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Stop That Train (From Emile KAHOUN, Lycee Yadega, Ouahigouya)

Mother Africa's sons are still in tears. Their situation is getting worse and worse because what they inherited from their mummy is now disappearing day after day. Later or never, every African country, every African has the responsibility to understand and absorb this disappointing course of things.

In order to solve this problem, a few months ago, under the umbrella of the Minister in charge of the culture and the National Art Council, hundreds of our fellow countrymen tribal, religious, and state consciousness and gathered. During the two-days meeting, it was quite necessary and high time we drafted precautions to stop the shameful processes eating our cultural identity and traditional values away. It came to the participants like a day-break that, besides the periodic cultural demonstration and festivals such us The National Week of Culture, the Panafrican Festival of Cinema of Ouagadougou ... already existing in the country, a new goal is to be pursued. We must refuse to go blindly towards development of any kind without any looking behind. We must revive our dying values, among others old folklore, choral songs, traditional music and dances as well as arts and crafts which could be of a great importance.

While appreciating the usefulness of such displays for the revival and development of our cultural heritage, we may also believe that the contribution of our museums to this renaissance could be very important. A 'museum at some extent , is a graveyard of the past and the present '. They allow people to learn about their past through the art objects exposed there.

Undoubtedly, many people have lost touch with their cultural heritage because of the intermixture with western civilisation. The young child native of Burkina, for instance, may know little of his artistic traditions and next to nothing about his cultural traditions. This is sad indeed. In order to solve this regrettable state of affairs, the government had undertaken perspectives and policies to invigorate our values in order to reduce this deadly moving force that is distorting us progressively. Alienation seems inevitable, of course but leaving our heritage die out is out of question. A well known African saying states that 'butter does not spoil a sauce' . By so doing, why not put together tradition and modernity to develop in our way? That we know little about where we are going is a pity; but that we know nothing about where we departed is a collective suicide.

VOCABULARY

A display : a precaution , a disposition
A museum : a place where we gather art objects
A graveyard : a place where dead people are buried.
To distort : to destroy - to damage

I ) QUESTIONS

1 ) What was the aim of the meeting ? (5 lines- 2 marks)
2 )How do the government intend to rehabilitate the traditional values ? (6 lines - 3 marks )
3) How is the museum a graveyard of the past and present ? ( 8 lines- 4 marks)
4) " Alienation is inevitable , of course , but too much passivity from Africans will be a collective suicide " .
Explain this idea in not than 10 lines. ( 5marks)

II ) TRANSLATE INTO FRENCH.
From ' while appreciating.................' down to 'displayed there ' ( 3rd paragraph ) (6 marks)