Egypt - Mauritania - Morocco - Sudan, Tunisia - Date palm, knowledge, skills, traditions and practices

The date palm has been connected to the regional population of the submitting States for centuries, serving both as the source of numerous associated crafts, professions and social and cultural traditions, customs and practices, and as a key form of nutrition. The date palm is an evergreen plant typically associated with dry climates, where the roots of the plant penetrate deeply into the earth in search of humidity. Bearers and practitioners include date palm farm owners, farmers who plant, nurture and irrigate the date palm offshoots, craftspeople who produce traditional products using various parts of the palm tree, date traders, creative individuals and performers of associated folkloric tales and poems. The Date palm, knowledge, skills, traditions and practices have played a pivotal role in strengthening the connection between people and the land in the Arab region, helping them face the challenges of the harsh desert environment. This historic relationship in the region and the element has produced a rich cultural heritage of related practices between people in the region, knowledge and skills maintained to this day. The cultural relevance and proliferation of the element over the centuries prove how committed the local communities are to sustaining it; this is achieved through collective participation in multiple date-palm related activities and numerous festive rituals, traditions and customs.

Burundi - Ritual dance of the royal drum

The ritual dance of the royal drum is a spectacle combining powerful, synchronized drumming with dancing, heroic poetry and traditional songs. The entire population of Burundi recognizes it as a fundamental part of its heritage and identity. The dance calls for at least a dozen or so drums, always in an odd number, arranged in a semicircle around a central drum. Several are beaten in a continuous rhythm, while the others keep to the beat set by the central drum. Two or three drummers then perform dances to the rhythm. The ritual drumming is performed during national or local feasts and to welcome important visitors, and is said to awaken the spirits of the ancestors and drive out evil spirits. Bearers are recruited from sanctuaries across the country, many of whom are the descendants of drum sanctuary guards. The ritual dance of the royal drum, the values it embodies and the specialized drum-making skills are passed down essentially through practice but also through formal education. Today, the ritual dance of the royal drum is an opportunity to transmit cultural, political and social messages, and a privileged means of bringing people of diverse generations and origins together, thereby encouraging unity and social cohesion.

Mali - Burkina Faso - Cote d'Ivoire - Cultural practices and expressions linked to the balafon of the Senufo communities of Mali, Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire

The balafon of the Senufo communities of Mali, Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire is a pentatonic xylophone, known locally as the ncegele. The ncegele is composed of eleven to twenty-one keys of varying lengths, made of wood, and arranged on a trapezoidal frame, also made of wood or bamboo. The instrument has calabash gourd resonators of varying sizes, arranged beneath the frame proportionally to the keys. The gourds are perforated and the holes are covered with spider’s egg-sac filaments to enhance the sound. The tuning of the ncegele is based on a division of the octave into five equal intervals, and the sounds are produced by striking the keys with wooden sticks with a rubber beater fitted to the end. Played solo or as part of an ensemble, the musical discourse of the balafon is based on a range of multiple rhythmic melodies. The ncegele provides entertainment during festivities, accompanies prayers in the parishes and in sacred woods, stimulates enthusiasm for work, punctuates funerary music and supports the teaching of value systems, traditions, beliefs, customary law, and rules of ethics governing society and the individual in day-to-day activities. The player first learns to play a children’s balafon, later moving on to full-size balafons, under the instruction of a teacher.

Botswana - Seperu folkdance and associated practices

The Seperu folkdance and associated practices involve singing, dancing and sacred rituals that are highly significant in the lives of Veekuhane community members. Seperu is a celebratory practice performed during ceremonies that mark important milestones in the community members’ lives. In the dance the women form a horseshoe, while male dancers face the women at the end of this horseshoe. The lead dancer uses a flywhisk to direct and choose the female dancer, while other members of the group imitate the sounds of a male dove. The selected female dancer then shows her dancing skills by reflecting the image of a peacock tail with her multi-layered dress (‘mushishi’). Although the Seperu folkdance is a key symbol of identity and pride for the Veehukane, its knowledge bearers and active practitioners have diminished in number, affecting its visibility and transmission to the younger generations. Currently, there are only 194 active practitioners, with twelve master practitioners, all of whom are over seventy years old. Traditional methods of transmission have been undermined by the distortion of the significance of the ‘mushishi’ garment, modern wedding ceremonies, current curricula in schools, and modernization, which has led community members to move to other districts of the country.

Botswana - Earthenware pottery-making skills in Botswana’s Kgatleng District

Earthenware pottery-making skills are practised among the Bakgatla ba Kgafela community in south-eastern Botswana. The women potters use clay soil, weathered sandstone, iron oxide, cow dung, water, wood and grass to make pots of different forms, designs and styles that relate to the traditional practices and beliefs of the community. Pots are used for storing beer, fermenting sorghum meal, fetching water, cooking, ancestral worship and traditional healing rituals. When collecting the soils, the master potter communicates with the ancestors through meditation so that she will be guided to the ideal spot. After collection the weathered sandstone and clay soil are pounded using a mortar and pestle, then sieved and the resulting powders mixed with water to form the clay body. The pots are slab-built, fashioned by hand into round, conical or oval shapes starting from the base and ending with the rim, and smoothed with a wooden paddle. Once decorated, the pots are fired in a pit kiln. Earthenware skills are transmitted to daughters and granddaughters through observation and practice. However, the practice is at risk of extinction because of the decreasing number of master potters, low prices for finished goods and the increasing use of mass-produced containers.

Kenya - Traditions and practices associated with the Kayas in the sacred forests of the Mijikenda

Mali - Sanké mon, collective fishing rite of the Sanké

Gambia - Senegal - Kankurang, Manding initiatory rite

Nigeria - Ifa divination system

Malawi - Mozambique - Zambia - Gule Wamkulu

Cote d'Ivoire - Gbofe of Afounkaha, the music of the transverse trumps of the Tagbana community

Zambia - Makishi masquerade

Zimbabwe - Mbende Jerusarema dance

Morocco - Moussem of Tan-Tan

Benin - Nigeria - Togo - Oral heritage of Gelede

The Gelede is performed by the Yoruba-Nago community that is spread over Benin, Nigeria and Togo. For more than a century, this ceremony has been performed to pay tribute to the primordial mother Iyà Nlà and to the role women play in the process of social organization and development of Yoruba society. The Gelede takes place every year after the harvests, at important events and during drought or epidemics and is characterized by carved masks, dances and chants, sung in the Yoruba language and retracing the history and myths of the Yoruba-Nago people. The ceremony usually takes place at night on a public square and the dancers prepare in a nearby house. The singers and the drummers are the first to appear. They are accompanied by an orchestra and followed by the masked dancers wearing splendid costumes. There is a great deal of preparatory craftwork involved, especially mask carving and costume making. The performances convey an oral heritage that blends epic and lyric verses, which employ a good deal of irony and mockery, supported by satirical masks. Figures of animals are often used, such as the serpent, a symbol of power, or the bird, the messenger of the “mothers”. The community is divided into groups of men and women led by a male and a female head. It is the only known masked society, which is also governed by women. Although the Gelede has nowadays adapted to a more patriarchal society, the oral heritage and dances can be considered as a testimony of the former matriarchal order. Technical development is resulting in a gradual loss of traditional know-how, and tourism is jeopardizing the Gelede by turning it into a folklore product. Nevertheless, the Gelede community shows great awareness of the value of their intangible heritage, which is reflected in the efforts put into the preparation work and in the growing number of participants.


Source: UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage

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Central African Republic - Polyphonic singing of the Aka Pygmies of Central Africa

Vanuatu - Vanuatu sand drawings

Malawi - Vimbuza healing dance

Mozambique - Woodcrafting knowledge of the Zafimaniry

Mali - Cultural space of the Yaaral and Degal

The cultural space of the Yaaral and the Degal encompasses the vast pastoral lands of the Peul of the inner Niger Delta. The Yaaral and the Degal festivities mark the crossing of the river at the time of the transhumance. Twice a year, herds of cattle cross the arid land of the Sahel and the flood plains of the inner Niger River. The festivities always take place on a Saturday, an auspicious day in popular Peul belief, and their exact date is determined according to the state of the pasture and the river level. These festivities give rise to varied cultural expressions. Competitions for the most beautifully decorated herd are organized. Herdsmen recite pastoral poems relating their adventures during the long months of trekking. Young women put on their finest clothes and jewellery to acclaim the herdsmen in song. These two events, dating back to the settlement of Peuls in the region around the fourteenth century, are the linchpins of the way of life of these people. The management of the pasturelands, the marking out of transhumance routes and the gathering of herds at specific points have improved the organization of the event and have resulted in larger crowds, turning these pastoral festivals into major events. Because they bring together representatives of all the ethnic and occupational groups in the Delta – Peul cattle-breeders, Marka or Nono rice-growers, Bambara millet-growers and Bozo fishermen – the Yaaral and the Degal continue to renew inter-community pacts and reinforce social cohesion. The strong attachment of the communities in the region to these festivities ensures their continuity, although they may be weakened by the rural exodus of the young and recurring droughts affecting the pastureland and the herds.