Symposium on inventorying intangible cultural heritage (Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia)
A two day symposium on inventorying intangible cultural Heritage in Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia was held at the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC) from 19-20 October, 2006 the symposium was jointly organized by the Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage, (ARCCH) the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and UNESCO office in Addis Ababa. A number of participants have presented papers at the symposium. The papers dealt with different aspects of intangible cultural heritages.
In an introductory remark, Ato Tesfaye Hailu, Department Head of Cultural Anthropology, ARCCH said it was for the second time that ARCCH and UNESCO jointly organized the symposium on intangible cultural heritage. Ato Tesfaye recalled that the first symposium was held in June 2005. He told the participants that the first symposium focused on awareness creation on intangible cultural heritage. “Participants of the first symposium discussed the conceptual and legal frameworks and exemplary forms of intangible cultural heritage,” he added.
Ato Tesfaye said the second symposium that was held on 19-20 October 2006 focused on methodological approach as to how to make national inventories in order to implement the 2003 convention for the safe-guarding of intangible cultural Heritage.
N.B. in October 2003, the general conference of UNESCO adopted the convention for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage. In the purpose of the 2003 convention, the following description of intangible cultural heritage was elaborated: The practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith that communities recognize as part of their cultural heritage. This cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity. To that definition was added an explicitly non-exhaustive list of domains in which the intangible cultural heritage manifests itself. Oral traditions, and expressions, including languages as a vehicle of the intangible cultural heritage; performing arts, social practices, rituals and festive events; knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe and traditional craftsmanship.
Ato Jara Haile-Mariam, Director General of ARCCH, said in a welcome address that more recently, the growing interest in connecting practices develop in the concerned fields and the common sense of vulnerability of the non-renewable asset that cultural heritage constitutes for the human family, national and international levels. Jara stressed that this current attention is a response to growing concern over the accelerated loss of that part of our cultural heritage- a heritage that can only be carried and transmitted by living human beings rather than through a legal or administrative system be applied to other types of heritages. According to Jara, a number of activities have been carried out so far in the efforts to resolve the just mentioned problems. One of these major activities constitutes the declaration of the 2003 convention for the safeguarding of the tangible cultural heritage by UNESCO and its ratification by member countries.
Ato Jara further said, “cognizant of the need to safeguard the country’s intangible cultural treasures, the FDRE government has given serious attention to the protection of these priceless treasures. The work of inventorying intangible cultural heritage is indeed very essential not only for a simple and mere preservation and safeguarding issues but also because it is difficult to exploit and translate their values in a way to support the socio-economic development efforts of the country which eventually foster the efforts being exerted to eradicate lingering poverty prevailing in countries like Ethiopia.
In conclusion Ato Jara pointed out that the Authority for research and conservation of cultural heritage has designed a nation-wide mid-term strategy to carry out inventory work on intangible cultural heritage. “In doing so, the authority will exert its maximum effort and do its level best more than ever before in realizing the objectives of the strategy.”
The Director of UNESCO in Addis Ababa, Mr. Auad Elhasan also said a few words at the opening of the symposium. He expressed his pleasure over the fact that Ethiopia has been one of the earliest countries to ratify the 2003 convention on intangible cultural heritage. Mr. Elhasan noted that intangible cultural heritage is under serious attack not only in Ethiopia but around the world. The intangible cultural heritage is under serious threat of being lost because of so many factors: the movement of people, globalization, the uniformity that is more and more characterizing the cultures, lifestyles and the economic activities and all walks of life around the world and because of the increasing urbanization. There are so many factors that constitute a real threat on intangible heritage which is the life in fact, the history, the whole being of mankind. If you lose it, you have lost something that is not replaceable at all.
The UNESCO Director said he was very pleased because the symposium was organized for participants from three of the Horn of Africa countries, Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti. Describing the Horn of Africa as “not an easy region,” he said while there are many attempts either at the IGAD level, and sub-regional level, or at the African Union level for integration apparently at the political level, it is still very difficult to integrate. We hope first to do it through culture which is again closer to peoples lives.
As indicated earlier, a number of participants presented papers to the symposium. The papers were after having been presented discussed extensively. Questions were raised and examined by the participants who were also experts in their respective areas of specialization.
Ato Tesfaye Hailu, Head of the Department of Cultural Heritage presented to the symposium a paper entitled “a survey of Intangible Heritage Inventories in Ethiopia.” Ato Tesfaye said the main objective of the survey is to identify bibliographic works, audiovisual documents, policy issues and institutional arrangement, inventory making and activities related with UNESCO as regards intangible heritage in Ethiopia. Through this survey it has been possible to identify the major activities of five regional states. Amhara, Tigrai, Harari, SNNP and Oromia as was indicated in the introduction. The survey is limited to only these five states due to financial and time constraints. An excerpts of Ato Tesfaye’s paper is presented below.
Inventorying
Inventory making and defining Intangible Cultural Heritage
The concept of intangible cultural heritage was not known for many government offices, and academic institutions which operate in the fields of humanities and social science research. However, the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, department of Sociology and Anthropology, Department of Ethiopian Languages and Literature, academy of Ethiopian languages, Authority for Research and conservation of Cultural Heritage had conducted a research on the current different domains of intangible cultural heritage. Of course, the research or inventory was not systematic by establishing domain by domain or region by region approach. Since the data is available, it is also possible to classify them into the new domains of intangible cultural heritage.
Along with these efforts of conducting research related with intangible cultural heritage, there have been also attempts by the Federal and regional governments to define the domains of intangible cultural heritage. In this respect, Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage has defined, intangible cultural heritage in the proclamation No. 209/2000. The Authority has also designed a medium-term strategy for 2008-2013 on the identification, safeguarding and promotion of Intangible Cultural Heritage through the national inventory.
Research undertaking on Intangible Cultural
Heritage at the Federal and Regional levels
At the Federal Level
The Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage is the Federal government office responsible for conducting research, safeguarding and promotion of intangible cultural heritage. The Authority has been conducting a research on the subject since 1976 on different forms of social practices of various ethnic groups in the country.
After the adoption of the convention for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2003, the Authority had created a new department of cultural anthropology inorder to implement the objectives of the convention. The department is organized into four research teams which operate in all domains of intangible cultural heritage, (Oral expressions, performing arts; social practices; indigenous knowledge and craftsmanship).
With this organizational structure the Authority has conducted a research on the social practices of Ari, Oida, Bench, Gumuz, Agew, Arsi-Oromo, Gurage ethnic groups; the Ashendaye traditional girl’s songs and the conflict resolution system of Gedeo and Guji Oromo. The research findings are published on the annual bilingual magazine of the authority. Other audiovisual recordings which include the tape; videocassette and photographs are documented at the authority’s central research documentation department.
At the Regional Level
The Authority for Research and conservation of Cultural Heritage in Cooperation with UNESCO office in Addis Ababa recently has made a survey on the status of inventory making of intangible cultural heritage in five Regional states and this finding is presented below.
Amhara State
The inventory making of Intangible Cultural Heritage by the Culture and Tourism Bureau in Amhara state is carried out in cooperation with the zonal and woreda offices and three major activities are undertaken. These are oral poetry collections, the identification of harmful traditional practices and a survey on ethno musicology.
With regard to the first major activity, 1400 oral poetries related to agricultural expirations are collected, organized, edited and are ready for publications. In addition, Oral poetries related to women are collected and are being organized and edited for future publication.
The oral poetries collected on agricultural activities characterize the farmers with positive and negative implications. The active and brave farmers are encouraged in the expression while that of the inactive farmers are discouraged. On the other hand the oral poetries on women reflect only the negative implications manifesting the inability and lower status of women in the society.
In connection with the second major activity the Regional Cultural Bureau has identified the main harmful traditional practices. These include:
1. Un necessary economic costs (for wedding, celebrations Saints day, memorial of the dead, celebration of holidays; Sedeka, Duea)
2. Number of holidays in the month/year
3. Laments and mournings (impacts—ill health, tire some, economic
wastage, losing working days)
4. Impacts on women (early marriage, sexual harassment, women
circumcision, loss of property ownership, work load).
In additional to these identifications the persuation activities are also carried out through the farmers conferences after thorough discussions and sharing of experiences about the advantages and disadvantages of the practices. The cultural bureau has reviewed the prevalence of the practices in specific areas of the Region and has found out that attitudinal changes to wards the practices are brought largely.
The third magoractivity of the Regional Cultural Bureau is a survey on Ethno-musicology. These include, the survey on cultural and spiritual values of the Qimant community; a survey on cultural musical instruments, closing and decoration; a survey on handicraft works of the Qimant community, In carrying out all these activities the Regional Cultural Bureau is faced with the problems of lack of attention to the sector, shortage of man power, finance and lack of training. If these limitations are fulfilled the Cultural Burea is expected to do more than what has been done so far.
Tigrai State
The inventory making of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Tigrai State is carried out by the Culture and Tourism Commission under the Trade, Investment and Transport Bureau and includes three major activities. These are collections and publications of oral expression, identifications of harmful traditional practices and survey of various social practices.
The Culture and Tourism commission of the Region has collected and published three books on tales, riddles and oral poetry. These different types of books are provided freely to the Education Bureau of the region in order to serve as a teaching material for children.
The commission has also made an attempt to identify the harmful traditional practices and thinking related to the economic costs, such as wedding, funeral, mourning, festive events, religious and public holidays. Due to these identifications and persuasive measures attitudinal and cultural changes towards these practices are brought about.
The survey of social practices is conducted in various forms and include the study of Ashendaye, cultural clothing, ornamentation, musical instrument, feeding, other cultural features, as well as the coronation system of the Axumite, and the conflict resolution system among the Enderta.
Therefore, the Culture and Tourism Commission of Tigrai State is highly involved in the collection and publication of Oral expressions, in conducting various researches on social practices of three ethnic groups found in the region (Tigrai, Kunama and Eurob) and also in producing seventeen unpublished monographs.
In carrying out all these activities, the commission is faced with the problems of research equipment (tape recorder, camera video-camera etc), finance and training. Thus, the Bureau is in need of the fulfillment of all these requirements for better performance and achievement in the sector for the future.
Harari State
The inventory making of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Harari State is carried out by the secretariat for the conservation of the Jegole Cultural Heritage and by the department of culture both belonging to the bureau for peoples organization, culture and social affairs in the Region.
The secretariat for the conservation of Jegol Cultural Heritage has done four major works in the nomination file submitted to UNESCO which enabled to be inscribed in the world Heritage List. These are:-
1. A research on Awoch (models of good personalities or memorials) of man made constructions, natural trees, cemeteries, non symbolic elements).
2. A research on Harari Mosques:- the study consists of the physical heritage, general characteristics, nomenclature, quarangai traditional school system (in which children could learn about their culture, time concept, study of lessons.
3. Harari Traditional Houses and Historical Buildings;- these include traditional houses and historical buildings within and outside of the wall such as Rambo, Teferi Mekonen, Mohamed, St. Savoir Church etc. Their history and functions, as well as their ages which are more than 100 years are briefly explained in the study.
4. The ancient walled city of Harar.
This category of study of deals with the historical background of the wall, villages, streets, historical naming of gates, market places as well as different expressions (sayings), songs etc about the wall. This part of the study reflects the integration of intangible domain with the tangible heritage. The other activities carried by the cultural department are the study of Shewalid, Mewlid, and children’s games. The department has also conducted an ethno musicological study in which 1000 CDS are collected in cooperation with the Embassy of France to Ethiopia.
In conducting all these activities the Bureau is faced with the problem of trained man power, finance, research equipment etc. The fulfillment of all these requirements is necessary for a better performance and out come.
SNNP State
The inventory making of intangible cultural heritage in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples State is carried out by the bureau for Information and Culture itself and each zone in the region. In this respect, the bureau had conducted and documented some relevant oral expressions and social practices and festive events. These include the proverbs of Hammer Ethnic group; oral poetries collected and compiled by the missionaries; the Konso generation grade (audiovisual documentation); Ethno-musicological festivals on some selected Ethnic groups for three consecutive years at the local, regional and federal levels. The Bureau has also documented the study of traditional and other stories in the koorete language by the koorete translation project with the technical assistance from SIL Ethiopia as well as the study of celebration of crucification holiday among the Gurage Ethnic group.
As we nave mentioned earlier, in this regions, the cultural research is also carried out by the zonal cultural offices and the writer had the opportunity to get relevant information on this issue from Sidama Zone Cultural Office. According to the information obtained from the Sidama Cultural Office, a research is conducted and documented on the proverbs, marriage system, conflict resolution, the Gada system, the fiche ceremony and on other social practices. A research programme is also scheduled on handicraft works for this fiscal year. It is assumed that a lot of work has been done on the subject in the remaining twelve zonal cultural offices and there should be a way to identify these works in the future.
Oromia State
The inventory making of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Oromia State is carried out by the Bureau for Culture and Tourism in cooperation with the zonal. and woreda cultural offices. The inventory includes the collections and publications of oral expressions as well as researches on social practices and rituals.
With regard to the oral expressions six books of oral poetry; one book of riddles are collected and published by the department of language and arts. The books are distributed to schools and colleges to be used as teaching materials.
On the other hand the bureau has also conducted research on Geda Institution for the purpose of preparing a nomination file for inscription. At present the bureau is also conducting a research on Dire Sheih Hussen and Sof Omer Cultural Landscape for the purpose of preparing a candidature file. In addition, the bureau has conducted a research on Erecha, attete and on harmful traditional practices, performing arts (folk music, dances).
In collecting the oral expressions and conducting a research on the above subjects, the shortages of man power, finance, logistics, etc are identified to be the major problems of the bureau.
by Melese Telahoun
In an introductory remark, Ato Tesfaye Hailu, Department Head of Cultural Anthropology, ARCCH said it was for the second time that ARCCH and UNESCO jointly organized the symposium on intangible cultural heritage. Ato Tesfaye recalled that the first symposium was held in June 2005. He told the participants that the first symposium focused on awareness creation on intangible cultural heritage. “Participants of the first symposium discussed the conceptual and legal frameworks and exemplary forms of intangible cultural heritage,” he added.
Ato Tesfaye said the second symposium that was held on 19-20 October 2006 focused on methodological approach as to how to make national inventories in order to implement the 2003 convention for the safe-guarding of intangible cultural Heritage.
N.B. in October 2003, the general conference of UNESCO adopted the convention for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage. In the purpose of the 2003 convention, the following description of intangible cultural heritage was elaborated: The practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith that communities recognize as part of their cultural heritage. This cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity. To that definition was added an explicitly non-exhaustive list of domains in which the intangible cultural heritage manifests itself. Oral traditions, and expressions, including languages as a vehicle of the intangible cultural heritage; performing arts, social practices, rituals and festive events; knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe and traditional craftsmanship.
Ato Jara Haile-Mariam, Director General of ARCCH, said in a welcome address that more recently, the growing interest in connecting practices develop in the concerned fields and the common sense of vulnerability of the non-renewable asset that cultural heritage constitutes for the human family, national and international levels. Jara stressed that this current attention is a response to growing concern over the accelerated loss of that part of our cultural heritage- a heritage that can only be carried and transmitted by living human beings rather than through a legal or administrative system be applied to other types of heritages. According to Jara, a number of activities have been carried out so far in the efforts to resolve the just mentioned problems. One of these major activities constitutes the declaration of the 2003 convention for the safeguarding of the tangible cultural heritage by UNESCO and its ratification by member countries.
Ato Jara further said, “cognizant of the need to safeguard the country’s intangible cultural treasures, the FDRE government has given serious attention to the protection of these priceless treasures. The work of inventorying intangible cultural heritage is indeed very essential not only for a simple and mere preservation and safeguarding issues but also because it is difficult to exploit and translate their values in a way to support the socio-economic development efforts of the country which eventually foster the efforts being exerted to eradicate lingering poverty prevailing in countries like Ethiopia.
In conclusion Ato Jara pointed out that the Authority for research and conservation of cultural heritage has designed a nation-wide mid-term strategy to carry out inventory work on intangible cultural heritage. “In doing so, the authority will exert its maximum effort and do its level best more than ever before in realizing the objectives of the strategy.”
The Director of UNESCO in Addis Ababa, Mr. Auad Elhasan also said a few words at the opening of the symposium. He expressed his pleasure over the fact that Ethiopia has been one of the earliest countries to ratify the 2003 convention on intangible cultural heritage. Mr. Elhasan noted that intangible cultural heritage is under serious attack not only in Ethiopia but around the world. The intangible cultural heritage is under serious threat of being lost because of so many factors: the movement of people, globalization, the uniformity that is more and more characterizing the cultures, lifestyles and the economic activities and all walks of life around the world and because of the increasing urbanization. There are so many factors that constitute a real threat on intangible heritage which is the life in fact, the history, the whole being of mankind. If you lose it, you have lost something that is not replaceable at all.
The UNESCO Director said he was very pleased because the symposium was organized for participants from three of the Horn of Africa countries, Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti. Describing the Horn of Africa as “not an easy region,” he said while there are many attempts either at the IGAD level, and sub-regional level, or at the African Union level for integration apparently at the political level, it is still very difficult to integrate. We hope first to do it through culture which is again closer to peoples lives.
As indicated earlier, a number of participants presented papers to the symposium. The papers were after having been presented discussed extensively. Questions were raised and examined by the participants who were also experts in their respective areas of specialization.
Ato Tesfaye Hailu, Head of the Department of Cultural Heritage presented to the symposium a paper entitled “a survey of Intangible Heritage Inventories in Ethiopia.” Ato Tesfaye said the main objective of the survey is to identify bibliographic works, audiovisual documents, policy issues and institutional arrangement, inventory making and activities related with UNESCO as regards intangible heritage in Ethiopia. Through this survey it has been possible to identify the major activities of five regional states. Amhara, Tigrai, Harari, SNNP and Oromia as was indicated in the introduction. The survey is limited to only these five states due to financial and time constraints. An excerpts of Ato Tesfaye’s paper is presented below.
Inventorying
Inventory making and defining Intangible Cultural Heritage
The concept of intangible cultural heritage was not known for many government offices, and academic institutions which operate in the fields of humanities and social science research. However, the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, department of Sociology and Anthropology, Department of Ethiopian Languages and Literature, academy of Ethiopian languages, Authority for Research and conservation of Cultural Heritage had conducted a research on the current different domains of intangible cultural heritage. Of course, the research or inventory was not systematic by establishing domain by domain or region by region approach. Since the data is available, it is also possible to classify them into the new domains of intangible cultural heritage.
Along with these efforts of conducting research related with intangible cultural heritage, there have been also attempts by the Federal and regional governments to define the domains of intangible cultural heritage. In this respect, Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage has defined, intangible cultural heritage in the proclamation No. 209/2000. The Authority has also designed a medium-term strategy for 2008-2013 on the identification, safeguarding and promotion of Intangible Cultural Heritage through the national inventory.
Research undertaking on Intangible Cultural
Heritage at the Federal and Regional levels
At the Federal Level
The Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage is the Federal government office responsible for conducting research, safeguarding and promotion of intangible cultural heritage. The Authority has been conducting a research on the subject since 1976 on different forms of social practices of various ethnic groups in the country.
After the adoption of the convention for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2003, the Authority had created a new department of cultural anthropology inorder to implement the objectives of the convention. The department is organized into four research teams which operate in all domains of intangible cultural heritage, (Oral expressions, performing arts; social practices; indigenous knowledge and craftsmanship).
With this organizational structure the Authority has conducted a research on the social practices of Ari, Oida, Bench, Gumuz, Agew, Arsi-Oromo, Gurage ethnic groups; the Ashendaye traditional girl’s songs and the conflict resolution system of Gedeo and Guji Oromo. The research findings are published on the annual bilingual magazine of the authority. Other audiovisual recordings which include the tape; videocassette and photographs are documented at the authority’s central research documentation department.
At the Regional Level
The Authority for Research and conservation of Cultural Heritage in Cooperation with UNESCO office in Addis Ababa recently has made a survey on the status of inventory making of intangible cultural heritage in five Regional states and this finding is presented below.
Amhara State
The inventory making of Intangible Cultural Heritage by the Culture and Tourism Bureau in Amhara state is carried out in cooperation with the zonal and woreda offices and three major activities are undertaken. These are oral poetry collections, the identification of harmful traditional practices and a survey on ethno musicology.
With regard to the first major activity, 1400 oral poetries related to agricultural expirations are collected, organized, edited and are ready for publications. In addition, Oral poetries related to women are collected and are being organized and edited for future publication.
The oral poetries collected on agricultural activities characterize the farmers with positive and negative implications. The active and brave farmers are encouraged in the expression while that of the inactive farmers are discouraged. On the other hand the oral poetries on women reflect only the negative implications manifesting the inability and lower status of women in the society.
In connection with the second major activity the Regional Cultural Bureau has identified the main harmful traditional practices. These include:
1. Un necessary economic costs (for wedding, celebrations Saints day, memorial of the dead, celebration of holidays; Sedeka, Duea)
2. Number of holidays in the month/year
3. Laments and mournings (impacts—ill health, tire some, economic
wastage, losing working days)
4. Impacts on women (early marriage, sexual harassment, women
circumcision, loss of property ownership, work load).
In additional to these identifications the persuation activities are also carried out through the farmers conferences after thorough discussions and sharing of experiences about the advantages and disadvantages of the practices. The cultural bureau has reviewed the prevalence of the practices in specific areas of the Region and has found out that attitudinal changes to wards the practices are brought largely.
The third magoractivity of the Regional Cultural Bureau is a survey on Ethno-musicology. These include, the survey on cultural and spiritual values of the Qimant community; a survey on cultural musical instruments, closing and decoration; a survey on handicraft works of the Qimant community, In carrying out all these activities the Regional Cultural Bureau is faced with the problems of lack of attention to the sector, shortage of man power, finance and lack of training. If these limitations are fulfilled the Cultural Burea is expected to do more than what has been done so far.
Tigrai State
The inventory making of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Tigrai State is carried out by the Culture and Tourism Commission under the Trade, Investment and Transport Bureau and includes three major activities. These are collections and publications of oral expression, identifications of harmful traditional practices and survey of various social practices.
The Culture and Tourism commission of the Region has collected and published three books on tales, riddles and oral poetry. These different types of books are provided freely to the Education Bureau of the region in order to serve as a teaching material for children.
The commission has also made an attempt to identify the harmful traditional practices and thinking related to the economic costs, such as wedding, funeral, mourning, festive events, religious and public holidays. Due to these identifications and persuasive measures attitudinal and cultural changes towards these practices are brought about.
The survey of social practices is conducted in various forms and include the study of Ashendaye, cultural clothing, ornamentation, musical instrument, feeding, other cultural features, as well as the coronation system of the Axumite, and the conflict resolution system among the Enderta.
Therefore, the Culture and Tourism Commission of Tigrai State is highly involved in the collection and publication of Oral expressions, in conducting various researches on social practices of three ethnic groups found in the region (Tigrai, Kunama and Eurob) and also in producing seventeen unpublished monographs.
In carrying out all these activities, the commission is faced with the problems of research equipment (tape recorder, camera video-camera etc), finance and training. Thus, the Bureau is in need of the fulfillment of all these requirements for better performance and achievement in the sector for the future.
Harari State
The inventory making of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Harari State is carried out by the secretariat for the conservation of the Jegole Cultural Heritage and by the department of culture both belonging to the bureau for peoples organization, culture and social affairs in the Region.
The secretariat for the conservation of Jegol Cultural Heritage has done four major works in the nomination file submitted to UNESCO which enabled to be inscribed in the world Heritage List. These are:-
1. A research on Awoch (models of good personalities or memorials) of man made constructions, natural trees, cemeteries, non symbolic elements).
2. A research on Harari Mosques:- the study consists of the physical heritage, general characteristics, nomenclature, quarangai traditional school system (in which children could learn about their culture, time concept, study of lessons.
3. Harari Traditional Houses and Historical Buildings;- these include traditional houses and historical buildings within and outside of the wall such as Rambo, Teferi Mekonen, Mohamed, St. Savoir Church etc. Their history and functions, as well as their ages which are more than 100 years are briefly explained in the study.
4. The ancient walled city of Harar.
This category of study of deals with the historical background of the wall, villages, streets, historical naming of gates, market places as well as different expressions (sayings), songs etc about the wall. This part of the study reflects the integration of intangible domain with the tangible heritage. The other activities carried by the cultural department are the study of Shewalid, Mewlid, and children’s games. The department has also conducted an ethno musicological study in which 1000 CDS are collected in cooperation with the Embassy of France to Ethiopia.
In conducting all these activities the Bureau is faced with the problem of trained man power, finance, research equipment etc. The fulfillment of all these requirements is necessary for a better performance and out come.
SNNP State
The inventory making of intangible cultural heritage in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples State is carried out by the bureau for Information and Culture itself and each zone in the region. In this respect, the bureau had conducted and documented some relevant oral expressions and social practices and festive events. These include the proverbs of Hammer Ethnic group; oral poetries collected and compiled by the missionaries; the Konso generation grade (audiovisual documentation); Ethno-musicological festivals on some selected Ethnic groups for three consecutive years at the local, regional and federal levels. The Bureau has also documented the study of traditional and other stories in the koorete language by the koorete translation project with the technical assistance from SIL Ethiopia as well as the study of celebration of crucification holiday among the Gurage Ethnic group.
As we nave mentioned earlier, in this regions, the cultural research is also carried out by the zonal cultural offices and the writer had the opportunity to get relevant information on this issue from Sidama Zone Cultural Office. According to the information obtained from the Sidama Cultural Office, a research is conducted and documented on the proverbs, marriage system, conflict resolution, the Gada system, the fiche ceremony and on other social practices. A research programme is also scheduled on handicraft works for this fiscal year. It is assumed that a lot of work has been done on the subject in the remaining twelve zonal cultural offices and there should be a way to identify these works in the future.
Oromia State
The inventory making of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Oromia State is carried out by the Bureau for Culture and Tourism in cooperation with the zonal. and woreda cultural offices. The inventory includes the collections and publications of oral expressions as well as researches on social practices and rituals.
With regard to the oral expressions six books of oral poetry; one book of riddles are collected and published by the department of language and arts. The books are distributed to schools and colleges to be used as teaching materials.
On the other hand the bureau has also conducted research on Geda Institution for the purpose of preparing a nomination file for inscription. At present the bureau is also conducting a research on Dire Sheih Hussen and Sof Omer Cultural Landscape for the purpose of preparing a candidature file. In addition, the bureau has conducted a research on Erecha, attete and on harmful traditional practices, performing arts (folk music, dances).
In collecting the oral expressions and conducting a research on the above subjects, the shortages of man power, finance, logistics, etc are identified to be the major problems of the bureau.
by Melese Telahoun
posted by Harar Connection at 10:59 AM
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