Ouagadougou: Panelists called on Thursday to protect and preserve African customary and traditional values from negative Western influences.'Every culture and every tradition is subject to influences. These influences can be positive or negative. But in reality, a culture is also the result of these back-and-forth movements between cultural realities,' declares Issaka Sourwèma, traditional chief and former Minister of Religious and Customary Affairs.For him, all culture results from the influence of other cultures. Mr. Sourwèma spoke Thursday in Ouagadougou during the round table organized by the African Initiative association on the protection and conservation of customary and traditional values under Western influence.'We must ensure that what we have sincerely in terms of values can be preserved,' underlines the traditional leader.According to Issaka Sourwèma, values are deep beliefs from which we construct notions such as the true, the just, the good, the beautiful and the good.Ismaël Taoko, wri ter and president of the club of young Burkinabe citizen leaders (CJCLB), presented his intervention on the sub-theme 'the influence of Western countries and new technologies on cultural values'.'Since Western man set foot on African soil in contact with black man, there has always been an influence,' says Mr. Taoko.According to him, Western influence was gradual, first with old technologies, until the African was ashamed to express himself in the language of his ancestors.'From a cultural point of view, to politics and economics, we imitate others. This gives him a lot of strength vis-à-vis us, and he exercises his imperialism,' laments the writer.'The homosexuality that we are presented with today harms the fertility of our intellectual productions. As long as we are interested in morality or the perpetuation of the human species, this is not a practice to be promoted,' suggests the president of the CJCLB.The presentation by Evgenia Fanavievna Tikhonova, director of the Russian House in Burkina, f ocused on the comparative analysis of the challenges encountered by Russian and Burkinabè societies in the preservation of traditional values.Knowing one's identity and developing policies to popularize cultural values are some possible solutions proposed by the various panelists for a gradual return to basics.Martin Yaméogo, member of the African Initiative association, justifies the holding of this round table by the negative influence of Western culture on African culture.'We see that people want us to get rid of our traditional values. It was our duty to make young people understand why it is necessary to preserve our traditional values,' explains the representative of the organizers.'I came to participate in this panel to convince myself that there are always people working for the sustainability of our culture,' said participant Fadilatou Nignan.The student at the Burkinabè business school welcomed this initiative which will allow the future generation to know African culture.Source: Burkin a Information Agency