July 03, (THEWILL) – The United States government has disclosed that it has spent about $770,000 on cultural preservation projects across Nigeria.
The Acting Consul General of the American Embassy James Suor disclosed this at the National Museum in Calabar during the Ancient Rock Art of Nigeria exhibition.
The travelling exhibition is coming to Calabar from Lagos and will be on for two months.
Speaking while delivering his speech virtually, Suor said the exhibition is part of the US Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation and geared towards preserving Nigeria’s cultural heritage.
“As part of efforts to preserve Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage, the US government has funded about $770,000 for preservation projects across Nigeria through the AFCT in the last four years.
“These include committing to a project to build the capacity of Nigerian Museum professionals to include collecting, storage and display in 2016.
“In 2017, funded a project to document the traditional knowledge of the Ifa cultural system in Oyo state.
“In 2019, awarded the College of William and Mary a $400,000 grant to document and conserve the 14th-century Sungbo Eredo Earthworks of Yoruba Ijebu Kingdom in South-West Nigeria.
“Supported museums through capacity building, training and like we are seeing here in this museum, funded the re-imaging of museum archive space and officially opened the space this year”, he said.
He added that international partnerships like this are important tools for strengthening our collaborative efforts in preserving Nigeria’s cultural heritage both for future generations and tourism.
The exhibition was held in partnership with FACTVM Foundation, ABU Zaria, UNICAL, US Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation, National Commission for Museums and Monuments, as well as Trust For African Rock Arts.
THEWILL Correspondent, Aniekan Bassey has over six years experience that spans across several fields in print journalism including development communication, sexual reproductive and health rights issues, crime, climate change, social justice, business and human interest stories.
