Volume nine of General History of Africa book on its way: UNESCO

May 23, 2013

Emnet Assfa

Preparations for the ninth volume of the General History of Africa (GHA) book has kicked off with the expert’s meeting in Addis Ababa at the UNECA, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said.

The meeting that brought a number of experts involved in education and culture sector was held from 20-22th of May within the framework of the ongoing celebrations of the 50^th founding anniversary of the OAU/AU, aiming to produce the first draft of the 9^th General History of Africa to be validated by the scientific committee and ministers of education.

According to Ali Moussa-lye, Chief of the Inter-cultural Dialog Section at UNESCO, eight volumes of the publication were made available for the public use since the establishment of the project in 1964. The volumes were “to help newly African states to rewrite their history and to get the discourse of their history”, Moussa-Iye said. “350 scholars of which 80% from Africa were involved in the production of the previous volumes of GHA to provide scientifically established [and] methodologically elaborated publication written history that responses to all the racial prejudices.”

Aimed at teaching African new generation about the history of the continent, the project was re-launched by the UNESCO in 2009 “For the pedagogical use of the General History of Africa” including the publication of the 9^th volume.

The project also plans to produce pedagogical materials at different levels of education that will be integrated to national education syllabus of African countries highlighting on common heritages of African peoples to support mutual understanding, regional integration and strengthen ties between Africans in Africa and people with African descent worldwide, according to Moussa-lye.

Sponsored by the Government of Brazil, the ninth volume is expected to be published within the next three years. “Not only Africans at home but also African diaspora, people with African roots and people of the world in general benefit from this knowledge,” says the Chief.

Photo caption – Ali Moussa-lye (left) speaking at the UNESCO experts meeting