Photos: Semafor\Nduati.githae\Wikimedia Commons

UNESCO is updating its 60-year old African history curriculum with new volumes that include African diasporas and their contributions to modern-day societies.

The General History of Africa (GHA) program was introduced in 1964 to help remedy the general ignorance of Africa’s history by reconstructing it and “freeing it from racial prejudices ensuing from slave trade and colonization,” while promoting an African perspective.

In its latest effort, the UN body is developing tools that African teachers and education policymakers can use to strengthen the teaching of the GHA program. The piloting workshop on mainstreaming African history was held in Ghana in September. The objective was to incorporate this history into national school education curricula.

“Teaching a common history to Africans is crucial in decolonizing the curriculum,” said Professor Paul Abiero, a historian at Moi University in Kenya. “But successful implementation will require financial resources, which are very limited in many countries.”

— Muchira Gachenge

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The UN on Tuesday celebrated the enormous contributions the African diaspora has made in every field of human endeavour, marking the first-ever International Day for People of African Descent.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for a greater commitment to advance the promise of equality, justice and dignity for all, in his inaugural message.

Long overdue

“It is a long overdue recognition of the profound injustices and systemic discrimination that people of African descent have endured for centuries, and continue to confront today,” the Secretary-General said.

“And it is an urgent call to action for everyone, everywhere, to commit to rooting out the evil of racism.”

More than 200 million people in the Americas alone identify as being of African descent. Millions more are located worldwide outside the African continent.

Whether as descendants of the victims of the transatlantic slave trade, or as more recent migrants, they are among some of the poorest and most marginalized groups, the UN said.

Last December, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution establishing the International Day.

The objective was “to promote greater recognition and respect for the diverse heritage, culture and contribution of people of African descent to the development of societies, and to promote respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms of people of African descent.”

Now is the moment

The resolution also recalled two related UN initiatives: the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in Durban, South Africa, and the declaration of the International Decade for People of African Descent, which runs through 2024.

“Twenty years after the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, and more than halfway into the International Decade for People of African Descent, we are experiencing unprecedented momentum towards ending the global scourge of racism,” said the Secretary-General. “We must not squander this opportunity.”

Costa Rica spearheaded efforts to create the International Day. The Central American country changed its political constitution in 2015, defining itself as a multiethnic and multicultural nation.

Jan André Solano is a university student and activist from Limón, a city on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, who admires the late civil rights icon, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

He recently participated in a UN initiative that collects the stories of various people of African descent in his homeland, who also share their accomplishments, challenges, hopes and life lessons.

Still dreaming of change

Despite his achievements, Jan said he does not understand why some people cross the street when they see him, or why he is subjected to other indignities, including being closely watched in supermarkets or being singled out for police searches while in public.

Latin America is home to nearly 134 million people of African heritage and a recent report by the UN economic commission for the region, ECLAC, reveals how they suffer poverty, lack of access to basic services and inequality.

For example, in Brazil, the overall poverty rate is 11.5 per cent, but among people of African descent, it is 25.5 per cent. The story is repeated in other countries such as Ecuador and Colombia.

Like Dr. King, Jan said he also has a dream: “That exclusion, inequality, racism and discrimination be banished forever from the world, and that I may have the same opportunities to develop, lead a prosperous life and thus dedicate myself to serving, and helping, all other people regardless of the colour of their skin.”

Acknowledge legacy, redress wrongs

The Secretary-General pointed to the UN’s work to dismantle racism.

The Slave Route Project, run by the UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), encourages open and honest conversation around the horror and greed of slavery.

Another initiative by the UN Population Fund, UNFPA, focuses on expanding opportunities for young people of African descent, while the UN human rights office, OHCHR, has launched the Agenda Towards Transformative Change for Racial Justice and Equality in efforts to tackle systemic racism, ensure accountability, and deliver reparatory justice.

Earlier this month, the UN General Assembly established the UN Permanent Forum of People of African Descent, a 10-member advisory body that will work closely with the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“Acknowledging the entrenched legacy of enslavement, redressing the wrongs of history, and shattering the evil lie of supremacy, demands persistence and action every day, at every level, in every society,” the UN chief said.

“Together, let us commit to do our part and advance the promise of equality, justice and dignity for all.”

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Peace Voice writer Dr. Marc Pilisuk says Joe Biden’s foreign policy needs “structural change” away from “dangerous order of geopolitical manipulation.”

Happily, in some measure, in his first three months in office, Joe Biden has shown a needed system change toward healing, sharing, caring, helping, and cooperation in his domestic policy achievements and goals.

Sadly, an equally urgent need for structural change is missing from his foreign policy agenda.

The progressive steps taken by the Biden administration so far are important and commendable. Reaffirmations of the steps needed for protection against the spread of the Covid virus have gone remarkably well.

Provisions for an economic stimulus targeting the neediest of our society are welcome. In addition, there is much to admire in the goals on environmental sustainability, the new levels of visible concern over violent actions whether by police or civilians, and the appointment to cabinet positions of competent indigenous and union leaders are all signs that this administration may be leading an important historical change.

Progressive critics are reluctant to declare this another FDR moment citing the depth of problems still remaining. Nevertheless the Biden overtures represent a dramatic opening for continued dialogue on needed policies.

But in foreign policy, the old games persist.

Since 1947, the United States has been mired in a national defense policy, typically with bipartisan support, in which the world is seen as a battle ground for geopolitical and economic influence. We have been led by policy officials such as Henry Kissinger, Dean Rusk, Madeleine Albright, and Condoleezza Rice. However bright they may be, they worked within an inadequate paradigm of thought.

In this world the players at the table of nations are not the needy individuals within countries but rather their sovereign leaders. Each nation is assumed to be participating for its own advantage. The guiding line has been, in words attributed to Henry Kissinger: “We do not have principles, we have interests.”

Given this assumption, we have formed a strange network of allies and adversaries. Throughout the Cold War and beyond, the major adversaries were assumed to be trying to destroy us. National leaders who posed threats to American economic domination were met with specific strategic actions, even if those foreign national leaders were operating in the interests of their own people and posed no threat to the people of the US (e.g., Arbenz in Guatemala, Mossadegh in Iran, Allende in Chile).

The U.S. response has too often been a demonization of their leaders, economic sanctions that punish their citizens, interference with their elections, military interventions, assassinations and a domination of media to assure us that we are the good guys and those challenging us are enemies.

We have nurtured a class of highly competent military leaders who move comfortably with the heads of major military production facilities. We have invested great resources in military intelligence and surveillance which have reaped an extensive dossier on the misdeeds of other nations and have used this information to keep legislators and the media “informed” about what the military establishment chooses to share. And if all public-facing information they can muster fails to make their case, they fall back on two basic lines: 1. national security, and 2. If you knew what we know, you would all agree with us. These veils permit misdirection and lies.

While we endlessly claim to be fighting for democracy, we have in truth overthrown democratically elected leaders when they are perceived as interfering with extracting profits—including Guatemala, Iran, Congo, and Chile.

The reason I term this an inadequate paradigm of thought is that it has inspired potential adversaries to operate in the same way, creating a toxic dynamic. It has also interfered with the development of international peacekeeping institutions. It has served to preserve the dominance of nations manipulated by transnational corporations and has led to obscene extremes of inequality.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the military and trade arrangements with El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Haiti, in which governments sustained by the U.S. appropriate once viable farmlands and distribute them to external mining and agribusiness interests. This displaces people and forces a massive flow of refugees and asylum seekers, virtually all to our southern border.

Appointments to key positions of officials like Anthony Blinken and Jake Sullivan reflect a continuation of the view that foreign policy is a game of military threats and economic bullying and blockades. Early practices of the Biden administration have so far pointed toward a continuity of this dangerous order of geopolitical manipulation.

Remarks by Biden publicly calling Putin a killer and leveling gross accusations against China reflect the least possible way for peaceful remediation of the underlying issues.

The old policy is seen in the bombing of Syria and in continuing to supply weapons and training to oppressive authoritarian governments such as the Saudi monarchy and the UAE regardless of their record in human rights. Such policies remind us of how we were brought into economically and morally costly wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. These policies are used to justify more than half of the federal discretionary budget for military purposes.

U.S. government officials continue to promise technological advances in weaponry, claimed to be essential for security while not being able to make us safer against any of the major threats to human life.

In very different ways the isolationist popularity of Donald Trump and the humanist popular support for policies by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren reflect the dissatisfaction of many people with policies supporting an American empire.

It is time for the Biden administration to show the same courage in negotiating for peace with all countries that it has shown in domestic reform. The dangers posed by radioactive and chemical contaminants, like viral infections and the plight of displaced people, are not problems that can be solved by competitive pressures.

An environment with water and air safe to assure life requires cooperation beyond the actions of any particular country, while global climate chaos is accelerated by a massive military patrolling the planet and consuming more carbon fuels than any other sector.

Punishing and threatening some nations guilty of severe suppression of human rights while condoning and assisting similar outrages by strategic partners is bad policy. The world we need must replace national or corporate interests with human needs. Mutual aid is so much more adaptive than mutual threats.

In a world increasingly threatened by nuclear annihilation, there is need for a new vision in which adherence to the values of peace with justice and environmental sustainability are prominent. This goes with support for the international institutions supporting them like the World Health Organization, UNESCO and the International Criminal Court.

The outmoded world of aggressive gamesmanship will need dramatic U.S. reformist initiatives if it is ever to change.

Dr. Marc Pilisuk is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, a faculty member at Saybrook University, and the co-author of The Hidden Structure of Violence.

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Why do so many Americans fail to act when we see injustice, like the police brutality that was perpetrated upon Rodney King, that still continues in the present with the deaths of people like Breanna Taylor and George Floyd?

We see, but do we learn? We learn, but do we act?

In March of 1991, at the age of 13, my life changed. I watched footage of police violence so staggeringly brutal that I had a million questions and no answers.

My father tried to explain the histories of racism and violence, but there was no making sense of what happened to Rodney King; how could anyone continue the assault after he had gone completely limp?

The world saw with graphic clarity what oppressed communities had known and rightly complained about for decades. I would never have believed it, but then I saw it.

My younger students cannot imagine a world without cellphones to record so much of what happens. Footage of brutality surfaces on a near daily occurrence, but 30 years since my wake-up call I see that we have watched and done nothing. We learn, but do we act?

As an educator one of the critical examinations I am most committed to is responding to misinformation, since much of it is intended to teach exactly the wrong lessons and prompt harmful acts. I find that case studies help to make the points emerge with a deeper authenticity for many students. Statistics are important; true stories make the numbers come alive.

Sometimes, however, the stories are about stories. Observable facts can become cautionary tales. We see, but do we learn?

For example, in Rwanda, April 1994, journalists risked their lives to get footage of the genocide to Tutsis that was taking place; they believed that if the world saw what was happening they would be forced to act, but they were wrong. The world has been trying to learn from that story ever since, but we still grapple ineffectively with the plight of Rohingyas and Uighurs, two populations who are the Tutsis of our time. We still see, but are we learning?

A counterfactual is the expression of something that has not happened as though it is the case. It is a 75-cent word for “what if?” It can help us “see” things in our mindseye so we can mentally compare observable reality and imagined alternatives.

I ask students to develop that capacity for applying the counterfactual, to help them see possibilities and learn to act to make the best ones real.

We can use this learning tool, for example, when we consider how Congress and the President chooses to spend the money they get directly from our paychecks, money we work for.

Applying the counterfactual we can image our DoD as a peace force building bridges and infrastructure instead of dropping bombs. Instead of spending trillions on bombers like the F-35, which despite terms like “surgical strike” kill significant numbers of civilians, it is time to imagine and then act to turn swords into plowshares. Repurposing failed military technologies for lifesaving roles would increase peace.

According to UNESCO the US puts 11.6 percent of public funding toward education, well below the international standard 15 percent, while U.S. military expenditures are roughly the size of the next seven largest military budgets around the world combined.

Counterfactual: the US could reduce its military spending by 75 percent and it would still have the largest military budget on the planet. The savings could be used in any number of ways, like ending US poverty, emulating the most effective and least violent police departments, and still having enough left over to make education tuition free at all American universities.

My path to rethinking reality started three decades ago, seeing and learning from watching Rodney King beaten down mercilessly. We all have, or should have, those lodestar moments, when we truly see something hurtful and learn to imagine and ultimately act for helpful alternatives.

We see, we learn, we act. That is a responsive and responsible democracy. Can we keep ours?

Wim Laven, Ph.D., syndicated by PeaceVoice, teaches courses in political science and conflict resolution.

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Poet, editor, diplomat, and cultural theorist Léon Damas was born on March 28, 1912, in Cayenne, French Guiana. He was the youngest of five children born to parents Ernest and Marie Aline Damas.

After his mother’s death in 1913, young Léon and his siblings were placed in the care of his father’s sister, Gabrielle Damas.

In 1924, Damas left French Guiana to attend the prestigious Lycée Victor-Schœlcher, in Martinique. Among his new classmates was lifelong friend and collaborator Aimé Césaire. In 1929, Damas traveled to France to attend the University of Paris. Though his scholarship was for the study of law, Damas quickly developed an interest in the humanities and social sciences.

Influenced by surrealist Andre Breton’s anti-colonial pamphlet Légitime Défense, by his encounters with the work of Harlem Renaissance poets like Claude McKay and Langston Hughes, and by the growing community of U.S. Black expatriate writers and artists in his adopted city, Damas began to assert his identity as a poète Nègre.

In 1931, Damas and Aimé Césaire (also a student in Paris) met Léopold Sédar Senghor, a student from the French colony of Senegal who shared their interest in anti-colonial literature and thought. In 1934, the three founded the journal L’Étudiant Noir, a platform for a pan-Africanist literary and cultural movement that Damas, Aimé Césaire, and Senghor would come to call Négritude. This diasporically-oriented, anti-colonialist literary and ideological movement would attract Francophone writers of African descent.

Damas was also the first Black writer to address the impact of colonization on the psyche of the colonized. In his 1937 poetry collection, Pigments, Damas began to identify the traits that characterize the internalized racism and self-subjugation that can accompany African and Afro-disaporic colonization. He introduced this colonial and postcolonial condition more than 20 years before philosopher Frantz Fanon would label such traits “the colonized personality” (in The Wretched of the Earth).

Within its first two years in print, Pigments was translated into several African languages and was widely distributed throughout the European colonies of Africa and the Caribbean. In 1939, the French government banned and burned numerous copies of the collection after denouncing it as a threat to the security of the state.

In addition to Pigments, Damas was the author of nine other volumes, including five additional books of poetry, three essay collections, and one book of short stories.

In addition to a writing career that spanned 40 years, from 1937 to 1977, he held a number of prominent and influential positions in military, diplomatic, and government organizations. Damas served in the French army during World War II, after which he was elected to the Chambre des Députés of the French National Assembly, serving from 1948 to 1951. He would later become the overseas editor for Radio France, a contributing editor on the board of the journal Presence Africaine, and a representative of the African Society of Culture for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Throughout this period, Damas traveled extensively in Africa, Latin America, the United States, and the Caribbean, delivering lectures and serving in academic and creative residencies, often in the U.S. In 1970, Damas settled in the District of Columbia, where he accepting a visiting professorship at Georgetown University. He was subsequently offered a permanent position at Howard University, where he remained on the faculty until his death, on January 22, 1978.

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A UNESCO report released on the occasion of the International Day of the Girl Child (11 October) shows that 180 million more girls have enrolled in primary and secondary education since 1995.

However, despite an increase across all levels of education, girls are still more likely to suffer exclusion than boys, and this is further exacerbated by the current pandemic. It therefore remains vital for governments to tackle persisting discrimination to achieve equality for the next generation of girls, argues the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, A New Generation: 25 years of efforts for gender equality in education.

“We all know that education is the cornerstone of equality – and the education of girls and women is the first step towards a more gender-equal world. Though we are happy to report the progress achieved in girls’ and women’s education through the continued efforts of the international community, this publication also shows we are still failing the most disadvantaged: three-quarters of all primary-age children who may never set foot in school are girls,” said UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay. “At this critical moment, with COVID-19 exacerbating gender inequalities, we must renew our commitment to educating girls and women. Progress in this field echoes through generations – as do reversals of this progress.”

The report calls for action in the following areas:

(1) Eliminate gender disparity in education access, participation and completion. There are fewer than 9 females enrolled for every 10 males in 4% of countries in primary school, 9% in lower secondary, 15% in upper secondary and 21% in tertiary education.

(2) All pregnant girls and young parents must be supported to go to school. Despite the global decline, early pregnancy rates remain high in sub-Saharan Africa. In Chad, Mali and Niger rates are higher than in 1995. Active bans still prevent pregnant girls from going to school in Equatorial Guinea and the United Republic of Tanzania.

(3) All teachers, school and career counsellors must have training to prevent negative gender stereotypes spilling over into teaching and students’ subject choices. Globally, the percentage of females studying engineering or ICT is below 25% in over two-thirds of countries. The share of women in technical and vocational education (TVET) declined from 45% in 1995 to 42% in 2018. Few women pursue careers in ICT.

(4) All curriculum and textbooks must represent females in a way that does not perpetuate gender stereotypes. Textbook reviews in many countries found that text and images do not portray women in active social and economic positions but in traditional home-bound roles.

(5) All students must have access to comprehensive sexuality education which has been shown to prevent school-related gender-based violence by promoting understanding and respect of students’ gender identities. It also leads to a reduction of the prevalence of early pregnancies.

(6) Encourage more women in leadership positions, to help change social and gender norms – and act as role models for female students. The report finds that negative stereotyping of women as unsuited to be leaders are reinforced by a scarcity of female teachers in higher education. Globally, women make up 94% of teachers in pre-primary but only 43% in tertiary education. Even fewer women hold leadership positions in universities and in education administration.

The new publication by the GEM Report takes stock of progress in girls’ education over the last two and a half decades since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a landmark commitment by 189 countries to advance the rights of girls and women. Since 1995, the global enrolment rate for girls increased from 73% to 89%, with the biggest improvements seen in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia and especially in India. Significant progress has been made in primary education enrolment in 23 countries including Bhutan, Djibouti and Nepal, where gender parity has been achieved compared to 1995 when fewer than 80 girls for every 100 boys attended school.

Three times more women are also now enrolled in universities than two decades ago, with particular progress seen in Northern Africa and Western Asia. In Morocco, parity was achieved in 2018, compared to just 3 women enrolled for every 10 men in the early 1990s.

Despite encouraging progress, gender still plays a significant role in enrolment in many countries. In Chad, Guinea-Bissau and Yemen, fewer than 80 girls for every 100 boys completed primary school and boys are more than twice as likely to complete secondary school as girls. Large gender disparities persist particularly for disadvantaged learners. In at least 20 countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa but also in Belize, Haiti, Pakistan and Papua New Guinea, hardly any poor rural young women have completed upper secondary school.

The legacy of past discrimination is such that women still account for almost two-thirds of illiterate adults. Many also face additional barriers, such as poverty and disability. In 59 countries, women aged 15-49 from the poorest households are four times more likely to be unable to read and write than those from the richest households.

Manos Antoninis, Director of UNESCO’s GEM Report stated: “Twenty-five years since the historic Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, girls still face barriers that keep them away from school and realising their potential. Education is the springboard for achieving the six Action Coalitions at the Generation Equality Forum planned for 2021, where the next iteration of the Beijing Declaration will be produced. It makes the timing of this Report particularly critical.”

Hon Dr. David Moinina Sengeh, Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education in Sierra Leone and newly appointed Chair of the Advisory Board for the GEM Report, added: “Since the Beijing Declaration in 1995, progress towards gender equality in education has been strong but uneven. Governments need to be fully committed and societies’ full attention is also needed to stop education exclusion from holding girls and women back. This GEM 2020 Gender Report shows that the fulfilment of women’s rights is intrinsically linked to their education opportunities. Its recommendations must be put into action by all stakeholders to achieve full equality for the next generation.”

The GEM Report has launched a campaign called #Iamthe1stGirl. This campaign aims to show the world what happens when governments invest in girls’ education. It aims to share the positive contribution to society by millions of women who are the first in their family to finish secondary school or university.

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One of the annual joyous occasions in Martinique is the island’s colorful and unique carnival which is scheduled to take place this year from February 23 to 26, 2020.

The French Caribbean Island of Martinique—a dream destination for nature lovers, divers, foodies or those passionate about history—never ceases to astound. Nestled at the heart of the Caribbean archipelago, this 50-mile long and 25-mile wide French island is unapologetically creole and explored with the greatest of ease. The island’s 450 square miles offer idyllic beaches, dense tropical forests, pristine rivers and the iconic and majestic Mount Pelee volcano—a candidate, along with the nearby Pitons du Carbet, for UNESCO’S prestigious World Heritage list.

It also offers divers & snorkelers of every level crystal-clear waters and an underwater world populated with colorful coral reefs and fauna. In addition to these natural assets and there are over 22 dive sites.

There is always something new to experience in the Isle of Flowers. Divers and visitors alike can explore the recently re-opened Frank A. Perret Museum, situated since 1933 at the heart of Saint-Pierre, Martinique’s former capital, a city of art & history. This completely redesigned and expanded museum now called the Memorial to the 1902 catastrophe is dedicated to the memory of the violent eruption that took place on May 8, 1902 of Mount Pelée that destroyed Saint-Pierre and since dubbed the Little Pompeï of the Caribbean.

Also in the limelight, the prestigious rums of Martinique have a new showcase with newly opened House of Rhums boutique, located at the heart of Fort-de-France, the island’s capital. Rum lovers from visitors to cruise passengers will get a unique opportunity to taste all the AOC rums of Martinique.

King Vaval will return to the streets of Martinique during the island’s colorful and unique carnival happening February 23 to 26, 2020.

Another joyous and unique event will be the world finals of the 2020 Ti Punch Cup. It will take place from March 9 to 13, 2020 at the historic Habitation Clement distillery. Mixologists and bartenders from Asia, the Caribbean, Europe and North America will showcase the rums of Martinique with local ingredients and their creativity. The big question will be: who will dethrone American Bethany Ham?

And Martinique, would not be Martinique without its grand and unique island-round boat race known as the Tour des Yoles which will take place late July 2020. Last but not least, the mid-August Baccha Festival returns for its 7th incarnation. This must-see summer music and dance fest feature local and international groups in a dreamlike setting.

To accommodate its visitors, Martinique offers a wide variety of lodgings; this includes 3-star hotels like the freshly renovated Hotel Bambou—known for its waters-edge location and verdant surrounding on the Anse Mitan beach or elegant 5-stars like La Suite Villa, a trendy boutique hotel boasting a gastronomic restaurant and breathtaking views of the magnificent Fort-de-France Bay. The beautiful Club Med Buccaneer’s Creek offers guests an all-inclusive stay and for those do-it-yourselfers, there is a wide variety of gîtes ruraux, Airbnb and cottage rentals. A popular option in Martinique, they are complemented by a wide array of villas with beach access or unbelievable views and superb concierge services.

Last but not least, this winter, like always, Martinique will welcome North American visitors with open arms.

American Airlines offers year-round service from Miami with up to 7 non-stop flights weekly, from Miami International Airport to Fort-de-France’s Aimé Césaire International Airport, a convenient hub to connect from Boston, New York and even from Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Other convenient options include Air Canada and Air Transat, which also offer year-round flights to Martinique from Montreal. This non-stop service offers many possibilities for connections to and from Boston, New York as well as from Los Angeles and San Francisco.

ABOUT MARTINIQUE (https://us.martinique.org/)

The French Caribbean Island of Martinique is also known as the Isle of Flowers, The Rum Capital of the World, the Birthplace of coffee in the New World, The Isle of the Famed Poet (Aimé Césaire) – Martinique ranks among the most alluring and enchanting destinations in the world. As an overseas region of France, Martinique boasts modern and reliable infrastructure – roads, water and power utilities, hospitals, and telecommunications, services all on par with any other part of the European Union. At the same time, Martinique’s beautifully unspoiled beaches, volcanic peaks, rainforests, 80+ miles of hiking trails, waterfalls, streams, and other natural wonders are unparalleled in the Caribbean, so visitors here truly get the best of both worlds.

The currency is the Euro, the flag and the official language is French, but Martinique’s character, cuisine, musical heritage, art, culture, common language, and identity are of a distinctly Afro-Caribbean inclination known as Creole. It is this special combination of modern world conveniences, pristine nature, and rich heritage that has earned for Martinique several notable distinctions in recent years. Hot off the press: In December 2019 and for the second year in a row, Martinique was named “Culinary Capital of the Caribbean” by the Caribbean Journal. The island was also recognized in January 2019 by www.OprahMag.com and in first place in their list of “The 19 Best Winter Getaways.” Martinique was also featured in the Caribbean Journal’s Best Caribbean Islands to visit in 2019. Martinique has also been featured in Travel + Leisure and the New York Time’s “52 Places to go in 2018.”

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The current tensions across the Middle East and Gulf region and their potential implications for cultural heritage sites (like the above ‘Gate of All Nations’, in ancient Persian city of Persepolis, in Iran) were the focus of a meeting on Monday between the head of the UN’s cultural agency, UNESCO, and a senior diplomat from Iran.

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay and Iranian Ambassador to the UN agency, Ahmad Jalali, met in Paris against a background of mounting threats between his country and the United States.

This follows the killing of top Iranian General Qassim Suleimani in an airstrike in Baghdad on Friday carried out by the United States.

In a tweet at the weekend, US President Donald Trump said he was issuing a warning to Iran that if any retaliatory strikes involved Americans or American assets, then Iranian sites, including those of cultural significance, would be targeted.

Ms. Azoulay used the meeting to stress the universality of cultural and natural heritage in promoting peace and dialogue between peoples, and which the international community has a duty to protect and preserve for future generations.

She recalled two UN treaties on protecting cultural heritage, including during conflict, which both countries have ratified.

The 1954 Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict is the first international treaty to address this subject. It was adopted in the wake of the widespread destruction of cultural heritage during the Second World War.

Examples of cultural heritage include monuments and archaeological sites, but also architecture, works of art, books, scientific collections, and other objects of artistic, historical or archaeological interest.

Under the treaty, countries pledge to spare these items from possible armed conflict through protective measures and even sanctions.

UNESCO explained that threats can come from fighting but also any resulting occupation.

“As cultural property reflects the life, history and identity of the community, its preservation helps to rebuild a broken community, re-establish its identity, and link its past with its present and future. In addition, the cultural property of any people contributes to the cultural heritage of humankind. Thus, loss of or damage to such property impoverishes humankind,” according to information on its website.

The second treaty is the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.

The most significant feature of the treaty is that it links “the concepts of nature conservation and the preservation of cultural properties” and the need to preserve balance between the two.

Among other items, it stipulates that each State Party “undertakes not to take any deliberate measures which might damage directly or indirectly the cultural and natural heritage […] situated on the territory of other States Parties to this Convention.”

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Sister Gladyce Kachope, of Uganda; Mr. Eric Ademba, of Kenya; and Ms. Augusta Lartey-Young of are the three winner of the first African Union Continental Teacher Prize.

The African Union (AU) recently hosted the inaugural award ceremony for the first Continental Teacher Prize. The AU Teacher Prize has been established as a means for demonstrating respect for teachers and the teaching profession, by encouraging and celebrating the committed teachers in Africa.

The Prize raises the status of teaching, facilitates sharing of best practices in teacher excellence, and inspires the best possible candidates to join the teaching profession. Furthermore, the AU Teacher Prize is meant to serve as a catalyst for similar programmes at regional and national levels.

The Teacher Prize is an important and valuable instrument that contributes to the success of Agenda 2063 and the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA), with the following objectives:

• Enhance visibility and status of the Teacher in Africa at all levels – Preprimary, Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary including TVET;

• Promote Teaching as a first choice profession at all levels; and

• Celebrate and encourage outstanding teachers.

For the 2019 edition of the African Union Continental Teacher Awards, prizes of $10 000 each were awarded to top African teachers at the secondary school level. The following are the winners for 2019 edition:

1. Ms. Augusta Lartey-Young (Ghana);

2. Sister Gladyce Kachope (Uganda);

3. Mr. Eric Ademba (Kenya).

Through a competitive process, the winning teachers were selected for demonstrating the following qualities:

• Engaging in quality teaching which results in high standards of student achievement;

• Demonstrated knowledge of the subject matter, while keeping up with recent developments;

• Encouraging desirable behavior among students through positive feedback and other methods;

• Managing classes to enhance the quality of learning processes, while ensuring accommodation of students with varied learning needs and abilities;

• Engaging in activities and networks that enhance the social and cultural value of learning;

• Helping students to achieve their long term career goals by organizing engagement with relevant agencies and information;

• Demonstrating multi-valency in facilitating acquisition of knowledge and skills, as well as values for peace building and responsible citizenship

• Positive engagement with fellow teachers encouraging mutual learning;

• Positive reputation from stakeholders and community members;

• Highly commended by students and staff members.

The event, facilitated by outgoing Head of the Education Division, Dr. Beatrice Khamati Njenga, was attended by Dr. Yumiko Yokozeki, Director of UNESCO Institute for Capacity Building in Africa; and Ambassador Ranieri Sabatucci, European Union Head of Delegation to the African Union, as well as Ambassadors and officials from the AUC Permanent Representatives’ Committee (PRC), senior officials from Member States, RECs, Universities, education development agencies; as well as Media and other partner organizations.

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Angolan President Goncalves Lourenco hosts Pan African Forum to promote peace and non-violence.

The 1st Edition of the Pan African Forum for the Culture of Peace ‘Biennial of Luanda’ kicked off on 18 September 2019, in the presence of President Joao Manuel Goncalves Lourenco, Republic of Angola; President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Republic of Mali and President Hage Gottfried Geingob, Republic of Namibia.

The Chairperson of the AU Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat and the Commissioners for Social Affairs H.E Amira El Fadel and Rural Economy and Agriculture H.E Josefa Sacko respectively, were also in attendance at the official opening ceremony together with other important stakeholders that included the Director General of UNESCO and ministers of AU Member States.

With a focus to promote a Pan-African movement for a culture of peace and non-violence, the forum is being held under three thematic areas:

* Partners Forum: Alliance for Africa: to scale-up strategic programmes and projects for peace and sustainable development throughout the continent;

* Forum of Ideas – Youth and Women Forums: to disseminate good practices and strategies for the prevention, management and mitigation of conflicts;

* Festival of Cultures: to showcase the cultural diversity on the Continent and the diaspora, as a demonstration of African resilience and innovation. Delivering the keynote address at the opening ceremony H.E Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of African Union Commission said, “This first edition of the Luanda Biennale and which it must be recalled, was endorsed by the 24th African Union Summit in January 2015, is an opportunity for us to assess the state of peace on the Continent, and to explore ways on how to cultivate and sustain it. My wish is that this Forum which brings together expertise from diverse fields, should make an analysis without fear or favour, towards the appropriation of the culture of peace in Africa.”

Officially opening the forum, H.E Joao Manuel Goncalves Lourenco, President of Angola said, “The presence of Angolan youth and youth from other parts of the continent as well as the Diaspora in the Biennale will result in various innovative strategies coming out from the reflections and debates aimed at enhancing the culture for peace.”

The President highlighted the importance of finding sustainable solutions for the various problem Africa face today, such as hunger, sicknesses, illiteracy, social inequalities, high unemployment rates which result tribalism, and xenophobia, dividing Africans, that delay the harmonious development of Africa and the wellbeing of its population.

“The culture of peace is more than an armistice or a ceasefire. It is built and must be nourished over time,” said Ms. Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO. “Because as a Senegalese proverb says, ‘there can be no peace without understanding.” This understanding is the awareness of each other’s heritage and common heritage”, she added.

The Culture of Peace Biennale is a continent-wide event contribution to the implementation of the Aspirations of the African Union Agenda 2063 and in particular the “Agenda for Peace” and “Silencing the Guns by 2020” Flagship Project. Equally, the event responds directly to Sustainable Development Goals 16 and 17 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions / Partnerships) of the United Nations Agenda 2030.

Jointly organized by the African Union Commission, UNESCO and the Government of Luanda, the five-day Biennale of Luanda will conclude on 22 September.

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