Cameroonian Lazare Eloundou Assomo is the first African appointed to head the Unesco World Heritage Center

Cameroonian Lazare Eloundou Assomo is the first African appointed to head the Unesco World Heritage Center

13 Dec 2021 | ARTS, POLITICS | 0 comments

(CamerExcellence) – This is good news for Cameroon. The Director General of Unesco, Audrey Azoulay, has appointed the Cameroonian Lazare Eloundou Assomo as director of the UNESCO World Heritage Center on December 6, 2021. This is the first time that an African has been appointed to the head of this Unesco structure. Lazare Eloundou Assomo, 53, until then headed Unesco’s Culture and Emergencies Sector. Cameroonian

President Paul Biya congratulated him on this appointment.

1,154 sites are currently inscribed on theWorld Heritage List. For Lazare Eloundou Assomo, new director of the World Heritage Center, there is still a lot to do: “ Many regions in the world are not sufficiently represented, especially Africa and the small island states. Just because we don’t have an Eiffel Tower doesn’t mean the sites aren’t important or aren’t of Outstanding Universal Value. We are going to launch a dialogue with all States to correct this imbalance, ”he told RFI. ”he told RFI.

An exemplary career

Lazare Eloundou Assomo left Cameroon at the age of 17 to study architecture and town planning in France, according to RFI. He began his career as an associate researcher at the International Center for Earth Construction at the Grenoble School of Architecture in 1996. His first professional steps took him to South Africa, where he built housing in townships.

His work is praised by Nelson Mandela,who travels to the site where he works. “A nice surprise,” he recalls at the RFI microphone,“and a moment that will never be forgotten in a lifetime. He invited me for tea because the way we worked with the communities to meet their needs corresponded to his way of doing things.” »

A graduate in architecture (Grenoble School of Architecture, France) and in urban planning (DEA Grenoble 1), Mr Eloundou Assomo began his career as an associate researcher at the Centre for Earthen Construction of the Grenoble School of Architecture in 1996. He was then in charge of implementing habitat projects in Africa, and then of the pedagogical coordination of the Africa 2009 conservation programme set up by UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre and ICCROM.

He joined UNESCO in 2003 in the Africa Unit of the World Heritage Centre, where he contributed to the creation of the African World Heritage Fund and the development of the World Heritage Earthen Architecture Programme (WHEAP).

From 2008 to 2013, he was Head of the Africa Unit of World Heritage Centre. During this period he coordinated several restoration projects in Mozambique (World Heritage site Fortress), Uganda and Mali, as well as capacity building initiatives in the region. He is the author of the book African World Heritage: A Remarkable Diversity, co-authored with Ishanlosen Odiaua and published in 2012 by UNESCO.

In 2013, he joined the UNESCO office in Bamako and became its head in 2014. He then became UNESCO’s head representative in Mali. While the country was hit by a violent armed conflict, he was in charge of the protection of Mali’s cultural heritage. He successfully led the reconstruction of the Timbuktu mausoleums and the safeguarding of ancient manuscripts.

He returned to UNESCO Headquarters in Paris in 2016, initially as Deputy Director of the Heritage Division and of the World Heritage Centre. In 2018, he became Director of Culture and Emergencies, coordinating emergency conservation responses to heritage affected by conflicts and disasters and the restitution of cultural property under the 1970 Convention.

In 2022, the UNESCO World Heritage Convention signed by 193 States will celebrate its 50th anniversary. It already promises a good reflection on the mechanisms of protection of the world heritage.

« The 50th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention, which will be celebrated in November 2022, will be an opportunity for a great retrospective but also for a collective reflection on the best ways to make our approach prosper over the coming 50 years. In particular, we have two challenges to meet: on the one hand, to make the World Heritage List ever more representative of the world’s cultural and geographical diversity; on the other hand, to strengthen the protection of listed sites inscribed in the face of the new challenges of our age, linked to development, conflict and climate change.»

Lazare Eloundou Assomo, new Director of the World Heritage Centre of UNESCO

By CamerExcellence

Crédit photo : © UNESCO/Christelle Alix

Naviguate on CamerExcellence website by Tags : Lazare Eloundou Assomo | Unesco

They are the pride of Cameroon

0 Comments

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *