UNESCO headquarters in Paris will host the anthological exhibition “Cultural Heritage and Historical Contributions of Africa and Its Diaspora to the Progress of Humanity” from 17 September.

The opening is scheduled for Thursday, 17 September at 18:00 local time in Ségur Hall, with the exhibition announced as open to the public through 22 September.

The project draws on UNESCO’s long-running General History of Africa initiative, created to document the continent’s history while placing African scholarship and perspectives at its centre.

Images, maps, texts, iconography, artefacts and photographs are used to explore contributions made by Africa and its diasporas to global history.

UNESCO also connects the exhibition with the transmission of historical memory as a tool for education and a culture of peace.

The exhibition takes place roughly one month before the fourth Luanda Biennale – Pan-African Forum for the Culture of Peace and Non-Violence, scheduled for October in Angola.

UNESCO’s institutional framing of memory, education and peace is attributed to the organisation rather than adopted as an independent editorial conclusion.

Image: Christopher Lancaster / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0. UNESCO headquarters, Paris, 31 July 2008. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: At UNESCO, the General History of Africa puts memory at the service of the culture of peace | UNESCO; General History of Africa: UNESCO opens exhibition on its landmark editorial project | UNESCO.