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Saudi Culture Minister Lauds Cabinet for Naming 2025 the 'Year of Handicrafts'

The Ministry of Culture logo
The Ministry of Culture logo
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Saudi Culture Minister Lauds Cabinet for Naming 2025 the 'Year of Handicrafts'

The Ministry of Culture logo
The Ministry of Culture logo

Minister of Culture Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan has commended the Cabinet's decision to declare 2025 the "Year of Handicrafts,” acknowledging the significant cultural value handicrafts have had in Saudi culture for many years.

The move also highlights the creativity that sets the unique handicraft industry apart and showcases the talent of Saudi craftsmen to the global community.

Prince Badr expressed gratitude to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, for their unwavering support for culture and arts.

Their patronage, he said, has elevated Saudi culture, solidified its roots and unique elements, and enabled the world to see the best of it.

"At the Ministry of Culture, we are working to instill pride in our national identity and all its associated cultural elements, whether tangible or intangible. This is one of the objectives of the National Culture Strategy, under Saudi Vision 2030, which has prioritized national identity and Saudi culture as ambitious goals," said Prince Badr.

He stressed that the "Year of Handicrafts" initiative will help celebrate this essential component of highly significant cultural and artistic value that is the cornerstone of national identity.

"Saudi handicrafts reflect the creativity of Saudi society, encompasses textiles, handicrafts, and artistic creations that have been passed down from generation to generation. These include pottery, clothing, beadwork, copper products, sewing, dyeing, blacksmithing, gold and jewelry making,” he added.

During the "Year of Handicrafts,” the Ministry of Culture will work to increase the visibility of Saudi handicrafts both at home and abroad, and enable Saudi artisans to display their creations at events and activities in the Kingdom and the world over.

The initiative also aims to increase the contribution of Saudi handicrafts to the local economy and to raise awareness about their cultural, historical, civilizational, and economic significance.

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Adieu Paris as Niger Nixes Colonial French Place Names

This photograph taken in Niamey on October 15, 2024 shows children standing in front of the new plaque where Avenue General Charles de Gaulle was renamed to Avenue Djibo Bakary, named after the Nigerien political figure (1922-1998) who was the first mayor of Niamey (1956-1958), the president of the Niger Government Council (May 1957-October 1958) and a supporter of the immediate independence of Niger in the referendum called in 1958 by Former French President General Charles de Gaulle. (AFP)
This photograph taken in Niamey on October 15, 2024 shows children standing in front of the new plaque where Avenue General Charles de Gaulle was renamed to Avenue Djibo Bakary, named after the Nigerien political figure (1922-1998) who was the first mayor of Niamey (1956-1958), the president of the Niger Government Council (May 1957-October 1958) and a supporter of the immediate independence of Niger in the referendum called in 1958 by Former French President General Charles de Gaulle. (AFP)
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Adieu Paris as Niger Nixes Colonial French Place Names

This photograph taken in Niamey on October 15, 2024 shows children standing in front of the new plaque where Avenue General Charles de Gaulle was renamed to Avenue Djibo Bakary, named after the Nigerien political figure (1922-1998) who was the first mayor of Niamey (1956-1958), the president of the Niger Government Council (May 1957-October 1958) and a supporter of the immediate independence of Niger in the referendum called in 1958 by Former French President General Charles de Gaulle. (AFP)
This photograph taken in Niamey on October 15, 2024 shows children standing in front of the new plaque where Avenue General Charles de Gaulle was renamed to Avenue Djibo Bakary, named after the Nigerien political figure (1922-1998) who was the first mayor of Niamey (1956-1958), the president of the Niger Government Council (May 1957-October 1958) and a supporter of the immediate independence of Niger in the referendum called in 1958 by Former French President General Charles de Gaulle. (AFP)

Niger bid goodbye to the Avenue Charles de Gaulle on Tuesday as its ruling junta renamed several historic sites in the capital Niamey which previously bore references to old colonial master France.

Since taking power in a coup in July 2023, the Sahel nation's military rulers have turned their backs on Paris, instead forging ties with fellow juntas in Burkina Faso and Mali -- as well as Russia.

With the sound of marching bands blaring in the background, several junta officials took to the streets to witness the new names' inauguration.

"Most of our avenues, boulevards and streets... bear names that are simply reminders of the suffering and bullying our people endured during the ordeal of colonization," said Major Colonel Abdramane Amadou, Minister for Youth and a junta spokesman.

"The avenue which once bore the name of General Charles de Gaulle is henceforth christened 'Avenue Djibo Bakary'," Amadou added.

A socialist politician who died in 1998, Bakary was a key figure in the struggle for Niger's independence, which it obtained in 1960.

A few hundred meters further on, the memorial to those who died in the two world wars now pays "homage to all civilian and military victims of colonization to the present day".

With the ruling junta frequently accusing France of wishing to topple it, the renaming of monuments and streets marks a symbolic confirmation of Niger's break with its former imperial ruler.

Since the coup, Niger's authorities have expelled both the French soldiers fighting against the region's persistent extremist threat and the French ambassador, while the Franco-Nigerien cultural center is no longer run as a joint venture and has been renamed after Niger's filmmaker Moustapha Alassane.

- 'Honour our ancestors' -

Other monuments across Niamey will bear new names from Tuesday onwards.

A portrait of French commander and explorer Parfait-Louis Monteil, engraved for decades in stone, was replaced by a plaque bearing the effigy of neighboring Burkina Faso's iconic communist leader Thomas Sankara.

An anti-imperialist hero nicknamed Africa's Che Guevara, Sankara was killed in a 1987 coup his widow and supporters accuse France of having a hand in organizing.

Amadou hailed Sankara as a man whose "struggle for liberation" and "emancipation of peoples" was "still inspiring people" today.

Meanwhile the Place de Francophonie was renamed after the Alliance of Sahel States -- a confederation created with Mali and Burkina Faso in 2023, cementing relations between the coup-hit countries.

All three had their membership suspended to the 88-state International Organization of La Francophonie in the wake of their coups.

From now on "we are going to honor our ancestors", vowed General Assoumane Abdou Harouna, the capital region's governor and a junta figure.

Oumarou Abdourahamane, president of the Niger branch of the NGO Urgences Panafricanistes, welcomed the new names.

"It makes no sense for our streets to continue to bear the names of former colonists... and so justice is being done by renaming these streets, by naming them after our country's heroes," he said.

Urgences Panafricanistes is headed at the international level by activist Kemi Seba, known for his virulent anti-Western views, who was arrested on Monday in Paris for as-yet unknown reasons.

Seba, who was born in France to Beninese parents, holds a Nigerien diplomatic passport as special adviser to junta leader Abdourahamane Tiani.

The controversial militant, who was recently stripped of his French nationality, is a radical black power activist who is regularly accused of anti-Semitism and has been sentenced in France several times for incitement to racial hatred.

In June 2023, shortly before the coup that toppled elected president Mohamed Bazoum, Niger also adopted a new national anthem titled "For the honor of the fatherland", which references the anti-colonial struggle.

It replaced "La Nigerienne", whose lyrics were written by French composer Maurice Albert Thiriet in 1961, a year after the country gained its independence.