1 PREAMBLE We, Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity meeting in its Thirteenth Ordinary Session, in Port Louis, Mauritius, from 2 nd to 5 th July, 1976, GUIDED by the Organization of African Unity Charter, by Resolution CM/Res.371 (XXIII) adopted by the Twenty-third Ordinary Session of the Council of Ministers and by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the OAU (June 1974, Mogadiscio), by the Declaration of principles of international cultural co-operation adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO at its fourteenth session in 1966, by the Pan-African Cultural Manifesto of Algiers (1969), and by the Inter-governmental Conference on cultural policies in Africa organized by UNESCO in Accra in 1975 in cooperation with the Organization of African Unity; CONVINCED that any human society is necessarily governed by rules and principles based on traditions, languages, ways of life and thought in other words on a set of cultural values which reflect its distinctive character and personality; CONVINCED that all cultures emanate from the people, and that any African cultural policy should of necessity enable the people to expand for increased responsibility in the development of its cultural heritage; AWARE OF THE FACT that any people has the inalienable right to organize its cultural life in full harmony with its political, economic, social, philosophical and spiritual ideas;