RABAT HOSTS THE 17TH UNESCO SESSION OF THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL COMMITTEE FOR THE SAFEGUARDING OF THE INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE. ITS WAS THE GREATEST INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL EVENT IN AFRICA IN 2022
From 28 November to 3 December 2022, Rabat, the capital of the government of the Kingdom of Morocco hosted the 17th UNESCO Session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (SICSICH). An annual gathering, the SICSICH is the major event during which UNESCO announces to the world the list of immaterial cultural creations of the human brain that it deems fit to be preserved for the enrichment of humanity.
An internal UNESCO committee selects the creations that countries of any continent had submitted. Here are the governments that make up the current committee: Angola, Bangladesh, Botswana, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Czechia, Ethiopia, Germany, India, Malaysia, Mauritania, Morocco, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Republic of Korea, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Uzbekistan, and Viet Nam.
To start, what is an “intangible cultural heritage”? Meeting in Paris from 29 September to 17 October 2003 during its 32nd session, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) adopted a text titled “Text of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.” That text’s second article defines the intangible cultural heritage:
“The “intangible cultural heritage” means the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage….
