Kinshasa, May 18th, 2025 (CPA).- The restitution of African heritage has been placed at the heart of the cultural issues at the ‘Africa Week 2025’ scheduled May for 19th to 21st at Unesco headquarters in Paris, France, where the Democratic Republic of Congo and other countries from the continent are expected to take part, according to a press release consulted on Sunday by CPA. ‘This year, the 2025 edition of Unesco’s Africa Week highlights the importance of commitment to the theme: ‘Global solidarity for the restitution and restoration of African heritage through culture, education and science’, it is read.
‘This week underlines the importance of culture and education for sustainable development and innovation,’ the UNESCO document has said. A variety of artistic and scientific activities with a series of themes are planned to accompany and characterise the event in Paris. ‘With an entirely new programme, as rich as it is varied: conferences, film screenings, galas, exhibitions (…), UNESCO and the Africa Group are celebrating African descent and the diaspora in honour’, the press release has said. It added: ‘There will be round tables on global solidarity for the restitution and restoration of African heritage through culture; on the role of education in restitution and restoration; and on the issue of harnessing scientific diplomacy’.
This annual event celebrates the continent’s cultural diversity across its six regions (North Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa and the ‘sixth region’: the African diaspora). Government delegations, diplomats, associations and civil society organisations, as well as artists, exhibitors and other guests from across the continent are expected at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. Africa Week is the annual flagship event of UNESCO’s Africa Group, a body that brings together Member States from the African continent.
It comprises a kaleidoscope of cultural, scientific, artistic and epicurean events in honour of the celebration of Africa Day (25 May), the date on which the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now the African Union (AU), was founded in 1963