Page 100 - 41st Summit Brochure

SADC MEDIA AWARD WINNER FOR PRINT JOURNALISM

The cultural isolation syndrome between the nations of Southern Africa

by José Luís Mendonça

African embassies in SADC should become true hubs of cultural promotion and exchange, fostering
the Diplomacy of Cultural Renaissance.
SADC (Southern African Development Community) was established in 1980. One of the
objectives for the establishment SADC, which takes time to be materialized or at least discussed by
politicians is: "How to increase and consolidate social and cultural knowledge among the peoples of
the region".
It has been more than 50 years since the beginning of the emancipation process of the continent,
the syndrome of isolation prevails in the multicultural landscape of Southern Africa.
Sam Mwale, an expert in political affairs based in Nairobi, wrote in The East African, dated 6th
April 1998:
“The way things are unfolding, the economic development of the continent takes place in a
cultural and philosophical vacuum. It does not seem reasonable to speak of an Africa that works when
the economic and political philosophies that underpin it are designed and financed by the West, while
they are inaccessible or irrelevant to the real Africa. What 'works' is pseudo-Western, and it is very
difficult, in this context, to justify the use of the word “renaissance”.
On 14 August 2000, the Protocol on Culture, Information and Sport was signed in Blantyre. Article
7 of the Protocol (Flow and Exchange of Information) states that:
“1. Member States shall endeavour to develop a regional information infrastructure in order to facilitate
98 the exchange of information in the areas of culture, information and sport".
In turn, Article 8 (Regional Interaction), states that: "Member States shall facilitate and promote
greater interaction and exchanges between cultural actors".
The Blantyre Protocol provides, in Article 15, for the pursuit of the ideals of regional integration
through the organisation and encouragement for hosting of cultural festivals.

ISLAND GEOPHONIES
In the 21st century, the geopolitical map of the African continent is composed of linguistic regions of
European matrix, and such Eurocentric languages determine the international communication of the
states among themselves and with the rest of the world.
At present, Africa and African countries are facing a crisis of cultural communication. In the
southern region, European languages present themselves as a barrier to the construction of an idealised
cultural fraternity between Angola and the two Congos, Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Gabon, and
even with Mozambique, a Portuguese-speaking country, as well as the other SADC countries.
Starting from the reality experienced in the Southern African space and part of the Great Lakes, it is
evident that the panorama of cultural co-operation is determined preferably by the level of economic and
commercial relations in comparison to the level of spiritual, historical-linguistic and geographical ties.
The PALOP (Portuguese-speaking African Countries) community, to the detriment of the concept
of independence, is still subject to a linguistic straitjacket that has created “Island territories” within
the African sub-regions, each grouped according to Western linguistic culture.
We are facing the phenomenon of neuro-linguistic insularities, whose frontiers are the languages
of Indo-European origin, in this case, Portuguese, French and English.
For example, Angolan youth know almost none of the geniuses of Congolese or Gabonese music,
not to mention Namibian or Zambian artists or football players, but they easily name European or
American ones. For an Angolan citizen to read The Interpreters by Wole Soyinka, or Tribalices by
Henry Lopez, he has to wait for the translation coming from Lisbon or Brazil.
The drama stemming from these insular geophonies in Africa lies in the fact that, in order to
communicate and thus get to know regional cultural products, the citizen of Southern Africa has to
have a triple western linguistic competence (Portuguese, French and English).