TODAY, at the Plenary Hall of the AUC Conference Centre, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, rock arts will be the menu, as a colloquium and art show open to celebrate African Union’s (AU) 50th anniversary. The colloquium/exhibition will run simultaneously from today to Friday.

Packaged by the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation (CBAAC) in collaboration with Trust for African Rock Art (TARA), a non-governmental agency based in Nairobi, Kenya, the events seek to consolidate results of explorations that the two agencies have embarked upon since 2006.

There will be discussions on African rock art by Prof Salima Ikram, Dr Ohioma Pogoson, Prof George Abungu, Prof Barth Chukwuezi, Prof. Audax ZP Mabulla, Emmanuel Ndiema, Dr Ndukuyakhe Ndlovu, Dr. Sidi Mohamed Ilies and Gloria Borona.

Pogoson will talk on Rock Arts as Historical Records: Intriguing Aspects of African Rock Arts while Prof Chukwuezi will discuss Rock Art as Socio-Cultural Symbol of Human Interaction.

Indeed, the seed of the colloquium/exhibition was sown in November 2012 at the fourth Session of the Conference of Ministers of Cultures (CAMC4) held in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. It was at this meeting that the Nigeria’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, through its most vibrant agency, CBAAC, was mandated to organize and host the ‘double-edge’ show.

According to Director-General of the culture agency, Prof. Tunde Babawale, the Addis Ababa outing is expected to “represent a follow-up to previous engagements and a platform for updating research findings on African rock art.”

He is optimistic that the programme will provide avenue to share experience on the successful application of strategies for managing rock art sites across the continent.

It would be recalled that a landmark platform on research findings on African heritage in line with CBAAC’s pan-African mandate took off effectively at the African Rock Art meeting held in Nairobi, Kenya on May 23 and 24, 2006.

This was followed up with the second phase of the Rock Art workshop project held from January 20 to 23, 2007 also in Nairobi, while Niamey, capital city of Niger Republic hosted a two-day workshop on African Rock Art and Pan-African renaissance on March 11 to 14, 2008.

These workshops provided 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 to the benefit of Africa and Africans.

A major resolution of the third workshop in Niamey was the need for a concrete follow-up action by participants and stakeholders. The communiqué also required that the theme of the workshop should be revisited as may be necessary. And it is against this background that Nigeria through CBAAC canvassed the significance of using the platform of the African Union and key provisions in the Niamey Communiqué to further action on the African Rock Art project with a colloquium/exhibition in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in May 2013 as part of the activities to mark the 50th anniversary of the African Union (AU).

The focus on rock art heritage, Babawale had explained during the Niamey workshop, was stimulated by the necessity to reconstruct black and African peoples’ history. “It encompasses historic pictorial coverage of some unique rock paintings across Africa and a colloquium. Through extensive research and study, the presence of Rock Art sites has been established across Africa. Findings revealed extensive distribution of rock paintings in the predominantly rocky areas of East, West, South and Central Africa as well as the Sahara,” he had noted.

It is therefore, expected that the colloquium especially, will provide a platform for updating research findings on African Rock; 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 among others; raising the consciousness of a critical mass of key stakeholders on the project; examining the possibility of reconstructing African history and civilization through rock art, paintings, engravings etc

The hope of the organizers is that the three-day’s outing starting from today in Addis Ababa will inspire creativity in the usage of African Rock Art; generate publicity for the output of the project and diversity of African Rock Art; have the results recognised by the AU and UNESCO; facilitate strategies and action plan for the protection of the sites; and ultimately enhance the protection and utilisation of Rock Art sites by communities on sustainable basis.

Expected as participants are organisations involved in the study of Africa history, such as UNESCO; Regional Centre for Research and Documentation on Oral Traditions and the Development of African Languages (CERTODOLA),Cameroun; African Union Centre for Oral Tradition and History (AUCELTHO), Niamey; Trust for Africa Rock Art, (TARA), Kenya; Observatory for Cultural Policies in Africa (OCPA), Maputo; African Academy of Languages (ACALAN), Mali; Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS), Cape Town; and Rock Art Department, Witwatersrand University, South Africa.

Others are representatives of cultural agencies from Africa and the Diaspora; the AUC; Smithsonian Institution, USA; Documentation services professionals; University scholars, linguists, archaeologists and anthropologists, artists and allied key stakeholders in the culture industry among others.

Some of the issues to be tackled during the colloquium include African rock art: Relationship and role for history, society, religion, art history; African rock art: Intangible heritage, symbols, values, and beliefs;  African rock art: A resource, audiences, and beneficiaries;  Aesthetics and mainstream art;  Rock Art, Migration, Africa and African Diaspora Integration; Protection/Preservation of Rock Art Sites (from natural and artificial disasters); and Community participation in Rock Art preservation among others.

The exhibition segment will showcase images of Rock art from East, South, West and North Africa.

Africa, is renowned, to have the greatest variety of rock art and some of the oldest rock art in the world.

Through researches and archeological undertakings, various sites in Morocco, Algeria, Tanzania, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, have been discovered as rock art paintings dotting the entire landscape of Africa, some present as Graffitti in caves, hills, surfaces, walls of buildings and on stones.

The most outstanding of these varieties of rock art presentation are those found on Basille stones at Ikom sites, in Nigeria, popularly called Ikom Monoliths. These drawings were made on stones, and some extinct writings of Africa, like the Nsibidi, have been identified on these Monoliths.

The Crucifix (Cross) was also identified, dating as far back as 1.3 million years. Researchers are of the opinion that the originators of this skill were migrant Bantus of the Congo Basin. The language of the writings found on the Monoliths are being studied. This language, research reveals, is still being used by members of the Calabar Ekpe Secret Society.  The history behind the Ikom Monoliths is being unveiled piecemeal as researchers investigate the origin of this genre of rock art and originators of the language.

However, these rock art sites and images are fragile and vulnerable to a variety of threats. These threats include expanding populations, building, mining, road construction and poorly managed tourism. The most common of all threats are theft and vandalism. Government bodies, museums, Universities and various NGO’s are working to safeguard the art through documentation, legislation, increased public

awareness, improved security, community engagement and responsible tourism.

Many parts of Africa still recognize rock art as a way to contact the spirits of their ancestors and some worship sites of rock art. The North African Bushmen for example, saw their paintings as doorway through the rock face into the world of spirits in which they could harness mythical rain animals, snakes, large mammals to create good, and to overcome evil.

It is also believed that African rock art opens windows onto vanished worlds of cultural richness and diversity. We see people in elaborate costumes and long flowing dresses, head dresses, and necklaces, from long before the pyramids were built. Rock art offers us insight into how our ancestors visualized reality and changes in their lifestyles. It is believed that most rock art were made for spiritual and religious reasons and therefore many of the sites are adjudged sacred.

Till date, many people recognize some of these sites as having mystical and spiritual importance even though present inhabitants may have no connection with the art which may have been made thousands of years ago. In some areas, religious groups and animals conduct ceremonies at rock sites believing they could tap sacred power emanating from the past.

CBAAC’s partner in this endeavour, TARA, a non-governmental agency based in Nairobi, Kenya, was founded in 1996 by David Coulson with the support of Archaeologist, Mary Leakey and Conservator Lawrens Van der Post.

TARA is committed to recording the rich rock art heritage on the entire African continent and making this information widely available and accessible to researchers. CBAAC has collaborated with TARA on identifying sites of rock art in Africa; creating awareness on rock art study; safeguarding those sites most threatened by both humans and nature; and ensuring such sites are listed in the World Heritage list for preservation and protection.

The collaboration is borne out of desire “to create greater awareness on the potentials of the rock art culture, re-write African history for Africa by Africans from African perspective, through the decoding of stored information embedded in the Monoliths, Graffiti and other rock art presentations all over Africa,” Babawale asserted.