wfn.org | All Africa News Agency - BULLETIN No. 39/02 (c)

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

AANA Bulletin is an ecumenical initiative to highlight all endeavours and 
experiences of Christians and the people of Africa.  AANA Bulletin is 
published weekly and, together with the French Edition - Bulletin APTA - is 
also available through e-mail.	For editorial and subscription details, 
please contact: 

AANA Bulletin	: Acting Editor - Mitch Odero		
Bulletin APTA: Edition en frangais, ridacteur intirimaire : Sylvie Alemba

All Africa News Agency
P.O. BOX 66878 NAIROBI, KENYA
TEL : (254 2) 442215, 440224 ; FAX : (254 2) 445847/443241
E-mail : aanaapta@insightkenya.com

FEATURES  SECTION

Loss Of Artefacts May Diminish Role Of Museums

There is growing concern over the steady loss of priceless materials from 
Kenya's national museums and archives. Officials confirm that trafficking 
in material culture is a multimillion industry, second only to trade in 
narcotics. They say the risk of the museums becoming irrelevant research 
institutions is high as the loss of the artefacts is likely to cause gaps 
in history and archaeology.

By Pedro Shipepechero

N
ational Museums and archives in Kenya are losing antiquities and historical 
documents to foreign museums and galleries.  A curator at the National 
Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, said recently that the flight of the artefacts 
from the country to Belgium, France and the US had over the years depleted 
Kenya of hundreds of artefacts.

A former head of the department of ethnography and an anthropology lecturer 
at the University of Nairobi said that historical material "had been 
spirited out of the museums by senior museums staff and civil servants".

Besides selling national antiquities, he said, the syndicate buys objects 
from Ethiopia, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo for sale abroad 
in total contravention of the international convention on illegal 
trafficking in historical and material culture.

The director-general of the National Museums of Kenya, George Abungu, has 
denied these charges, terming them mere speculation. Abungu, however, 
acknowledged that trafficking in illegal material culture in Kenya was in 
the increase as result of the absence of legislation to criminalise the 
trade in cultural objects.

Despite the director's denials, it was established that the museum still 
keeps about 100 pieces of Congolese material cultural objects in the 
department of ethnography. A senior official irregularly bought the objects 
in the strife Democratic Republic of Congo.

Earlier, Swahili grave posts known as vigango were exported out of the 
country with the help a former official of the museum. The vigango 
originated at historical sites on the East African coastal regions.

They were bought for US $1,300 and resold at US $30,000 a piece in Belgium, 
a source said. It was not possible to establish the quantity of the 
graveposts that were said to have originated from Lamu in Kenya, Tanga in 
Tanzania and Zanzibar.

Abungu denied being aware of the trafficking in illegal material culture at 
the museum, but he acknowledged that Kenya was a transit country for 
antiquities from countries in the Great Lakes and the Horn of Africa 
regions that have in the past 10 years been war theatres.

"Trafficking in material culture is multimillion industry, second only to 
trade in narcotics," said Abungu, who is also the president of the 
International Standing Committee on Illegal Trafficking in Material Culture.

The risk of the museums becoming irrelevant research institutions is high 
as the loss resulting from the plunder of the artefacts is likely to cause 
gaps in history and archaeology, said the curator.

Perturbed by the wanton plunder of the artefacts, some donors are said to 
have withdrawn support for projects they were funding. Early this year, 
Ford Foundation withdrew future funding of the African Peace Museums 
project, citing discrepancies in accounts books.

In a detailed account of how ethnographic material are stolen out of the 
museums, the curator said that once they are identified, senior members of 
staff use subordinate staff to ferry them out. Where heads of department 
must clear the objects, they are hushed up with favours.

In one such instance, a senior researcher at the museum was asked to 
present a report on a Peace and Conflict project in Ohio in 1997 on behalf 
of the director. The researcher was given US $2,000 and travelled in a 
British Airways Club Class.

Reports about some of these irregularities have been made to Kenya's Office 
of President and Criminal Investigation Department CID. Such reports 
include claims regarding the importation, during 1997, of "hundreds of 
artefacts mainly from eastern Congo coming to the Nairobi (National) Museum"

In another report, a researcher said he requisitioned and received 
KSh60,000 (US $770) for a project, but was never asked to account for the 
money. For his "obstinacy" the researcher lost KShs 720,000 (US $9,230) he 
was entitled to in allowances for a three-month Ford Foundation project he 
was heading.

However, when required to write a favourable report on how the money was 
spent, the researcher was sent a cheque of KShs 150,000 (US $1,923) "with a 
promise of more money following soon once my report to Ford Foundation was 
completed".

A non-committal Abungu said that he could "comment on issues that touch on 
the integrity of a former senior employee (of the museum)". He said that if 
there were any fraud at the museum, "this was before I was appointed the 
director-general. I should not be held responsible for someone else's sins".

A lead provided by museum sources linked the Ministry of Water headquarters 
in Nairobi, which was used to "warehouse" the materials in transit by 
former senior museum staff.

According to a curator who insisted on anonymity, the theft of antiquities 
takes place soon after collecting them from the field and usually before 
they are accessioned. The former head of the ethnography department said 
that stocking museums with material illicitly acquired from other countries 
is likely to land Kenya into problems because the country is a signatory to 
the convention on illegal trafficking in cultural material and documents.

Among other things, the convention requires that the transfer of artefacts 
from museum to another be undertaken with the consent of the institution 
where the material originated.	A researcher at the museum, Mzalendo 
Kibunja said that Kenya had ratified the convention and therefore 
trafficking in antiquities was legal.

The curator confirmed that the Ford Foundation suspended the KShs16 million 
(US $205,000) annual funding when the fraud involving senior staff at the 
museums. A Christian organisation that was also funding the traditional 
conflict resolution project withdrew from the initiative when it became 
public that a senior staff at the museum used the money to buy artefacts 
from museums in Bukavu, Kivu and Bunia in eastern Congo for a song and 
later resold them in Europe.

"The trafficking in antiquities is immoral especially for Africa, which has 
been demanding Europe and the US to repatriate the cultural objects that 
were stolen during the colonial era," the curator said.

During the period when Ethiopia was at war with Eritrea, insiders at the 
museum revealed that artefacts with high value on the international market 
were smuggled from Ethiopia with the help of fleeing refugees from the two 
countries. They were then delivered to a link-person, who in turn ferried 
them to Nairobi.

Food Crisis Threatens  More Than 14 Million People

The United Nations World Food Programme WFP warns that the food crisis in 
southern Africa threatens a staggering 14.4 million people in the region. 
The organisation has described the crisis as the most severe and urgent 
dilemma facing the international community at the moment. Action by 
Churches Together (ACT) International is concerned that funding for its 
appeals issued for the region is extremely low.

S
ome 1.6 million people more than initially thought are said to be at risk 
of starvation between now and March next year unless something is done to 
avert the crisis. WFP reported the new alarming figures after a 
just-concluded two-week assessment mission to the countries in crisis.

The UN	agency pointed out the crippling impact of HIV/AIDS and 
underdevelopment exacerbating the consequences of the drought situation, 
and the urgent need for seeds and tools. It is a complex crisis with a 
different situation in each country.

The land reform policy in Zimbabwe for example has had a dramatic impact on 
the commercial food surpluses which were produced before. And there is the 
discussion about genetically modified food to which some of the countries 
have strong objections.

A school in a village 700 kilometres southwest of Harare reports that 
pupils fall asleep in class from exhaustion. It is said that many now eat 
only one small meal a day and that the poorest are forced to beg for a 
handful of corn meal from their neighbours.

Resorting to one meal per day for a family has a severe nutritional impact 
especially on children, pregnant women, elderly and disabled people.  An 
estimated six million of Zimbabwe's 12.5 million people are threatened by 
the hunger crisis. The government has declared the hunger situation in the 
country a national disaster.

With the current drought and disruptions on commercial farms it is 
estimated that the grain harvest will drop by more than 50 percent this 
year compared to last year. Most of the maize crops, the major source of 
food in the country, wilted due to the persistent drought from January 
through March in most parts of the country.

The maize harvest dropped  by around percent compared with the yield of 1.4 
tons in 2000/2001. In addition all other crops were also affected by the 
mid-season water deficit resulting in total crop failure in most parts of 
the country.

Two ACT members, Lutheran Development Service (LDS) and Christian Care (CC) 
are responding to the serious food needs of thousands of affected people in 
the country.

Initially opposed to importing food aid containing genetically modified 
(GM) material, the government is now accepting such food. Zimbabwe mills 
the corn before distributing it to ensure it is not planted.

Malawi is the worst affected country where reportedly hundreds of people 
have already died from starvation. It is estimated that about 3.2 million 
people are threatened by famine, the majority of whom live in the southern 
part of the country.

Malawi's President Bakili Muluzi declared a state of emergency in February. 
The country needs 560,000 tonnes of food to avert widespread hunger. The 
ACT Alliance has been responding to the food needs in selected communities 
since March.

The Zambian government has also declared the country's food shortage a 
national disaster. Officials say 2.4 million people face starvation and the 
country could soon run out of food. Severe drought has caused total crop 
failures in the southern parts of the country, with an estimated maize 
shortage of 630,000 tons.

The food shortages in the country have been caused not only by the drought 
in the south of Zambia but also by the lack of policy and government 
support to the agricultural sectors, critcs say. During the last crop 
season, over 75 percent crop failure was experienced in six districts of 
the country's 52 districts, and 51 percent to 75 percent failure in eleven 
districts.

Reports confirm that animals and poultry are now being sold at very low 
prices to get money to by food, while the price of maize has risen 
astronomically to a level most Zambians cannot afford.

This has resulted in hundreds of thousands of families in the country going 
without food for days or resorting to eating wild fruits and tubers. ACT 
members LWF/WS * ZCRS and Christian Council of Zambia (CCZ) are responding 
to the crisis by distributing relief supplies.	In the northwest of the 
country LWF is also managing the Angolan refugee camps.

Lesotho's government declared a state of famine in April after another poor 
harvest in this small, mountainous country. The 2002 harvest is said to be 
60 percent below normal and the UN say some 500,000 people will require 
emergency food aid.

The  government has indicated that food production in the last two seasons 
has dropped by almost 55 percent compared to the previous five years. A 
complicating factor to the hunger crisis in the country is the high levels 
of HIV/AIDS cases further weakening the immune systems of people already 
suffering from malnutrition.

ACT member the Christian Council of Lesotho (CCL) in close collaboration 
with its member churches is targeting 9,700 most vulnerable people at Ha 
Sekake in the Qacha's Nek district and Seforong in the Quthing district for 
8 months - up to April 2003.

At least 515,000 people in the provinces of Gaza, Inhambane, Manica, 
Maputo, Sofala, and Tete in Mozambique will require food aid through March 
2003, according to WFP and the Mozambique Ministry of Agriculture.

The food shortages in the country are a result of severe dry weather during 
the 2001/2002 crop season which sharply reduced crop yields in the southern 
and central parts of the country. This comes after devastating floods in 
both 2000 and 2001.

Some of the areas affected by the floods are now facing food shortages. ACT 
members report that the situation is deteriorating rapidly. There are 
reports of affected families in the southern part of the country resorting 
to eating wild fruits, seeds, and berries.

ACT members the Christian Council of Mozambique (CCM) and the Presbyterian 
Church of Mozambique (PCM/IPM), the LWF, Ecumenical Committee for Social 
Development (CEDES) and Christian Aid are providing food aid and seeds to 
vulnerable communities affected by the current drought in a joint response.

This comprises the distribution of food to 29,500 beneficiaries, 
high-energy protein biscuits to about 12,000 school children in rural 
schools in drought affected areas and the distribution of seeds to 178,756 
beneficiaries or 35,751 families. The latest ACT Appeal for Mozambique was 
issued at the end of last month.

More than 140,000 people in Swaziland are identified by the UN as needing 
immediate food assistance. They have little or no food stocks available 
after the failure of the 2001/2002 harvest. This number is expected to grow 
to 280,000 by December 2002 when present stocks are exhausted.

SOURCE: ACT International Coordinating Office