On the occasion of the 10th General Assembly Meeting of the 2003 Convention on Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France, the Minister for Tourism, Arts, and Culture, Hon. Andrew Egyapa Mercer made a call to safeguard our Intangible cultural heritage further as it drives sustainability and sustainable development.
Intangible Cultural Heritage refers to the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, and skills as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated with in addition to that, which communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognise as part of their cultural heritage. The listing of Kente as an ICH helps to popularise it further and increase the number of global patronages, creating a positive recognition of its fundamental importance globally.
Speaking on Ghana’s behalf at the general assembly, the Minister noted that the Government of Ghana has, with support from UNESCO, embarked on capacity-development programs and initiatives to document Ghana’s ICH. This has led to the development of an ICH register, from which Ghana has nominated one of the country’s idiosyncratic fabrics – Kente – to be listed on the UNESCO ICH List.
These ICH elements define us as a people, and they cannot be overlooked with the patronage in the global and national development discourse. Intangible cultural heritage undoubtedly drives sustainability and sustainable development, Hon. Mercer said. We are therefore looking forward to our first inscription on the representative list of intangible cultural heritage at the 19th session of the Intergovernmental Committee to be held in December 2024, in Paraguay, as we seek to preserve our heritage, he added.
The two-day meeting started on the 11th to the 12th of June 2024, seeing all member states expressing the commitment of their respective governments to the course.
