UNESCO empowers stakeholders to safeguard intangible cultural heritage through community-based inventory

Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) encompasses the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, and skills that communities recognize as part of their cultural heritage. Safeguarding ICH is crucial for maintaining cultural diversity and ensuring the transmission of these traditions to future generations. To this end, UNESCO Dar es Salaam Office, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Arts, and Sports, organized a comprehensive training program on community-based ICH inventorying which took place on 8 to 13 July 2024 in Bagamoyo.

Community-based inventorying is a participatory approach that involves local communities in identifying and documenting their own heritage. Twenty (20) participants took part in a week-long training, including cultural practitioners, representatives from cultural and community organizations, government officials from relevant departments, academics in the field of cultural heritage, NGOs working on cultural heritage preservation, and media professionals. The training was led by an international expert, Dr. Lovemore Mazibuko, with the support from the national expert, Dr. Maximilian Chami.

The training sought to equip stakeholders with the skills and knowledge needed to identify, document, and safeguard ICH and establishing a facility of experts and national trainers on ICH inventorying in Tanzania. Additionally, the program aimed to foster a sense of ownership and empowerment among communities by actively involving them in the inventory process, develop and implement a contextualized methodology for community-based ICH inventorying, and establish sustainable practices for ongoing ICH inventorying and safeguarding efforts.

The training on Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Community-Based Inventorying provided a comprehensive understanding of ICH and the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The workshop began with an introduction to the concept of ICH, explaining the purpose and significance of the Convention, and defining what constitutes ICH.