CIDOC NEWSLETTER

Volume 7, August 1996
   [en français svp]

THE AFRICOM PROJECT FOR THE STANDARDIZATION OF INVENTORIES
Valérie Chieze

In November 1994, ICOM organized Encounters entitled "What Museums for Africa? Heritage in the Future" in Ghana, Benin and Togo.

As a result of these Encounters, which were attended by more than 120 museum professionals, the AFRICOM Programme, ICOM's programme for Africa, was born.

This programme is defined primarily by a certain spirit according to which museum policies must be envisaged on a continental level, stressing the coherence of cultures in a broad regional perspective going beyond linguistic barriers between English-, French-, and Portuguese-speaking peoples.

In this spirit, the AFRICOM Programme is based on the sharing of experiences and the comparison of professional practices. Its objective is to promote the expertise of the African professionals and institutions, in order to give more credibility to their actions vis à vis the international community.

All the projects carried out in the framework of AFRICOM attempt to respond to these demands: the publication of a "Directory of Museum Professionals in Africa" in 1993, in collaboration with the WAMP; the publication of "Looting in Africa" in 1994; the organization of workshops on the fight against the illicit traffic of cultural property, in 1993 in Tanzania, in 1994 in Mali, and in 1996 in Zaire; the publication of a work on "The Autonomy of Museums in Africa" in 1995; the Museum Education Project of Africa (MEPOA); the training workshop on museum management held in Tunisia in 1995.

The Programme's Coordinating Committee, consisting of professionals from different regions and networks active in Africa, meets twice a year, since 1993. It ensures that the projects are developing satisfactorily, in accordance with the "spirit of Lomé".

The standardization of collections inventories in Africa

The report of the Ghana workshop (November 1991) devoted to the themes "Conservation, repose and exchange of the heritage within and outside of Africa" and "Museums and research", stressed the urgency of establishing systematic standardized inventories of collections in Africa:
"It was generally observed that the lack of inventories, temporary exhibitions, activities relating to research and collecting, as well as documenting have inhibited the development of most museums in Africa (...). In addition to these shortcomings, the lack of communication amongst African museums was underscored.

In order to remedy this situation, workshop participants consequently proposed the following recommendations and suggested the following programmes:

Amongst the causes of the deterioration and disappearance of objects from our cultural heritage are: plundering in archaeological sites, illicit traffic of cultural heritage, extreme climatic conditions, as well as the lack of specialized personnel.

In the light of the above, the participants recommended that:

The project for the "standardization of collections inventories in Africa" has been implemented on this basis from 1993. It is one of the best illustrations of the spirit in which AFRICOM works.

Six pilot museums were chosen to work with the CIDOC (ICOM's International Committee for Documentation) on the elaboration of standards. Each of these museums was asked to play the role of regional support centre for the development of collections inventories.

At meetings in Mali, Namibia, Kenya, Tunisia, Madagascar and Zaire, the six pilot museums produced a work which was the fruit of three years of reflection, discussions and practical application of the proposed standards. The work was always carried out in two languages - French and English - in consultation with all the African museums which received a new version of the "Handbook of Standards" each year and contributed to its improvement.

Other meetings in Paris in 1993, in Nairobi in 1994, and in Madagascar in 1995, allowed the six pilot museums to readjust the standards to the realities of the African collections inasmuch as, every year, each of the museums documented a selected group of objects within its collections according to the standards retained at the preceding meeting. Thus, the assurance can be given that the final version of the "Handbook of Standards" will respond to the needs of the museums in Africa.

The publication of the Handbook is only the first step of a strategy that AFRICOM is developing through this project. The enormous amount of work achieved will attain its objective only when the majority of African and Africanist museums adopt the proposed standards for documenting their collections. Based on this precious tool which is the "Handbook of Standards", the six pilot museums are developing a training programme for the standardization of documentation which should lead rapidly to a generalization of the application of the standards and the updating of inventories, essential actions in the fight against the illicit traffic of cultural property which is a major focus of ICOM's action. The organization of a training workshop on the AFRICOM standards during the next CIDOC conference will be an important step in this direction.