It is in Rabat, Morocco, that the 17th session of the UNESCO heritage committee has been held since Sunday. This committee decides to include traditions and music in the intangible cultural heritage of humanity. By Thursday, the 24 member countries will therefore study the applications submitted this year, there are 46 in all, three from countries on the African continent.
Zambia wishes to register in the heritage an old dance still practiced: the kalela dance, akalela in the local language. A practice born in the colonial era, in the 1950s in the province of Luapula.
The kalela refers to the world of the settlers by taking over the clothes and to the relations between the communities. It is practiced during funerals, harvest celebrations. Songs, drums thus illustrate daily life and today very modern lifestyles such as, for example, answering the telephone.
The harissa proposed by Tunisia
In Tunisia, it is a know-how, a culinary practice that the authorities wish to include in the intangible cultural heritage of humanity: Harissa. Sauce, mashed potatoes, crushed red peppers, then mixed with olive oil and spices: cumin, garlic in particular, an element that has become essential throughout the Maghreb to enhance the flavors of couscous and tajines. The Tunisian authorities therefore claim the paternity of the harissa which would have been invented in the 16th century.
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Rai again presented to the committee
Last candidate from the African continent: Algeria, which hopes to see raï music classified, protected by Unesco. In 2020, the authorities withdrew their candidacy stating “ a lack of elements “. Obviously the file has been consolidated, the quarrel with Morocco who also claimed authorship of this music is closed. Raï, born at the beginning of the 20th century, was modernized in the 1970s and 1980s in western Algeria, with Oran as its capital. Popular music par excellence, played at weddings, in discotheques, the word Raï has several translations: opinion », « advice », « thought “.
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