Addis Ababa: Culture should be incorporated in the curricula of African countries as it is instrumental in building resilient communities, UNESCO Ethiopia and AU representative Bissoonauth said.

In an exclusive interview with ENA, Rita Bissoonauth, UNESCO Representative to the African Union and Ethiopia, stressed conserving culture is one of the mandates of UNESCO.

‘As UNESCO, one of our priorities in African operational strategy priorities is cultural heritage. Cultural aspects should be incorporated in our curriculums.’

The representative stated that ‘if we do not know our culture, if we do not know our identity, we are all lost in this world. So, it is very important to include culture in our curriculum,’ Bissoonauth emphasized.

UNESCO, as the only United Nations agency with a core mandate in both culture and education, has plans to embed culture and the arts in and through education as key resources for human development.

Africa is a continent with an incredibly rich culture, bursting with beauty and
diversity.

The cultural heritage of the continent is rich and diverse, shaped by thousands of years of history, traditions, and customs.

Cognizant of this, UNESCO is working on protecting and safeguarding the world’s cultural and natural heritages and supporting creativity and dynamic cultural sectors that are fundamental to addressing the challenges of climate change, poverty, inequality, the digital divide and ever more complex emergencies and conflicts.

Accordingly, in the field of culture, UNESCO has promoted the learning of heritage, both tangible and intangible, as a way of broadening perspectives and deepening knowledge about history and society, for strengthening heritage protection and transmission, as well as enriching intercultural understanding and the appreciation of cultural diversity.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency