“Let’s act now and save Culture, because our culture is our identity”
6 avril 2023
Max Samuel Oboumadjogo, Gabonese Minister in charge of Culture and the Arts, was before the Venerable Senators this Tuesday, April 04, 2023, at the Omar Bongo Ondimba Palace. The objective was to defend the bill relating to the status of cultural actors in his country.
Madam President of the Committee for Cultural, Social Affairs and Communication,
Honorable Senators, Ladies and Gentlemen…
Arrived at the end of the sovereign exercise which brings me before you this morning, I allow myself to put in your hands the socio-professional life of several of our compatriots, I mean artists and cultural actors. And as each of us prepares to go about our business, I think it is worth remembering our point of attention.
We are talking about an anomaly that has persisted for too long and that urgently needs to be resolved.
So, I wonder. I wonder about this culpable passivity which until now has seemed to characterize the two powers that we embody, that is to say the Executive and the Legislative, in the face of the suffering of a part of the people that we are supposed to protect and represent.
Our inaction in the face of the plight of these compatriots’sentenced” the judiciary has the same incapacity, because it cannot defend the rights of artists and cultural actors on the basis of non-existent texts.
Indeed, how to understand that since all this time, the fate of the Gabonese artist is regularly examined by our own care, without efficient results?
Are we really ignoring the role played by sculptors, painters, vine weavers, musicians, singers, men of letters and other repositories of our endogenous knowledge in the preservation and enhancement of our cultural heritage?
Léopold Sédar Senghor defined culture as a ” universal rendezvous of giving and receiving ».
In this context, what would the Gabonese offer if, devoid of authenticity and originality, he presented himself at this meeting of the Universal?
Certainly, such a Gabonese would become a zealous consumer of external values. He would be nothing but a slave who is all the happier with his status because he has lost the fragile identity structure that only cultural repositories can guarantee.
This, venerable senators, is the meaning of my question, a question which could be likened to indignation.
Because like all of you here present, I note the lack of interest given to Oliver Ngoma, Patience Dabany, Vickos Ekondo and Pierre Claver Akendengue, who have and continue to magnificently carry the voice of Gabon beyond our borders.
I find it hard to accept the conditions in which a monument of our music like Hilarion Nguema lives. Note in passing that Amandine, the queen of the Empire and Sima Mboula the king of the national Elone are only considered when it comes to giving a traditional character to our family celebrations.
I am embarrassed by the paradox that designates Serge Abessolo, Omar Défunzu and Manitou as icons of cinema and humor on the international scene, when in reality their own country has little regard for their work. Nearly 3,000 Gabonese artists live the same realities, if not in a more demeaning way.
In addition, allow me to recall that usually, we are accused (to us the executive and to you the legislator) of not often working in synergy in the sense of the interests of the Gabonese people.
Fortunately, the current version of the text in question here protects us from this reproach. Indeed, having already passed through the two chambers of Parliament, respectively in 2018 and 2019, this bill contains all of your contributions, as well as those of the Honorable Members, without forgetting the substantial contributions of the cultural actors themselves. same.
This text is therefore the result of our shared and materialized efforts.
Honorable Senators,
Our mission is to reduce the inequality that plunges our compatriots into appalling precariousness. Our mission is also to decide together what is useful and what is not.
Therefore, the real question here is whether the artists and cultural actors of our country are useful or not.
It is up to you, ladies and gentlemen, to have the rewarding responsibility of answering this question in the affirmative, by adopting the text submitted to your wisdom.
Honorable Senators,
Upon the announcement of my hearing by your institution this morning, number of cultural actors wanted to accompany me, hoping that the bad luck linked to the noble profession they have chosen will be averted by the important decision that you will take concerning their status, and which will engage their future. That’s how many times they believe in you!
Because there have been grounds for hope lately. Especially when on August 17, the President of the Republic, Head of State, His Excellency Ali BONGO ONDIMBA had artists decorated for the first time in Gabon; this, before a few months later to dedicate to them an event greatly appreciated by all, namely: “ Talent Night ».
Of course, this new panoramic vision is recorded in a three-year development plan for Culture, which the supervising ministry will endeavor to execute with a sense of superior interest.
Venerables, I therefore appeal to your patriotic fiber. You have this day, the opportunity to interrupt the continuation of the writing of a sad story.
Wouldn’t it be better to be on the side of those who have written the best version of our country’s history in terms of culture?
In your experienced hands you hold not just a text of law, but much more. In reality, it is a question of allowing cultural actors to live with dignity from the fruits of their laborlike any other Gabonese.
Finally, Madam President, Honorable Senators,
We are all concerned and challenged by the situation. The meaning of my plea was, I hope, in no way intended to anathematize anyone. On the contrary, it was only a useful reminder. A sick culture has made a sick people, and a sick people disqualifies its voice in the Concert of Nations.
Let’s act now and save the Culture, because our culture is our identity.
Thank you for your attention.
MAX SAMUEL OBOUMADJOGO
Minister of Culture and the Arts.