Arts and cultural education is a fundamental, human and civil right: A South Sudanese Perspective

By: Pamela Golda Jeffery Otto*

Introduction

On one hand, culture is a set of inherited behaviors, ideas, languages, and morals that differentiates one society from another. Art, on the other hand, is the application of human skills, thoughts, and imagination through visual art and the performing arts.

It is a fundamental and human right for individuals to express their feelings and imagination through arts and cultural education.

Importance of integrating arts and cultural education

Although arts and cultural education is undervalued due to the current emphasis on STEM learning, I still believe that arts and cultural education have a great impact on a country’s economy, education systems, and society at large. Why? 

  1. Arts and cultural education enhance creativity, growth, and understanding. Unlike other disciplines, arts and cultural education gives opportunities for students to express their feelings, thoughts, and imagination through music, drama, visual arts, and other art forms.

  2. Arts and cultural education facilitates communication. In a society of literate and illiterate individuals, it creates a common language of understanding through visual art like paintings. As the saying goes, a single picture speaks a thousand words. This allows all people to have a common ground of understanding - across languages, cultures, and abilities.

  3. Arts and cultural education also helps in discovering talents. In a professional society where people believe that mathematics, language arts, history, and science are the “core” or “main” subjects, many talents like acting, painting, and singing are buried. Arts and cultural education helps to discover and celebrate these buried talents.

  4. Arts and cultural events like drama, sports, and music concerts bring people together. This helps them to appreciate the beauty and diversity of human abilities and culture. In appreciating and understanding this diversity, unity and peace is built among societies.

  5. Arts and cultural activities are believed to be therapeutic, relieving many of their stress and anxiety. After a long day, people often enjoy listening to or playing music, painting, or watching a play to unwind. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge the power of arts and culture.

In addition to these reasons, arts and cultural activities events allow individuals to take pride in their culture and heritage and feel comfortable sharing it with others, especially through the tourism industry. 

Understanding transition through arts and cultural education as fundamental, human and civil right:

You can’t be certain of where you are going if you don’t know where you are coming from. 

It is vital for an individual to know the reality of their identity and culture and everyone deserves to have the opportunity to learn about who they are through self-expression and creativity. In other words, we need to learn about who and how we are through arts and cultural education. 

Currently, we are experiencing a new kind of revolution. This revolution is not centered solely in politics, technology, or the increasing globalization of our planet, but centered in the discourses of all elements of our collective, global future and driven by the next generation.

Young artists and creatives have been at the center of policy debates in town councils and community gatherings through the long-standing work of community-based programs which are fueled by artists, educators, and community leaders. 

Young People with Arts and Culture as a Driving Force:

Groups like AnaTaban, Junub open space (JHUB) and many other young youth groups here in South Sudan have been particularly interested in the practice and verbiage of social activism through the arts. For the past six months, my colleagues and I at Jubafest have studied the question of how arts education organizations articulate and implement their goals. 

In May 2019, Creative Generation conducted a literature review and holding a focus group discussion with 15 national leaders in the field of arts and cultural education in the U.S. The result found that ever since the late 1980s, the data regularly cited about the benefits of the arts and culture has fallen largely into the category of “instrumental” or utilitarian value meaning benefits that are not about the value of the arts themselves, but are about using the arts to achieve some extrinsic purpose, like achieving higher grades.

Most of the organizations emphasize the following advantages of arts education: lower dropout rates, higher academic achievement, raised standardized test scores, and higher college graduation rates.

Global Narrative

We have started to see shifts in the global narrative for arts and cultural education, especially through events held in 2019 and 2020.  

Calls for transformative action for arts and cultural education as being integral to sustaining communities and meeting the needs of all people in the face of critical global challenges for countries like South Sudan are becoming more and more common. 

Unprecedented arts performances linked to movements led by children and young people throughout the world (ex: in Uganda in the recent ongoing political challenge through Robert Kyagulanyi the leader of the National Unity Platform) asserts that arts and cultural education is a fundamental right for all to ensure the nurturing of solidarity, cooperation and good living.

Conclusion

My thoughts, feelings, and experiences are grounded in the wisdom of international declarations and doctrines. Within these international doctrines, all have the right to be equal before the law and entitled to no discrimination (UDHR, Article 7), the right to education (UDHR, Article 26), and the right to freedom of expression (UDHR, Article 19). Additionally, children specifically have the right to education (CRC, Article 28), the right to participate freely in cultural life and the arts (CRC, Article 31), the right to form his or her own views, and the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child (CRC, Article 12).

If international doctrine can make such bold and commanding declarations, why can’t more national governing bodies do the same to support the full flourishing of self and imagination? 

*Pamela Golda Jeffery Otto

She is a Fashion designer, writer and a banker from Juba, South Sudan. An advisor for the Jubafest Initiative, She is the author of upcoming books titled “Married but living single” and “Imprisoned by Love”

Her interest are in community service, blogging, travel, reading, cooking and baking.