It may be an important day for the French baguette, the Algerian raï music or even the Serbian plum brandy. UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Committee is examining 56 applications for registration in Morocco this week.
The list must pay homage to the traditions, practices and know-how to be safeguarded: The results will be published on the Twitter accounts of Unesco from Tuesday afternoon.
Among the most prominent files: the baguette (France), the popular raï song (Algeria), fairgrounds (France and Belgium), the culture of “chaï/thé” (Azerbaijan and Turkey), the techniques traditional ways of processing tea (China), rubab, lute from Central Asia (Iran/Tajikistan/Afghanistan), slivovitz, plum brandy from Serbia, light rum (Cuba), or even the know-how and culinary practices around harissa, the traditional Tunisian condiment.
“It is living heritage. The big difference between this list of intangible heritage and the list of world (tangible) heritage is that here it is communities that are represented and who are the protagonists of this safeguarding“, explained to AFP Ernesto Ottone, deputy director general for culture of UNESCO.
Thereby an intangible heritage can be shared between several countriesas in 2020 the listing of couscous had been the result of a joint application by four North African countries: Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia.
Morocco’s ambassador to Unesco, Samir Addahre, regretted “not having been able to present a common file“with Algeria for raï, due to the breakdown of diplomatic relations between the two neighbors, but he said he hoped for other joint candidacies”when circumstances will one day improve“.
Adopted in October 2003 and ratified by 180 countries, the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage promotes the safeguarding of the knowledge and know-how necessary for traditional craftsmanship.