LONDON, Dec 3 ― Songs, poems, instruments ... The UNESCO Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage has just added five new items to its list, all of which are characteristic of the identity of peoples who use music and other aspects of culture in their traditions. The countries in question are Colombia, Portugal, Mongolia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Uganda.

UNESCO added these five traditions to the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage In Need of Urgent Safeguarding. There are currently 43 items on that list.

Traditional music to be protected at all costs

The five countries which were inscribed on the UNESCO list all share the use of music as a vehicle for transmission. Colombia demonstrated the importance of its traditional Vallenato music, which is practiced in the Greater Magdalena region and is now under threat. This music “fuses cultural expressions from northern Colombia, songs of cow-herders from the Greater Magdalena region, chants of African slaves, Spanish poetry, dance from the indigenous people of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and European-style instruments.” It is played in the street during festivals and “parrandas” which bring together friends and family.

Portugal has a music tradition in the form of cowbells which has been put on the list. The techniques used in making these percussion instruments, which are traditionally used by shepherds to manage their livestock, are transmitted from father to son. “Yet the tradition is becoming unsustainable as new grazing methods, cheaper industrial techniques and fewer cowbell makers are leading to its demise,” warns UNESCO.

In Mongolia too, music helps people in their daily work. UNESCO decided to safeguard a ritual which consists of coaxing female camels to accept their newborns. The Mongolian people use fiddle or flute music to calm the animals. This ritual “is considered important for maintaining community ties, but is under threat from rural-urban migration and greater use of modern transport,” the agency says.

Asserting identity through singing

Music also soothes the nerves in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, where male two-part songs are sung in the Dolni-Polog region. The Glasoechko is sung during festivals, meetings, marriages, festive meals and other forms of social gathering.

In Uganda, the Koogere oral tradition combines songs with narratives and poems. It keeps alive the collective memory of the Basongora, Banyabindi and Batooro communities.

UNESCO also added three items to its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity: Algeria's Sbuâ annual pilgrimage by the Zenata communities in the Sahara, the summer solstice fire festivals in the Pyrenees in Andorra, France and Spain, and the filete porteño traditional painting technique in Buenos Aires, Argentina. ― AFP-Relaxnews