012, approved that the Nigerian Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation through one of its agencies, Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization (CBAAC) to organise and host the twin event.

This invitation was in recognition of CBAAC’s contributions to the subject and a follow-up action to previous engagements. It provided the desirable platform for updating research findings on African Rock Art and the pan-African renaissance. It also provided avenue for the sharing of knowledge and experiences on the successful application of strategies for managing Rock Art sites across the continent.

Commissioner for Social Affairs, African Union Commission, Dr. Mustapha Sidiki Kaloko, declared the exhibition open while the colloquium was presided over by the Nigeria’s Minister of Culture and Tourism, Chief Edem Duke. Other guests in attendance were, Nigerian Ambassador to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the African Union and UNECA, Ambassador P. Lolo; the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Ms. Nkechi Ejele; representative of the Chairperson of the AU, H. E. Dr. Mustapha Sidiki Kaloko; Commissioner For Social Affairs, African Union Commission, Ali Moussa Iye – UNESCO’s Chief of the Section of History and Memory for Dialogue; Prof Francisco Matsinhe, Executive Secretary, African Academy of Languages, Bamako Mali; Prof Mbuyamba Lupwishi, Director-General, Observatory for Cultural Policies in Africa (OCPA), Maputo, Mozambique; Prof Charles Binam Bikoi, Executive Secretary, Regional Centre for Research into Oral Tradition and the Development Languages, Yaoundé, Cameroun.

Others included: Prof. George Abungu, former Director-General of the National Museum of Kenya, and currently a Prof. of Applied Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville USA; Director-General, National Commission for Museum and Monuments (NCMM), Nigeria, Mr. Yusuff Abdallah; Artistic Director, National Troupe of Nigeria, Mr. Martin Adaji; Dr. Yonas Beyene, Programme Director, Association for Research and Conservation of Culture, Ethiopia; Prof. Audax Mabulla Prof., Archaeology Unit, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania; Décio Muianga, University Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo, Mozambique; Dr. Ndukuyakhe Ndlovu, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Pretoria, South Africa; Prof. Salima Ikram, Prof. of Egyptology, American University in Cairo, Egypt; and David Coulson, Chairman, Trust for African Rock Art (TARA), Nairobi Kenya among others.

According to Chief Edem Duke, Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, “Africa’s Rock Art heritage is among the world’s best, but unfortunately, the least understood and appreciated. This is because the continent is yet to harness and utilise the benefits inherent in this important heritage.  Multiples of complex symbolism, metaphors and meanings embedded in African Rock Art sites can provide clues to the controversies that dog Africa’s contribution to world civilisation.  They can also provide windows into the understanding and appreciation of many aspects of the continent’s history.”

He said, “African Rock Art sites and images are fragile, vulnerable and threatened by the expanding populations, building, mining, road construction and poorly managed tourism. The most common of these threats are theft and vandalism.”

To stem these threats, he said, “government agencies, museums, educational institutions and various NGOs can form partnership by working to safeguard the art through documentation, legislation, increased public awareness, improved security, community engagement and responsible tourism.”

Mrs. Nkechi Ejele, the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, said: “African Rock Art provides us opportunity to see, appreciate and celebrate the richness and diversity of African history and culture.”

She continued, “they not only provide us with a strong sense of pride in a rich African past, they remind us of our common and unifying ancestry. They also disprove and debunk egocentric claims that negate Africa’s contributions to world civilisation.”

While saying they can play important and key roles in the continent’s desire to achieve economic growth and development, he noted, “African Rock Arts can help in breaking our monolithic reliance on fossil fuels (i.e. petroleum and gas) through investments in and promotion of cultural tourism. It is important to say that cultural tourism holds the ace to Africa’s economic growth in the future. If promoted and developed, African Rock Arts can become one of the fastest growing sections of the continent’s culture and tourism industry.”

In his presentation, Babawale traced the root of the project to a mere dialogue between two individuals, Ms. Amolo Ng’weno of Kenya and retired General Ishola Williams of the Pan-African Strategic and Policy Research Group (PANAFSTRAG) in the course of a meeting on an on-going pictorial coverage of some unique rock paintings in East, and Southern Africa, by David Coulson of the Trust for African Rock Art (TARA).

The dialogue, he recalled, later metamorphosed into small group discussions, which resulted in the revisit of the pre-historic art and artists as well as art works.

The desire to further action on the subject, Babawale said, informed the broadening of the membership of the discussion group, to include African Agencies, experts and scholars involved in the study of African history and civilization.

According to him, CBAAC was invited to further engage scholars and experts in the field of Archaeology, Anthropology, Cultural Linguistics, Curatorial and allied services to unearth the intangible heritage information hidden in African Rock Art. The maiden two-day meeting was held in Nairobi, Kenya, from May 23 to 24, 2006. It was hosted by TARA, a non-governmental agency based in Nairobi, Kenya, in whose custody some of the Rock Art photographs were kept.

It was unanimously agreed at the forum that CBAAC should serve as the arrowhead of the Pan-African project on the reconstruction of the history of the Black and African people’s. CBAAC and TARA were thereafter, mandated to liaise with scholars in the area of Rock Art studies – Archaeology, Culture, Linguistics, Palaeontology, Anthropology, Folk-Lore — and other areas of relevance to Rock Art, in East and Western Africa, in preparation for the Phase II of the project. CBAAC was further mandated to undertake further studies on the presence of Rock Art sites in West Africa, with particular emphasis on Nigeria.

Findings revealed extensive distribution of Rock Paintings in the predominantly rocky areas of Nigeria, namely Ikom Local Government Area of Cross-river State and its environs; different locations in Bauchi State, and Iwo Eleru in Ondo State. Searches also revealed extensive distribution of unique sets of stone paintings, otherwise known as monoliths. The drawings, which were on stones have been classified as ‘sophisticated’ by scholars, with each carved stone carrying Nsibidi — a mode of writing credited to the Ejegham people of the Bantu stock, who were carriers of the Bantu civilization, and who claimed to have migrated from the Congo Basin.

Oral traditions of the people, emphasised the documentation function of these drawings, insisting that prehistoric Africans in the course of migration, spread a sophisticated civilisation documented in a writing the colonialists could not decode; and because they could not interpret what they saw, they termed it ‘primitive writing.’ The argument then was that the Nsibidi writing could be older than the historically acclaimed hieroglyphics of Egypt.

CBAAC research coverage was extended to Geji, Shyra, Marshall Caves and Shadawanka Rock sites – all in different locations within Bauchi State. Here, some rock art paintings, very unique in their own right, were also identified. Identification of these sites in Nigeria, further spurred CBAAC’s determination to sustain the tempo of unravelling the intangible heritage information hidden in the rock paintings, scattered all over Africa; as information so generated could lead to a better understanding of the history of Africa and Africans; its culture; and civilization.

The second phase of the Rock Art workshop project was held in Nairobi, Kenya from January 20 to 23, 2007. A major resolution of this workshop was the need to incorporate other organisations involved in the study of Africa history such as CICIBA; AU-CELTHO; Rock Art Department, Witwatersrand University, South Africa; Indian Ocean Organisation; and the Advanced Institute for the Study of African Languages, all of which were not in attendance.

Areas of research and methodologies to be adopted were thereafter streamlined, and CBAAC was mandated to liaise with CICIBA, Libreville Gabon, in the job of covering the whole of West and Central Africa for the project. These two organisations were to draw up a proposal, listing the names of identified project workers in the highlighted areas of research, to be forwarded to TARA, Kenya, by June, 2007, for subsequent submission to funding organisations, for possible funding, of the Rock Art project.

TARA in conjunction, with AU-CELTHO, Niger Republic, was to cover East and Southern Africa, bringing up the second proposal, with names of identified project workers, in the streamlined areas of study, for submission. TARA in addition to the above was to coordinate the collation of proposals and sourcing of the necessary funding for the research exercise. Another meeting was suggested, whereby those from Central and Southern Africa, who were not at this workshop, could be briefed, before involving them in the research project.

CBAAC, in conjunction with Pan-African Strategic and Policy Research Group (PANAFSTRAG), and African Union Centre for Oral History and Tradition, (AU-CELTHO) as well as TARA hosted a two-day methodology workshop on African Rock Art and the Pan-African Renaissance in Niamey, Niger Republic between March 11 and 14 2008. It had in attendance over 50 participants drawn from Niger Republic, Kenya and Nigeria. The workshop sought to provide opportunity for experts to discuss the best strategies to study and better understand methods for the identification, safeguarding, interpretation and promotion of African Rock Art as well as its preservation and conservation to the benefit of Africa and Africans. A total number of nine papers covering diverse aspects of African Rock Art ranging from its origins, forms, styles, spread, location as well as strategies for its promotion and preservation were presented. Characterising African Rock Art as one of the earliest expression of human imagination, the workshop emphasised not only its centrality in African cultural heritage, but its importance as a statement about the level of skills, sophistication and socio-cultural organisation of Africans in past.

These workshops sought to provide opportunity for experts to discuss the best strategies and approaches to study and better understand methods for the identification, safeguarding, interpretation and promotion of African Rock Art as well as its preservation and conservation for the benefit of Africa and Africans. A major resolution of the 3rd Workshop was the need for a concrete follow-up action by participants and stakeholders. Above all, the communiqué also recommended that theme African Rock Art and the Pan African Renaissance should be revisited in the foreseeable future. This recommendation became manifest with the hosting of the twin events last week in Addis Ababa.

And when the curtains drew on the two programmes on May 24, organisers expressed satisfaction that the template that would further facilitate the use of African Rock Art to inspire creativity, generate publicity for the output of the project and diversity of African Rock Art, develop strategies and action plan for the protection of the Rock Art sites had been set.

They were optimistic that the efforts would also enhance the protection and utilisation of Rock Art sites by communities on sustainable basis and ensure that research outputs on Rock Art projects and programmes are recognised by AU and UNESCO.