Yaoundé hosts colloquium on "sustainable cultural development"

About 300 delegates from five continents are expected to attend the conference themed, “Africa in search of a sustainable cultural development: place and role of traditions in the contemporary dynamics of development,” from June 18 to June 21 in Yaoundé.

Organised by the International Centre for Research and Documentation on the traditions and African languages (CERDOTOLA), this conference will bring together experts from fifty universities and research centers, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the Economic and Monetary Union of West Africa (UEMOA), the Organization of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the International Centre for Bantu Civilizations (CICIBA) and organizations, traditional and customary authorities of the African continent.

The Yaoundé conference will be above all a launching point of an industrialization program of African traditions, which aims to make available to decision makers conceptual areas through which resources, practices, institutions and traditional modes of accumulation should be systematized, standardized and operated to support cultural harmony and accelerate the industrial development of African countries.

According to the Permanent Secretary of CERDOTOLA, Charles Binam Bikoï, it also aims at enabling ownership by the general public and other stakeholders of the important issues and debate options, to bring out and test intellectual products of effective dialogue between the different categories of actors and an integrated vision to facilitate areas of consensus around the project of industrialization of African traditions and cultures.

Founded in 1977 with headquarters in Yaoundé, CERDOTOLA's mission is the coordination of regional projects and liaison with national research institutes, development of cooperation between the relevant national and regional institutions, facilitating the execution of tasks, scientific research in the field of oral traditions and development of African languages.

It also works on the training of appropriate staff, equipment of national research centers and adequate technical resources, reception of researchers to exchange ideas and also their movements from one country to another, the development of means to collect, study, preservation and dissemination of oral traditions as well as encouragement of research on oral traditions and development of African languages through the organization of competitions and prizes to foster healthy competition between researchers and traditional people.

CERDOTOLA members are Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe and Chad.