Addis Ababa - South African Minister of Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa is currently in Ethiopia as part of a roadshow aimed at “strengthening intra-African cultural relations”.
The Department of Arts and Culture said on Tuesday that Mthethwa was scheduled to visit Ethiopia, Algeria and Western Sahara.
Mthethwa, during his two-day Ethiopian stay had visited the Alle School of Fine Arts and Design at Addis Ababa University, and the National Museum among other institutions.
He is leading a delegation that includes the CEO of the National Film and Video Foundation, Zama Nkosi, and acting National Archivist Mandy Gilder, as well as senior heritage officials.
The department said the roadshow was to “strengthen intra-African cultural relations” in relation with South Africa’s celebration of Africa month.
“These visits are part of our broad strategy to promote cultural understanding, encourage a pan-African identity, forge African unity and create spaces for dialogue and understanding. We would like our brothers and sisters to join us in 2016 at our next African festival of ideas in South Africa,” said Mthethwa.
The delegation would look at opportunities where there could be “exchange and residency programmes with South African institutions”.
In Ethiopia, Mthethwa paid a visit to African Union Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and met with Ethiopia’s Minister of Culture, Azzedine Mihoudi, in a bid to strengthen bilateral relations between South Africa and Ethiopia.
The South African delegation was set to leave Ethiopia for Algeria on Tuesday where a memorandum of understanding would be signed between Algeria and South Africa’s national archivists to look at “possible areas of co-operation, including the training of archivists on oral history methodology, the exchange of information on oral history and addressing inconsistencies in archival records”.
After visiting Algeria, Mthethwa is expected to arrive in Western Sahara on November 14, where he is scheduled to meet with Western Sahara’s Minister of Culture, Khadija Hamdi, to discuss a cultural agreement.
Mthethwa said the visits reaffirmed South Africa’s commitment to the African Union’s Agenda 2063 that charters a path towards Africa’s sustainable future, which requires the cooperation of African countries to tell the African story.
African News Agency
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