| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
Source: UNESCO Web Site: http://www.unesco.org
UNESCO CELEBRATES THE COMPLETION OF THE GENERAL HISTORY
OF AFRICA IN TRIPOLI
Paris, April 12 {No.99-72} - The complete edition
of UNESCO'S General History of Africa - a 3-million-year
history of the entire African continent - has been
presented in Tripoli by the International Scientific
Committee responsible for the publication (People's
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) at its final meeting held April
10-12, ending over twenty years of work by nearly 350
scholars.
The complete edition of the General History of Africa
- eight volumes of 800 to 1,000 pages each - is now
available in three languages (Arabic, English and French).
Parts have already been published in Spanish (five
volumes of the complete edition), as well as four volumes
in Portuguese, Chinese (also four), three in Japanese,
two in Italian, Hawsa, Peulh, Korean (two volumes of
the abridged version) and Kiswahili (one volume).
During the meeting which will end this evening with
a ceremony in the presence of the Libyan head of state,
Colonel Moammar Gadhafi, and UNESCO Director-General
Federico Mayor, the President of the Committee, A.
Adu Boahen (Ghana), took stock of the publication and
considered its potentials.
"Despite the long delays, limited distribution
and popularity, there is no doubt that from the scientific
and academic viewpoints, the General History of Africa
has been a phenomenal success and has had an extraordinary
impact on higher education," declared A. Abu Boahen
who added: "Although it is a scholarly work, it
is also, in large measure, a faithful reflection of
the way in which African authors view their own civilisation.
While prepared in an international framework and drawing
to the full on the present stock of scientific knowledge,
it should also be a vitally important element in the
recognition of the African heritage and should bring
out the factors making for unity in the continent."
The members of the Committee celebrated their success,
and expressed relief at the end of such a weighty task.
"We leave behind a monument that will be a testimony
to our time," declared Diouldé Laya of
Niger adding that "future generations will decide
whether it is to be revised and how." Hichem Djait
(Tunisia) echoed this feeling: "We have laid the
foundations. It is up to the other generations to make
[the project] evolve!"
During the debates which included the participation
of publishers and translators of the Kiswahili and
Hawsa versions, the obstacles that stood in the way
of the different versions of the work and of its distribution
were examined closely. Avenues for future development
- other works and ways of increasing the exposure of
the General History of Africa - were also discussed,
although the Committee scrupulously avoided embarking
on "a new major project." The publication
of school books inspired by the General History and
drawing on its principles was discussed.
While it stressed the need for such books, the Committee
chose to leave it to others to develop them. Joseph
Ki-Zerbo of Burkina Faso, a veteran who already took
part in the Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire) meeting of
the Committee in 1966, argued that such school books
should be compiled in a regional rather than national
perspective. He said that such regionally-based books
would "be at once faithful to past reality, like
the General History, and suited to the needs of the
future, notably to the demands of globalisation."
In its final recommendations, the Committee requested
UNESCO to launch, under its aegis and that of the Organization
of African Unity, an appeal to raise the funds needed
to complete work on the language versions of the General
History by calling on African and non-African Member
States, international and regional institutions, foundations
and banks, businesses and individual donors. The Committee
also exhorted them to contribute to the launch of new
translations into other African languages and languages
of regional and inter-regional communication. The Committee
further requested the establishment, within UNESCO,
of a body to be charged with follow-up to the General
History of Africa and the setting up of an ad hoc experts
committee to ensure that the standard of work remains
exemplary.
The meeting continues today with a Forum on the Contribution
of the General History of Africa to a Culture of Peace.
****
Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1999 14:55:19 -0300 (GMT+3) From: IRIN - Central and Eastern Africa <irin-cea@ocha.unon.org> Subject: AFRICA: UNESCO completes general history of Africa [19990414]
Editor: Dr. Ali B. Ali-Dinar, Ph.D
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