An International Jury meets to designate the winners of the sixth Edition of the ECOWAS Prize of Excellence in African Languages and Music in Bamako

In accordance with the recommendations of the Technical Committee Meeting of Culture Experts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) held in Bamako in July 2010, in which the African Academy of Languages (ACALAN) actively participated, ACALAN and ECOWAS jointly organized a meeting of the International Jury on the sixth edition of the ECOWAS Prize for Excellence. ACALAN had advocated, during the meeting, for extending the ECOWAS Prize for Excellence to include African languages, as well as for a closer link between Culture and Education.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The workshop took place between September 01 and 05, 2011 at the Institut des Langues Abdoulaye Barry (ILAB), which is the National Language Structure of Mali and Focal Point of ACALAN. Its main objective was to classify the works received on African languages and music, and to designate the winner(s) of the sixth edition of the ECOWAS Prize for Excellence.

In addition to the Minister of Culture of Mali who opened the meeting, the workshop brought together six out of eight members of the international jury selected from the West African region, a team from ECOWAS Commission including the Director of Culture, Education, Science and Technology, members of the Executive Secretariat of ACALAN including the Executive Secretary of ACALAN and resource persons attended the meeting.

The secretariat of ACALAN had received works on literature, music and cinema from Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Senegal, Niger, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Sierra Leone:

1. Literature (fictions)
2. Eight(08) works in Hausa
3. Ten(10) in fulfulde
4. Four(04) in mandenkan –dioula
5. Two(02) in French
6. Three (03) in English
7. Five (05) in non identified languages from Ghana.

     2) Music

1. Four  (04) works in Fulfulde
2. One (01) work in Fulfulde and in Dendi
3. One (01) work in French
4. Two (02) in English 
5. One (01) in French and Dioula
6. One (01) with no title and non identified work.

     3) Film (01)

1. One (01) film in English.

nder the chairmanship of the Executive Secretary of ACALAN, Professor Sozinho Francisco Matsinhe, members of the International Jury deliberated at the end of the workshop and designated three works in literature in African languages as winners. The first prize gets 10 000 dollars and the next two winners with the same number of points get 5000 dollars each.