Benefitting country(ies): Malawi

Overview:

The objective of this three-year project, implemented by the Malawi National Commission for UNESCO, is to contribute to the safeguarding of the ludodiversity of Malawi through informal learning and transmission of nine traditional games within practicing communities. The nine games were identified by practitioners in three regions of Malawi and included in an inventory of ludodiversity of Malawi in 2013, but the number of practitioners continues to decrease each year. The project thus aims to produce reference materials in the form of a guidebook and audio-visual documentaries with descriptions, rules and social functions for each of the nine traditional games. The materials will be based on consultations with communities that practice the games and with sports-development experts to achieve consensus on the rules to apply to each game. Furthermore, a draft curriculum will be developed to improve the Expressive Arts and Physical Education curriculum for teacher training, and the project will facilitate apprenticeships to allow 270 teachers and youth to acquire traditional game skills and to create their own teams, providing the appropriate tools and spaces for playing the traditional games. Other activities include the creation of seven national traditional games organisations and awareness-raising on the project and traditional games through media activities and festivals in the three regions of the country.

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