Local News

Lela Vernon sings it best with her hit mantra “Who Seh Kriol Noh Got No Kulcha” and this week, Belize is one of three countries selected to safeguard their intangible cultural heritage.  It is part of a Convention that Belize ratified in 2003 and currently in the country is a working group from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO office in Jamaica.  Their mission is to help Belize create an inventory of our cultural heritage. 

NIGEL ENCALADA, Director of the Institute for Social & Cultural Research

“Whether its folktales, whether it’s music, whether it’s dance, language, in all the forms and so what they have come to do is provide information one and the next step will be towards establishing the procedures for the implementation.  So later on this year it will be a week long workshop for cultural actors in Belize to look at the process involved in following through and identifying ICH in Belize and linking ICH once we identify them, these cultural forms, to development because really the idea is to find those cultural forms that exist and to see how it can lend itself to the development at other grass roots level.  It holds the view, it’s based on the philosophy that development and culture go together and that development can happen at grass roots level.  Now, the trick will be to find those persons who excel at what they do, who have the combination of skills but really it is not only the focus on the enabling environment for all cultural actors.”

According to the Director of the Institute for Social and Cultural Research, Nigel Encalada, this puts everyone in the picture, including the groups that are often times overshadowed by more pronounced ethnic cultures.

NIGEL ENCALADA, Director of the Institute for Social & Cultural Research

“All the cultural groups across the country have been invited.  What will happen is that the representatives of the cultural groups will then go to their membership and then inform them of what ICH is and what its intent is and then thereafter we will collectively sit down to look at the criteria for ICH and brain storm and look at whether or not the cultural forms that are being propose meet the standard and then at that point we put that on our list of things and then what we try to do is try and implement programs for the preservation for education publication research so that people become aware, nationally, of what these cultural forms are in the country and then it creates a sense of a more cohesive society.”

MARION ALI, Reporter

“And in that process will you as well look at the cultures that may not be as pronounced but they do exist here.  For instance, if I compare the Mennonites to the Garifuna people, we don’t know of a Mennonite dance, we don’t know of a Mennonite song but we know and we sing along to the Garifuna music as if it though pour anthem.”

NIGEL ENCALADA, Director of the Institute for Social & Cultural Research

“Yeah, but remember the thing about culture is that people express themselves in different ways but the one that is prominent in Belizean are the Garifuna cultural forms.  So every person, every culture group will have a place and will have a say in what is considered ICH.  It is not putting one over the other because we are a diverse nation and so there is no way we can promote and to say one group is superior to the other.”

The documenting of information on Belizean culture and all who have contributed to its diversity is something that the new initiative will look to NICH for assistance.  UNESCO will fund the project.