Great Voices of UNESCO

Amadou Hampâté Bâ
1900-1991
Malian writer and ethnologist. Member of the UNESCO Executive Board from 1962 to 1970.

16 July 1974. Interview of Amadou Hampâté Bâ on the topic of “Considerations on the Sacred.” During his lifetime Hampâté Bâ was considered the “living memory of Africa.” The legendary phrase “In Africa, when an old man dies, a library burns” is attributed to him. In reality, Hampâté Ba declared, during a UNESCO meeting, “I consider the death of each of these holders of tradition akin to a fire that burns across unharvested cultural riches.”

André Malraux
1901-1976
French writer, statesman and intellectual.

8 March 1960, Paris. André Malraux, French Minister of State for Cultural Affairs, delivers an address at the ceremony marking the launch of the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia. On the request of the Egyptian and Sudanese Governments, UNESCO issued an appeal to Member States for the protection of monuments and sites threatened by flooding in the Nile Valley, due to the construction of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt. The appeal resulted in the salvage and relocation of several temples to higher ground, the most famous among them the temple complexes of Abu Simbel and Philae.

Arthur Miller
1915-2005
Ecrivain, dramaturge et essayiste américain.

Charles de Gaulle
1890-1969 Militaire, résistant, homme d'Etat et écrivain français. Discours du Général de Gaulle, Président de la République Française, pour le 20ème anniversaire de l’UNESCO. 04-11-1966

Christiane Desroches Noblecourt
1913-2011
French archaeologist and Egyptologist.

1959. Christiane Desroches Noblecourt discusses the culture and history of Egypt and the Nile Valley, a year before the launch of the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, a hallmark of international cooperation in the field of culture for which she played a decisive role. Her advocacy at UNESCO helped to shape the concept of a universal world heritage that must be protected.

Claude Lévi-Strauss
1908-2009
French anthropologist and ethnologist.

22 March 1971, Speech by Claude Lévi-Strauss at the opening session of the conference on the theme of Race and Culture, held at UNESCO during the International Year for Combating Racism and Racial Discrimination.

Duke Ellington
1899-1974
Pianiste, compositeur et chef d'orchestre de jazz américain.

Interview de Duke Ellington à l'occasion du Festival Mondial des Arts Nègres à Dakar (Sénégal) en 1966.
09-04-1966

Eugène Ionesco
1909-1994
Romanian-French playwright and writer.

19 February 1976. Statement by Eugene Ionesco on World Theatre Day, celebrated since 1961 on the initiative of the International Theatre Institute. The Institute was founded by UNESCO and the novelist JB Priestly in 1948.

Gisèle Halimi
1927-2020
Avocate, militante féministe et femme politique franco-tunisienne.

Interview de Me Gisèle Halimi à l'occasion de la table ronde sur l'année internationale de la Femme (bilan et perspectives)
25-11-1975

Indira Gandhi
1917-1984
Femme d’Etat indienne.

Interview d’Indira Gandhi, en tant que membre du Conseil exécutif de l’UNESCO.
1961

Jacques Yves Cousteau
1910-1997
Officier de la Marine nationale et explorateur océanographique français.

Interview de Jacques Yves Cousteau

Jorge Luis Borges
1899-1986
13 November 1964, Paris. "Shakespeare and Us", address by Jorge Luis Borges during the symposium Shakespeare and the Literature of Our Time. The symposium was one of four events organized by UNESCO to celebrate the fourth centenary of Shakespeare from 13-15 November 1964.

Joseph Ki-Zerbo
1922-2006
Historian and politician from Burkina Faso. Member of UNESCO Executive Board, editor of volume 1 of the General History of Africa published by UNESCO (1981).

1972, Paris. Interview with M. Joseph Ki-Zerbo on the Meeting of Experts on African Cultural Contributions to Latin America and the Caribbean Zone.

Leopold Sedar Senghor
1906-2001
Homme d'Etat français puis sénégalais, poète, écrivain, et premier président de la République du Sénégal.

Inauguration du Bureau régional pour l'éducation en Afrique de l'Ouest de l’UNESCO.

Miguel Angel Asturias
1899-1974
Guatemalan poet, diplomat and laureate of the 1965 Nobel Prize for Literature.

1967, Paris. Miguel Angel Asturias discusses literature, his early poems, UNESCO's role in Latin America's economic development, and the meaning of the Nobel Prize for him. He follows with a reading of one of his poems.

Nelson Mandela
1918-2013
Homme d'État sud-africain.

Discours de Nelson Mandela à l’occasion de la remise du prix Felix Houphouët-Boigny pour la recherche de la Paix 1991.
03-02-1992

Pablo Neruda
1904-1973
Chilean poet, writer, politician, and intellectual. Recipient of the International Peace Prize in 1950, the Lenin Peace Prize and the Stalin Peace Prize in 1953, and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. Member of the UNESCO Delegation of Chile from 1972 to 1973.

16 February 1971. Statement by Pablo Neruda on World Theatre Day, celebrated since 1961 on the initiative of the International Theatre Institute. The Institute was founded by UNESCO and the novelist JB Priestly in 1948.

Pablo Picasso
1881-1973
Spanish painter, sculptor.

29 March 1958, Vallauris, France. Interview with Pablo Picasso, along with Jean Cocteau and Georges Salles, at the presentation of Picasso’s oeuvre commissioned by UNESCO, La chute d’Icare.

Simone Veil
1927-2017
French stateswoman and magistrate.

1979, Paris. Speech by Simone Veil, then French Minister of Health, at a conference organized by the International Union of Family Organisations on the theme, "The Responsibilities of the Family in the Child's Upbringing," during the International Year of the Child proclaimed by UNESCO in 1979.