BY LIFE &STYLE REPORTER
TWO years after the African Union commissioned a Zimbabwe-based research organisation, the Institute of African Knowledge (Instak), to come up with Africa Factbook, government last week signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Instak in Harare to collaborate on the project and other pan-African programmes.
Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development minister, Amon Murwira, signed the MoU on behalf of the ministry, while respected researcher Simbi Mubako represented Instak.
In a statement, Mubako said the prospect of a book originating from Zimbabwe being used across Africa would be huge for the country, which has had no positive news coverage in decades.
“In the true spirit of Harambee and Moja, we recognise that the mission ahead of us cannot be achieved by walking alone. We are, therefore, combining efforts with others and we thank the government of Zimbabwe for setting the pace,” Mubako said.
“The two parties have an ambitious cocktail of jointly pursued projects, among which is the Africa Factbook, a Museum of African Liberation History and an annual International Conference on Curriculum for African Development.”
The Africa Factbook is an African Union-backed initiative meant to come up with an official African platform for useful facts about Africa and its peoples for the purpose of information dissemination, education, entertainment, reference, statistics and documentation.
“The African Factbook will be one of the tools of communication available to build a common understanding of key facts about Africa and building continental pride about the history, culture, economic successes and achievements of Africans across various spheres of society,” Mubako added.
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The African Union Commission has deemed the Africa Factbook to be in line with the AU Pan African Vision of Agenda 2063 and Aspiration Five, which seeks to enhance a strong cultural identity, common heritage, values and ethics of Africa.
