Wole Soyinka and Femi Kuti have
advised the federal government not to consider history as an academic exercise
because an absence of historical knowledge can truncate growth.
The author and musician both made
these remarks on Wednesday while speaking at the first edition of UBA’s Africa
Conversations, a symposium organised by the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc,
as part of activities to mark Africa Day.
Djibril Tamsir Niane, Guinean
historian; Samia Nkrumah, the daughter of Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana; and Tony
Elumelu, group chairman of UBA, were also on the panel.
The theme of the panel session
was ‘Africa’s History Redefined, Our Past, the Path to the Future’.
Opening the conversation, Elumelu
said: “UBA understands the past- that Africa as a continent has always been
united by the struggle for identity. UBA is a symbol for the development of
Africa, for the economic empowerment of our people, the Small and Medium
Enterprises as well as the big corporations.
“Thus, identifying with Africa
and indeed Africa Day is synonymous with who we are as a bank. It presents us
the opportunity to remind ourselves, the world and indeed Africa that we owe
ourselves the duty of making Africa the continent of our dreams.
“Our past provides a veritable
tool to fashioning the continent’s development, renaissance and economic
growth.”
Commending UBA’s initiative for
opening up discussions on these pressing topics, Soyinka lamented the growing
erosion of history from the curriculum in African schools, adding that the lack
of knowledge of our past makes children’s growth on the continent truncated.
“How can we cope with the modern
phenomenon if we do not know the past? We should never forget the importance of
history as it is not just an academic exercise,” he enthused.
On his part, Femi Kuti said: “Our
children need to learn this history so that they can come up and build the
continent. We need everyone – both boys and girls to work towards this vision.”
According to the bank, the UBA
Conversations aims at aggregating discussions necessary for the growth and
development of the continent.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com