8 November 2004

Barney Pityana, Vice Chancellor of UNISA,
Prof M S Makhanya, Chair of the Culture Sector for the South African National UNESCO Commission,
Distinguished academics,
Stranger Kgamphe, the Secretary General of the South African National UNESCO Commission,
Colleagues from government,
Members of parliament,
Distinguished guests from the many organizations and bodies representing our diverse cultural sector,

This is a landmark conference and it is indeed an honour for me to address a gathering representing the thinkers, movers and shakers in the cultural sector in South Africa. I believe that the outcomes of this conference will place us in a better position to make our distinctive contribution to the international debate on the promotion of cultural diversity and around promoting the diversity of cultural contents in artistic expressions.

For several years the “term cultural diversity” has been employed as a concept that under-girds certain intangible, yet very important human rights. Indeed it is enshrined in our own constitution along with recognition of the right of freedom of expression, the right to artistic creativity, freedom of the media, the right of citizens of this country to use the language of their choice, and the right to participate in the cultural life of the country as they choose.

An old song says: “You Never Miss Your Water Till Your Well Runs Dry” , to slightly recast that, one could perhaps say, “You Never Realize the Value of a Right Until it is Under Threat”! I say this because international discourse around cultural diversity is no accident. Equally true, the urgency that attaches to these discussions in our day is not unrelated to the real, perceived and sometimes misconstrued threats to cultural diversity abroad in the world arena.

As South Africans we come to this international debate with a particular experience as a country and as an emergent democracy. South African history abounds with debates around culture and cultural issues. One might say too that culture and cultural issues have been among the most abused in the policy-making of this country, especially during the days of colonial and apartheid rule. I would suggest that we always bear that abuse in mind when debating cultural issues. The lessons to be gleaned from that experience might well be very negative, but that experience also carries within it important warning signs that should alert us to the glib use and misuse of notions of culture, of cultural integrity, cultural authenticity and the preservation of cultural diversity.

I would hazard to say that our starting point should always be our shared humanity, that all of us are members of the same human family. But, just as common descent does not reduce the individual members of any single family into a colony of ants – all the same and identical in every respect - so too our common humanity does not make for sameness.

The second premise from which I think we should proceed is that culture embraces virtually the totality of socially transmitted behaviour patterns, including language, belief systems, institutions, customs, traditions, the arts and all the other products of human work, imagination and thought. We can, by extension, also accept that since culture is “socially transmitted behaviour” it is eminently transferable - from one geographic location to another, from one group of people to another, from one person to another, from one environment to another. This suggests to me that culture is not coded in the genes, is not transmitted genetically and is exceedingly dynamic, it is always in motion and is never static.

The third premise I would like to submit is that this human family of ours has over the ages built up a huge fund of knowledge and experiences that have been shared amongst us in a myriad of ways. No section or portion of the human family can therefore claim to be the exclusive repository of wisdom, knowledge, valid experience and worth. We all have something to teach to others; we all have learnt from others; we all have been enriched by such inter-action with others; and, what is more, it is precisely that capacity to teach, to learn and to be enriched by such exchanges that makes us human.

Our own conference on Cultural Diversity should, I believe, proceed from the recognition that human civilization has been shaped by such interaction within, between and amongst differing and diverse cultural communities. Cultural autarchy is consequently a myth. Mutual cross-fertilization among cultural communities has been and continues to be the leavening of progress within the human family. It is something we welcome and will not reject.

The South African experience demonstrates the dangers that can lurk behind misguided attempts to seal-off cultural communities from each other as if they are silos of different grains. The Verwoerdian nightmare of “separate development” was built on such absurd assumptions. But the converse is equally evident in our country’s past. Intolerance towards cultural diversity can be as destructive a force, resulting in forced “assimilation”, racial oppression and cultural aggression. A universe that was made up of one monotone of grey would be uninspiring and extremely dull. The nurturing and valuing of diversity among cultures is critical not only to make the world a more interesting and inspiring place, but also as an affirmation of the multi-dimensional character of our human family. Cultural diversity is the living expression of our very humanity.

Our South African heritage springs from the very cradle of humanity. Which suggests that, in a certain sense, all human beings are originally South Africans. Yet, from that primeval group of hominids there has evolved the human family with its rich medley of hues, hair textures, facial features and the like. As South Africans we have a very strong sense of identity, rooted in our past. But what we call “South African” is the outcome the dynamic interaction on African shores of at least three streams of human culture – the African, the European and the Asian. While we readily accept these outcomes as the verdict of history, we nonetheless feel threatened by the daily bombardment with cultural wares from other parts of the world. It is described as an onslaught, which barely conceals the suggestion of aggression.

What is it about globalization that it is seen as a threat to the preservation of our cultural heritage?

What is it about the current wave of interaction amongst human cultures that compels us to seek to promote and protect the diversity of cultural contents and artistic expressions?

Perhaps that is a question that our commissions and break-away sessions would do well to dissect.

One conjecture is that the current wave tends to be one-sided. That what we are witnessing today is not cultural cross-fertilization, but rather the forced homogenisation of world culture through the agency of the economic predominance of certain regions of the world, which threatens to reduce world culture to a monochrome of MacDonalds hamburgers, Donald Duck, SkyNews and Eminem! That too should find a place in our deliberations.

As a developing country, globalization faces us with several challenges:

• Promoting and preserving our cultural diversity in the face of trade liberalization and technology
• Preserving our capacity as a state to maintain or adopt measures we deem appropriate for the preservation and promotion of cultural diversity
• Reinforcing international cooperation and solidarity aimed at enabling particularly developing countries to preserve and promote cultural diversity and to create and maintain their own cultural expressions
• Ensuring that the specificity of cultural goods and services is respected.
• Ensuring that the importance of intangible heritage, indigenous knowledge systems and cultural diversity as a mainspring for sustainable development is recognized by the developed world.

Developing an international convention to protect cultural diversity is being spearheaded by UNESCO. A draft convention has been produced by a panel of UNESCO experts and is now being interrogated by UNESCO member states in a series of intergovernmental meetings of experts. South Africa has been accorded the privilege of chairing these meetings at UNESCO and I congratulate Professor Abd-el Kader Asmal on his election as chair of the first meeting of experts in Paris in September.

Through our involvement in the International Network on Cultural Policy, South Africa has played a significant role in the development of this convention and continues to be a leading voice articulating the perspectives of the developing countries in this debate.

Today’s conference is the first step in developing a national position on cultural diversity in response to the UNESCO draft convention. We are confident that the discussions here will greatly enrich the inputs we make to the experts’ meetings that will be held at UNESCO over the coming year. This conference can also be a stepping stone towards our engagement with the region on the importance of promoting and protecting cultural expression and the role that cultural diversity plays within the NEPAD framework. Both are fundamental to the sustainable development of the continent and it is imperative that government and civil society are seized of this matter.

An international instrument on cultural diversity poses opportunities and challenges. We must carefully tease out the implications for us, for the region and for the continent of a convention that could easily be turned into an additional means of marginalizing the African continent. We must take care in defining cultural diversity not to steer our ship too close to the reefs of cultural autarchy and, worse yet, the discredited theories of “separate development”. In a region and on a continent where the economy of one province in South Africa is bigger than that of an entire African country, what role can South Africa’s productive capacity play in the preservation of the cultural diversity of our continent? Does the relative weight of South African economic muscle pose a threat to the integrity of the cultures of other African cultural communities? What capacity do the countries of Africa possess to promote the products of their indigenous cultures? Is the only way to promote African culture to market it aggressively in every part of the world?

All these are critical issues relating to cultural diversity in Africa and the region and must be addressed.

A convention like the one presently in gestation, provided it is honestly handled, could assist by encouraging partnerships and cooperation with the developed countries. Deeper cooperation between Africa and other developing countries has already emerged in the process of negotiating it. Hopefully this will also contribute to creating broader and more collaborative coalitions among the cultural industries, civil society organisations and national commissions for UNESCO in South Africa and the region. Linking our discussions to NEPAD and its programme for cultural development are also critical to our deliberations.

As we celebrate our tenth year of democracy, a year which marks a commitment made ten years ago by all South Africans to value, respect and nurture cultural diversity, it is my sincere belief that this conference and the debate on cultural diversity marks our entry into the next ten years of democracy as a strong voice for the rights of all human beings to enjoy cultural liberty and the opportunity to promote, protect and preserve cultural diversity.

I wish you success in your deliberations and you can all look forward to an enriching week as the collective wisdom in this room engages in one of the most important topics of the African Century.

I thank you.

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