Benefitting country(ies): Botswana
Overview:
Implemented by the Ministry of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture, this eighteen-month project aims to safeguard ‘Seperu folk dance and associated practices’, an element inscribed on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding in 2019. The element involves singing, dancing and sacred rituals which are significant in the life of the communities in the Chobe District. The knowledge bearers and practitioners have continued to diminish in number, thus affecting the element’s visibility, continuity and transmission. The traditional methods of transmission are found to have been undermined due to modern lifestyles or livelihood requirements which, for example, distort and decontextualize the significance of certain practices, lead to a lack of adherence to taboos or deprive school children of the opportunity to learn about the element. The main objectives of the project are, among others, to support the transmission of the element to younger generations and to implement a series of activities that will contribute to the implementation of the safeguarding plan established at the time of the inscription of the element. The project seeks to support initiatives, led by practitioners, including capacity-building workshops and the establishment of intangible cultural heritage village committees and district associations.