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SWAHILI CENTER REPRESENTS LOCAL STAKEHOLDERS IN GHANA FORUM

Swahili Center in Ghana

During the week of November 7-10, the Zanzibar-based Swahili Performing Arts Centre Managing Director, Kheiri Jumbe, attended the African Cultural Capital’s City Forum on Culture and Development, in Accra, Ghana.

The Isles was invited on merit of both the tangible and intangible cultural assets present in Stonetown. In a telephone conversation on Friday, Jumbe told the ‘Daily News on Saturday,’ “I am here to attend a forum on strategies towards making culturally active African cities to be recognised by UNESCO as being that.” According to Jumbe the aim of the meeting was to strategise on ways to infuse culture and the creative industries agendas at the heart of national development policy.

Cultural leaders from several African countries got the chance to explore development policies in their respective countries in relation to funding modalities and programming approaches. Countries represented at the forum, which took place between Monday and Thursday this week were Cameroun, Morocco, South Africa, Nigeria, Mozambique, the hosts Ghana and Tanzania.

The Mayor of Accra, Alfred Oko Vanderpuije, was the host of the 4-day event, which was organised by the City of Accra, The Arterial Network, UNESCO, The Goethe Institut and Agenda 21 of Spain. “My personal ambition and that of the Swahili Centre as stakeholders in culture in Tanzania is to develop ways in which the competitiveness of culture in the context of its productivity can be enhanced for the benefit of the local economy,” Jumbe replied when asked about the purpose of his participation.

He further explained that many studies conducted on the social and economic impact of cultural and creative industries have shown “positive contribution towards social cohesion, economic development and poverty reduction.” UNCTAD data shows that cultural and creative industries worldwide grew an average of 8.7 per cent annually.

However, Jumbe contended in many developing countries culture is not mainstreamed into development policies, despite “UNESCO recognising it as a vector for development and promoter of international co-operation.” As a result, there is generally lack of long-term, co-ordinated effort and funding in the sector in many developing countries. Inevitably, most support for culture in developing countries comes from international donors and multinational corporations, he maintained.

These only tend to concentrate on short-term and highly visible projects that are usually insufficient to render the sector viable.