Address by Mr Federico Mayor
Director-General of the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural organization
(UNESCO) on the occasion of the celebration,
at the Palace of the Republic of Kazakhstan, of the
150th anniversary of the birth of Abai Kunanbayev
Almaty, 9 August 1995

Mr President of the Republic of Kazakstan,
Excellencies,
Ministers,
Distinguished representatives,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is truly an honour for me to be with you today, in the independent and sovereign Republic of Kazakhstan, to commemorate the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the birth of the man in whom the genius of the Kazak people found its fullest expression – Abai Kunanbayev. I wish to thank you, Mr. President, and through you the Government and people of Kazakhstan, for inviting me to participate in this forum of national reflection and recollection.
Abai’s destiny calls to mind a famous line by his near contemporary, the French poet Stéphane Mallarmé : “Tel qu’en lui-même enfin l’éternité le change” (Like unto himself at last eternity changes him) . As with so many who give “a purer sense to the words of the tribe”, Abai had to await the judgment of posterity before his true significance was recognized. He was conscious of his own destiny: “Know, my descendant, that it is for your future that I clear a pathway”. It is only perhaps today, in a context of national self-determination and self-affirmation, that the full significance of that destiny is becoming apparent.
Abai Kunanbayev is a man for our times and – in the range and depth of his talents – a man for all seasons. Poet, philosopher, musician, scholar, scientific popularizer and so much else besides, he speaks to us of the need for wholeness and integrity. Not for him the artificial separations of art and life. Poetry, for him, is “made not with dreams, but with truth”. Culture for him is not a thing apart but the very fabric of our collective existence. His own poetry draws on the rich source of Kazak folklore and the natural beauties and rhythms of the steppe. Its themes are the universal ones of love, happiness, hope and grief. Abai would never have supposed – unlike too many in today’s quantifying and compartmentalizing world of specialists – that economic growth could be the measure of human fulfillment or that any sane definition of development could ignore the core dimension of culture.
National identity found no more fervent defender and promoter than Abai Kunanbayev. Yet he understood that the roots of true culture are universal. His own genius drew inspiration from Arab, Persian, Russian and Western sources as well as from Turkic and Kazak tradition. Abai reconciles the affirmation of cultural identity with intercultural dialogue. With Rabindranath Tagore, he understood that “Individuality is precious because only through it can we realize the universal”.
A creator – like Pushkin – of the national literary tradition, Abai also reminds us that culture is not simply the preservation of past forms but also the creation of new ones. His example is a precious antidote to the exclusive view of culture that can make it the vehicle for intolerance and even xenophobia. It is a call to openness and inventiveness – which is the only possible foundation for nation-building in an interdependent world where the supreme assets of a nation are increasingly the creativity and enterprising spirit of its citizens.
Above all, the message of Abai Kunanbayev is that of a humanist – a humanist in the sense of believing in the essential dignity of every human being, seeing man within nature as the measure of all things, and affirming the possibility of human progress. Education and learning were for Abai the means to unlocking the vast potential of human beings. Did he not make it his mission to “wrest the Kazak people from the darkness of ignorance”? Knowledge and self-knowledge were for him the key to human progress.
His faith in education and his belief in human dignity had as their counterpart a commitment to democracy. His political ideal was a self-governing community of informed and participating citizens. By the same token, he was committed to the fight against social injustice and the promotion of understanding between nations. He was strongly opposed to the use of violence as a means of resolving disputes, and in poems such as Iskander abominated the insatiable appetite for power, domination and gain at the origin of so much human conflict down the ages.
Abai – prophetic figure that he was – anticipates many of the founding ideals of UNESCO and the United Nations. What more appropriate, then, that UNESCO – this year celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of its Constitution – should have decided to participate in the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Abai Kunanbayev under its programme for the international celebration of great personalities and events with a universal impact in its fields of competence.
At UNESCO Headquarters in Paris last June we were delighted to have hosted and helped organize a series of events centered on Abai Kunanbayev’s life and work. I had the honour on this occasion to receive the Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, Mr. Tasmagambetov, and members of his Delegation. With him, I inaugurated a remarkable and highly appreciated exhibition of printing and handicrafts. A highlight of the Abai celebrations at UNESCO was an international seminar on the poet and philosopher, whose participants included members of Kazakhstan’s official delegation, a number of Ambassadors of foreign countries to France, the distinguished Kyrgyz writer Chingiz Aitmatov, French scholars and members of the general public. Other events included a fashion-show, a gala concert of songs and dances, and film projections. An album on Abai (in Kazak, English and French) was also published, thanks to cooperation between the Permanent Delegation of Kazakhstan to UNESCO, UNESCO Publishing and the Crisol publishing house in Spain.
Mr. President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have always been drawn to your country and to this region, and I have fond memories of my first experience a good many years ago of the natural beauties of Kazakhstan and the hospitality and spirituality of its people. I welcome the opportunity to see something of the transformations that are today taking place in your vast country and to learning at first hand how UNESCO can best contribute to its development process. I do not doubt the scale of the challenges facing the Republic of Kazakhstan at this time. But I am confident that these challenges can be met with the kind of wise leadership provided by President Nursultan Nazarbaev. It also seems to me auspicious that Kazakhstan’s efforts towards nation-building should draw inspiration from the example of Abai Kunanbayev who – as you yourself have written, Mr. President – is, for each and every Kazak, “not only a man of letters but also a preceptor and teacher, a person much loved and cherished, not to say a confessor”.
UNESCO is delighted to be playing a part in bringing this remarkable man of culture to the attention of the world community – highlighting in the process the distinctive genius of the Kazak people and furthering international understanding on which our common future so vitally depends.
The planet is interdependent and interactive. Our world today is “one or none”. We are all citizens of the world. Diversity is our wealth, unity is our force. Abai, like all the giant creators of our common past, represents much more than light amidst the darkness of times past; he represents inspiration and enlightment to face and overcome the darkness and uncertainty of our common future! We are still living in a context of war, in a culture of imposition, of domination, in a culture of war. Can we remain deaf and blind? No. We must share, we must patiently try to know others better and to respect, admire and – why not? – love them. There is only one victory: peace. There is also one glory: peace! Peace-building is our common task, our invisible glory and victory.
Let this anniversary be the occasion for mobilizing the spirit of Abai in the service of a culture of peace!