Kikuyu Kiondo - African Hand Bags

African governments finally agree to Protect Africas Cultural heritage. This is critical in empowering African communities to trade in cultural commodities as well as to protect cultural assets on an international scale. This is important because African artifacts have been stolen,pileaged and taken from the continent without a single penny reverting to the creators or inventors of these artificats. In Kenya the Kiondo a  Kikuyu cultural artefact is patented and owned by a Japanese company while the Kikoy is owned by a British firm. This means the original creators of these commodities cannot manufacture or sell these commodities on an internal scale. This consitutes one of the most destabilizing effects of colonial rule and the subsequent misuse of the African cultural heritage.

The agreement also covers Lingual aspects. Here are some excerpts from the agreement.

Session in Khartoum, the Republic of The Sudan, from 23rd to 24th January 2006;

Inspired by the Cultural Charter for Africa adopted by the Heads of State and

Government of the Organization of African Unity meeting in its Thirteenth Ordinary

Session, in Port Louis, Mauritius, from 2 to 5 July, 1976;

GUIDED BY

The Constitutive Act of the African Union;

The Universal Declaration of Principles of International Cultural Co-operation adopted by

the General Conference of UNESCO at its Fourteenth Session in 1966;

The Pan-African Cultural Manifesto of Algiers (1969), and by the Inter-Governmental

Conference on Cultural Policies in Africa organized by UNESCO in Accra, in 1975, in

cooperation with the Organization of African Unity;

The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (1981);

The Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict

(1954) and its additional Protocols;

The Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import,

Export and Transfer of Cultural Property (1970);

Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972);

The UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (2001);

The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003);

The Convention on the Protection and Promotion of Diversity of Cultural Expressions,

(2005);

The Decision of OAU Summit on the establishment of the African Academy of

Languages;  Read the rest, Download the Agreement [click here]