It was recently announced that UNESCO has recently added over 50 traditions to their list of intangible cultural heritages around the world. Earlier last year, UNESCO had added other tangible or intangible heritages to its list. This is bound to continue in the future too since humanity is in possession of so many known and unknown heritages that it may take another decade or two to register all of them and add them to its growing list although some of them are in urgent need of safeguarding.
According to a recent blog post Time Out, “70 countries submitted nominations for consideration by UNESCO committee this year, and more than 50 were accepted to the organization’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List. Of those, six are in need of urgent safeguarding, including the practice of olive cultivation in Turkiye and Mek Mulung, a traditional Malaysian performance that involves dancing, singing and acting.
Africa, once considered “the dark continent” by the colonialists is now a continent teeming with inexhaustible cultural and artistic heritages from north to south and from east to West. European travelers who wrote about Africa set their eyes only on its rivers and lakes, its mountains and dry lands simply because geopolitics was their prime interest to chart of the course of their conquests. Few were those who dared penetrate the African countries and meet the traditions and cultures that formed the soul of the continent.
Many foreign travel writers wrote about Africa from two opposite perspectives. The first was one of admiration and shock while the second perspective is largely hostile and geared towards highlighting some of the negative aspects of the African heritages. British explorer James Bruce who tried to trace the source of the mighty Nile River was captivated by the beauty of the Nile valley and the course of the river while writers like Joseph Conrad used the Congo River as a “laboratory” for examining the so-called darkness of Africa in the eyes of the European colonialists.
Bruce was not an explorer per se but served as a British consul in Algiers in 1763 and afterwards. the idea behind his journey to discover the source of the Nile might have been one of curiosity but the real reason might as well be his interest to pomote the colonial penetration of Africa by the British. “Intent on reaching the source of the Nile River, Bruce left Cairo on an arduous journey by way of the Nile, Aswan, The Red Sea and Massawa eventually reaching the Ethiopian capital of Gondar on February 14, 1770.”
Joseph Conrad had a different intent when he based his novel “Heart of Darkness” about his trip on the Congo River aboard a ship and related his personal experience and his observations on how the crew on the ship behaved and thought about the country they were discovering for the first time. One thing must however be clear. Conrad was not advocating colonialism or serving the cause of the colonialists. He was rather opposed to colonialism. A recent analysis by Michael Wasney of the short novel by Conrad rather supports this view. “Heart of Darkness examines the horrors of Western colonialism depicting it as a phenomenon that tarnishes not only the lands and peoples it exploits but also those in the West who advance it.”
It has now become clear more than any time before that Africa is not synonymous with darkness but with light as its cultural and artistic heritages testified and continue to demonstrate the continent’s immeasurably vast tangible and intangible artifacts and their contribution to human civilization in general. As defined by UNESCO, “An intangible cultural heritage is a practice, representation, expression, knowledge or skill considered by UNESCO to be part of a place’s cultural heritage.” Examples of intangible cultural heritage include songs, music, dance, drama, skills, cuisine, crafts and festivals. They are forms of culture that can be recorded but cannot be touched or stored in physical forms.”
A similar definition of intangible cultural heritage given by Wikipedia says that, “An intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is a practice, representation, expression, knowledge or skill considered to be part of a place’s cultural heritage.” In order to see the difference between tangible and intangible cultural heritages, it would be important to know what tangible cultural heritages are. “Tangible cultural heritages refer to things we can store or physically touch. Examples of tangible cultural heritage include traditional clothing, tools, buildings, artwork, monuments, and modes of transportation.” For instance, among the Tangible cultural heritages Ethiopia is legitimately proud of are, according to UNESCO, Simien national park, Rock hewn churches of Lalibela, Fasil Ghebi Gondar region, and Aksum. Some of the intangible cultural heritages of Ethiopia are Timket or the festival of Jesus Christ’s baptism, Meskel, the Geda system, and Fichee Chambalaalla or the New Year festival of the Sidama people. The following are World Heritage Sites in Ethiopia. These are: Aksum, Fasil Ghebi, Harar, Konso, Awash, Omo, Lalibela, Simien.
According to recent information, the UN’s Educational Scientific and Cultural organization has added 55 new inscriptions to its intangible cultural heritage list for 2023, in an effort to safeguard traditional art, dance, food, craftsmanship and rites of passage. the cultural practices include Italian opera singing, rickshaws and rickshaw painting in Bangladesh, Peruvian traditional cuisine. It was also known that 70 countries had put forward at UNESCO’s annual Intergovernmental, Intangible heritage Committee meeting held in Kassane, Botswana this week.
According to one source, “Six cultural practices were added to the list because they need urgent safeguarding such as the Malaysian theatre tradition that shares legends through dialogue, song and dance. This heritage was popular since the 18th century and is now in danger of dying out.” There are also other cultural practices that need urgent safeguarding because they are facing the same threat of extinction.” It is known that with the latest addition, UNESCO’s living heritage list now includes 730 cultural practices spread over 145 countries.
Africa in general and Ethiopia in particular are known to be home to immense treasures of tangible and intangible cultural heritages. The historical relics are also part and parcel of the tangible cultural heritages while there are still hundreds if not thousands of undiscovered heritages hidden in churches, monasteries, mosques and other spiritual places. The search and discovery of these relics and heritages particularly here in Africa, is like a challenge to restore the lost soul of Africa during and before colonialism and since independence. It is important to ask at this juncture what purpose can these cultural heritages fulfill or why we take the trouble to trace and recognize our cultural history and heritages.
One of the most important challenges Africa is facing at present is to consolidate its sense of unity and purpose because historically colonialism and the post-colonial moment have been working against unity and towards further cultural Balkanization or fragmentation. The post-colonial moment in particular has been marked by Africa’s cultural domination by the West by subverting traditional cultural heritages and practices. The struggle against cultural subversion has proved difficult in view of the erosion of Africa’s traditional practices, rituals and heritages by the irresistible advances in modern technology.
Africa cannot and should not turn its back to modern technology. What it has to do is to use modern technology to promote its heritages in such a way that the people would attain spiritual freedom as a precondition to any kind of modern development. Africa cannot develop by ignoring its cultural heritages because they create a sense of cohesion, unity and purpose among the peoples. “Cultural heritage objects are symbolic. They represent identities in terms of culture and natural surroundings. Connection to and traditional activities around these objects create a sense of community.”
Objects of heritages are used alongside practices of heritage to shape our ideas about our past present and future. This is an indispensable mental precondition that could serve as the basis for Africa’s material development. Cultural symbolism in itself may not serve any purpose until it is put in the service of social development. On the other hand collecting and familiarizing cultural heritage for its own sake might not have any functional purpose like admiring art for art’s sake. Ours is a fast moving world and Africa is no doubt left behind in the global race for all-round development.
UNESCO as the UN agency entrusted with the registration and recognition of the world’s cultural heritages is also expected to create the conditions for the preservation of these cultural heritages, particularly in Africa where the financial resources and the skill and expertise such a task require are largely non-existent. The preservation of these heritages has long and short-term advantages in terms of creating economic values to African countries through tourism and travels. “Preserved heritage has become an anchor of the global tourism industry, a major contributor of economic value to local communities.”
The new generation of Africans particularly faces the task of preserving cultural heritages for posterity with the added bonus of discovering new sites and relics in addition to what past generations have achieved in this regard. to this end, UNESCO should not only be the registrar of new African cultural heritages but also the generator of economic value by subsidizing the growth of the tourism industry because not only culture is something that might disappear after a long time but also serve the present moment by not only creating awareness and cohesion among African communities but also real economic development without which conservation remains a hollow dream or an activity without vision or purpose.
Side by side with this, Africa should work hard to uncover it’s still hidden cultural gems. Ethiopia has not come forward with an intangible cultural heritage this year; but it does not mean that it has no more intangible heritages that it should bring forth at the next meeting of the UNESCO committee on intangible cultural heritages. It is therefore up to every African or Ethiopian to think of some cultural heritage that has the potential of meeting the criterion for consideration as an intangible heritage worthy of recognition.
Think of the Gurage culture of inset cultivation for instance. The culinary art of turning false banana as a drought resistant food source into edible item or its meticulous preparation as one of the most delicious Ethiopian cuisines may be worth contemplating. What if we try to take this cultural heritage to the next UNESCO meeting on tangible and intangible cultural heritages? Opera singing is not a new discovery for Italians because it has always been part and parcel of their heritage whereas the cuisine based on false banana (i.e, inset) must not only be something new but also magical or amazing to the world.
BY MULUGETA GUDETA
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 29 DECEMBER 2023
