The first monument to Ukrainian poet and artist Taras Shevchenko on the African continent has been erected in Botswana, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga announced on March 9.
The monument was placed at the country's largest educational institution, the University of Botswana. Sculptor Francois Kotets made the monument from Botswanan bronze. During the opening ceremony, the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Tapelo Otlokhetswe, recited a translation of the poem "The Testament" in the national language of Botswana, Setswana.
Andriy Sybiga noted that there are currently 1,384 monuments to Taras Shevchenko in the world, 128 of which are in 35 countries. “The first Kobzar on African soil is about the globality of Shevchenko’s ideas, the timelessness of his words, the power of his thought, which over the centuries unites the Ukrainian people and the whole world around the universal values of freedom, justice, and national identity,” the minister emphasized.
Recall that on February 9, a city square in Grenoble, France, was named in honor of Ukrainian poet Lesya Ukrainka. The location will become a center for Ukrainian meetings and a symbol of France's solidarity with Ukraine.
