Following an excursion at the Victory Museum at the Poklonnaya Gora, His Royal Highness Mwanta Ishima, the General Secretary of the Forum of African Traditional Authorities (FATA) graciously accepted to answer New Eastern Outlook’s questions.
– Your Royal Highness, you are the General Secretary of the Forum of African Traditional Authorities (FATA). What were your expectations from the Let’s Travel! International Tourism Forum that you participated in and were they met?
– Hello, dear friends! As you correctly noted, I am the Secretary General of the Forum of African Traditional Authorities (FATA), and as the Secretary General of FATA, now that the forum is over, I can testify that we had many meetings and held fairly high-level negotiations. They included such sectors as culture, education and technological exchange. I would like to say that we were satisfied with the forum. We have learned a lot of new things and are ready to continue working in this vein.
– Without harmonising regulatory frameworks and developing intergovernmental cooperation it is impossible to establish meaningful tourist connections. Are there any initiatives planned in this sphere in the near future?
– As FATA Secretary General, I can attest that we are focusing our efforts on developing culture between our countries. A lot of work is being done in this direction. In addition, the main focus of our organisation’s activities is education and history, since a state that has no history has no future.
We were able to see a lot of things here during this time, and we were pleasantly surprised by a lot of things. First of all, we are pleasantly surprised by the patriotism, cultural and family ties that are present in Russia today, as well as the cohesion that unites people today, regardless of age (as they say, from young to old). For us, this is the basis for continuing discussions and building the closest, friendliest and most familial relationships with the Russian Federation.
I would like to repeat that we were pleasantly surprised. We like that you have built a model of upbringing, that you have the necessary set of tools concerning, among other things, history. We like that you honour history and your younger generation visits museums. As a historian, I naturally believe that through museums, through exhibitions like the ones we had the pleasure of seeing today, through what we bring to future generations, we have an opportunity, a future.
– Today’s youth is, unfortunately, affected by information flows from social media like Facebook, TikTok, WhatsApp, Instagram and so forth, where Western culture is being imposed on our youth…
– We would like to raise our future generations knowing our history, our roots.
Thank you again for our excellent tour! The most important thing is that today, for ourselves and for the FATA organisation, we have seen and learned a lot about your culture, about your people, about your laws, rules and living conditions. But what impressed me most was the phrase written on the wall by a Russian hero: “I am dying, but I shall not surrender”. These words are also for us, for Africans, for the African continent. We are similar in this, when one person is ready to sacrifice himself for his people, for the whole nation. We were very impressed by this.
We thoroughly enjoyed today’s exhibition. We got acquainted with many exhibits, including about weapons, military equipment and all the everyday objects and things residents used in the past. It is also very important for us on the African continent to pass on our past to future generations so that they know who we are and where we come from so that they do not lose their roots.
As the head of FATA, I would like to thank you once again on behalf of our entire organisation for the warm welcome and the opportunities for cultural, social and technological exchange that you have provided for us. Thank you for working with us on cultural exchange, finding solutions and tools for cooperation between our countries.
We are pleasantly surprised by the attitude and attention to us from the Russian people. They do not just greet us, they do not just smile and want to take pictures, but they all invite us to their homes. We appreciate how hospitable and attentive the Russian people are. We believe that the developments that we have been able to make today will serve as a bridge for further communication and joint projects between FATA and the Russian Federation.
We are here on behalf of 54 African countries.
– To round up our talk, the traditional question of our magazine, even though you have already partially answered it: Your Royal Highness, what did you like most about Russia? What made the deepest impression on you?
– Well, I would like to say that we enjoyed everything very much. What surprised us the most in Russia was the people, their solidarity and the patriotism that we felt from every person, from every place that we visited. This also applies to the exhibition, where we saw so many different things. Regardless of the increasing geopolitical pressure that is being exerted on Russia today, we see Russia’s unyielding position and feel that it has preserved its own course, its own personal history, its own roots.
This cannot but inspire us, Africa and Russia, to keep moving forward hand in hand.
– Your Royal Highness, we thank you for an interesting talk and for talking time out of your bust schedule to answer New Eastern Outlook’s questions. We hope for the fruitful future cooperation between Russia and FATA.
Interview by Yulia NOVITSKAYA, writer, journalist, correspondent for New Eastern Outlook
