African Week Promotes
Cooperation among Cooperatives
Koperattiva Kulturali Universitarja, together with Inizjamed, a local NGO promoting cultural projects favouring social and political commitment, organized the literary evening that focused on African literature and Maltese literature inspired by Africa. Media Coop helped to promote the African Week and the Farmers' Central Cooperative provided vegetables for the Somalis who cooked the African food for the Opening Ceremony.
Another local cooperative, Outlook Management and Communications Coop, produced educational material for students taking part in workshops with Senegalese performers Moussé and Thioune Fatou Ndiaye. The material included information about the nature and benefits of cooperatives; the International Cooperative Alliance calls on cooperatives to engage in this sort of promotion of cooperation in their Statement on the Cooperative Identity. Moreover, the organisation of the Week itself was a clear example of how active cooperation between cooperatives works and at the same time promotes cooperative ways of working to a wider public. Information about the participating cooperatives was available at the exhibition that was open throughout the week in the University's Junior Common Room. Apex, the organization bringing together local cooperatives, also actively supported the African Week.
The organization of the African Week held in March was also inspired by the sixth and seventh principles of the Statement on the Cooperative Identity. The former encourages cooperatives to work together through local, national, regional and international structures to serve their members most effectively and strengthen the cooperative movement, while the latter highlights the role of cooperatives as promoters of sustainable development in their community.
One of the main features of the Exhibition was the stand put up by the world shop L-Arka (run by volunteers from Koperattiva Kummerc Gust) which promoted candles made by a Soweto-based South African cooperative called Ukakhanya (meaning 'light a candle') and beautiful African crafts produced by refugees in Kenya and distributed through the Mikono Centre sponsored by the Eastern African centre of the Jesuit Refugee Service. The stand also exhibited other fine African crafts imported by L-Arka through CTM - Altromercato and Commercio Alternativo.
In his speech that inaugurated the Week, the President of the Republic, H. E. Dr. Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, talked about the need for more cooperation between Malta and the African continent, while the Chairperson of the Cooperatives' Board, Dr. Godfrey Baldacchino, spoke about the growing importance and increasing awareness of the role of the Third Sector, based on NGOs and cooperatives, in the world's economy.
The African Week was financially supported by a number of institutions and organizations, including Voices, the British Council, the University's Precincts Office and BOV Club, the local Catholic Church, the Youth Support Programme, and the Cooperatives' Central Fund, members of the St. Andrews Community, and the Centre for Faith and Justice.
African crafts and CDs of African music are available at L-Arka, 306, St. Paul's Street, Valletta. Tel. 244 865.
Adrian Grima
