Archaeologists attending an international conference on rescue archaeology along the Chad-Cameroon pipeline have called on governments of the two countries, and by extension, the rest of the continent to come up with better legal and administrative instruments that can ensure the preservation of their cultural artefacts for posterity. They said a country without a history is armless and that having a history means knowing and keeping how ancestors lived.

This was one of the recommendations the experts made at the end of the three-day confab at the Yaounde Hilton Hotel yesterday May 26, 2011. They also prayed stakeholders of infrastructure, mining and other projects to integrate the preservation of cultural heritage in the execution of the projects as well as called on governments to set up a national commission on heritage to ensure a better follow up of the activities of rescue archaeology as well as cultural heritage. The protection of cultural sites threatened by extinction, capacity building as well as the putting in place of an ad-hoc committee at the Ministry of Culture to validate results of archaeological discoveries in course of project execution, were also some of their concerns. According to one of the experts at the seminar, Raymond N. Asombang, Senior Lecturer of Archaeology, University of Yaounde 1, so much could change if the recommendations are taken into consideration. “The recommendations are good, but they remain recommendations. How the powers that be take them and what they do with them is another thing. But we are very hopeful that given the number of realisations that have taken place, a lot of things will be done now differently. This conference has brought out the fact that a lot of heritage is being destroyed during big infrastructural projects. I am sure government has an interest in preserving her cultural heritage”, he said.

Like in the opening ceremony, the Minister of Culture, Ama Tutu Muna, in her closing remarks, praised the initiative taken by the Pipeline Steering and Monitoring Committee (CPSP) and the Cameroon Oil Transportation Company (COTCO) to bring eminent archaeologists to discuss the way forward. A ceremony during which a book, “Kome-Kribi: Rescue Archaeology along the Chad-Cameroon Oil Pipeline, 1999 – 2004”, described variously as a reference document for future generations was officially presented. She said it is in line with the missions of the Ministry of Culture to ensure the protection, conservation, enrichment and promotion of cultural heritage. “This is in accordance with the global objectives set forth during the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992, concerning the implementation of sustainable development, desirable to preserve the human being, his environment and his social identity”, she stressed.

For three days (May 24 – 26), archaeologists from across the globe through paper presentations and plenary discussions handled topics like “Natural and Human Environments in the Project Study Area”, “Archaeological Research in Cameroon prior to the Pipeline”, “Preventive Archaeology in Cameroon: Legal Context, Issues and Challenges” and “Perspectives on Rescue Archaeology in Africa”,  among others.