Menongue - The need to elevate the locality of Cuito Cuanavale, in the south-eastern Province of Cuando Cubango, to a world heritage site was defended on Wednesday by academics.
The Cuito Cuanavale battle took place there, between 1987 and 1988, involving soldiers of the defunct Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FALA), supported by the South African Apartheid regime, and the Popular Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA), winners of this dispute.
Speaking to ANGOP, historian Luís Paulo Vissunjo defended that Angola should submit to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) the process for the recognition and elevation of this locality to a humanity heritage.
To him, the locality is a reference in the culture of peace, defended by UNESCO.
In this way, he said that the Angolan authorities should work for the materialization of this aim, since the locality of Cuito Cuanavale was the stage of one of the biggest battles in contemporary history.
He recalled that March 23 is currently celebrated as the Day of Southern Africa, a general recognition of the countries that make up the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
The anthropologist Diakinini Boholo, who shares the same idea, believes that the countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) will support the candidacy, a sufficient weight to make this claim a reality.
To him, the southern region needs to do hard work to convince the UNIESCO, which involves cataloguing various factors that this body of the United Nations requires for inclusion on the list of World Heritage.
The executive secretary of the Municipal Youth Council of Menongue (Cuando Cubango), Adriano Lucas Jaime, appealed for wider dissemination of information on Cuito Cuanavale, including the battle.
He argues that the battle of Cuito Cuanavale should be part of the school curriculum in SADC countries.
"We must spread much more, the 23rd of March with lectures, colloquiums, seminars, and other events that facilitate the dissemination of this great achievement”, he stressed.
In honour of the Cuito Cuanavale battle, Angola proposed to the SADC Ministers Cabinet March 23rd as the date of Southern Africa.
It was unanimously adopted on March 23, 2018, by the member states of the community.
