1.
GV EXT Palace
0.05

2.
SV INT Ministers seated
0.10

3.
CV PAN Dahomey Ministers seated
0.21

4.
LV & CV Senegalese Minister of Culture Speaks
0.29

5.
CV Zaire Republic delegates listen
0.37

6.
SV PAN Delegates from Niger, Cameroun and Ivory Coast listen
0.54



Initials BB/2350 TA/MR/BB/2328



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: In Cotonou on Thursday (23 December), Ministers of Culture from OCAM countries finished three days of talks on the survival of African negro ways of life.

Dahomey's Minister of Culture, M. Edmund Dossouyvo, said in his closing remarks that the ethnic qualities of the African negro would undoubtedly survive and that the negro culture showed no definite signs of declining.

SYNOPSIS: OCAM Culture Ministers finished three days of talks in Cotonou, Dahomey, on Thursday. The Ministers had gathered to discuss the possible decline of the African negro culture and the necessary steps for its arrest. Delegates heard Dahomey's Minister of Culture, M. Edmund Dossouyvo, say that today's African negro was on the whole proud of his origin and that art was a vital part of his life.

The Ministers had also discussed the American negro's part in the developing world. It was understood some Ministers had placed great emphasis on education if culture was to survive and take an important place in Africa's future. The three-day talks and covered all aspects of culture, and several important exchanges for cultural missions were reported to have been finalised.