THE INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM
PRESENTATION • KEY SPEAKERS • SPEECHES • RECOMMANDATIONS • PHOTOS
Mr Koichiro Matsuura, Director General of UNESCO, honoured us by agreeing to give the opening address at the Colloquium. We wish to express our warm gratitude to him for this gesture, which symbolises a recognition of the universality of the human heritage.
PRESENTATION
THE Imzad has generated a certain amount of interest among eminent researchers, specialists, and ethnologists. The association organised an international Colloquium on this theme, bringing together a number of Algerian and international experts from 30 March to 3 April 2005 in Tamanrasset. The colloquium was organised under the distinguished patronage of the Algerian Ministry of Culture, with the support of UNESCO, and it took place in Tamanrasset.
Three themed days were planned:
- The Imzad: an art powerfully anchored in Touareg history and culture
- How to preserve the art of the Imzad: methods of transmission and of teaching
- The role of the Imzad in today’s world as a point of reference for women and as a tool in the struggle against poverty.
A number of researchers took part, and all those present benefited from the quality of their contributions. We can mention, for example, Ms Edda Brandes, Mr Marceau Gast, Mr Pierre Augier, Mr Francois Borel, Mr Ernst Lichtenhahn, as well as Mr Rachid Koraichi, the designer and mastermind of Dar El-Imzad, the future International Artists Centre which the “Sauver l’Imzad” Association proposes to build in Tamanrasset.
Artists and poets of the imzad from Niger and Mali mixed with the musicians of the Ahaggar and the Ajjer, enabling us finally to see the imzad bringing together the rich and varied repertoire of this instrument, which remains the symbol of an entire cultural heritage which is disappearing.