With support from UNESCO and in collaboration with four universities (Kabale, Kyambogo, Nkozi and Islamic University In Uganda), the Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda (CCFU) is implementing a 2-year project to consolidate the teaching of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) education in the four universities. One of the components of this project is meant to support the universities to collect, document and archive ICH elements on digital/computerized platforms to facilitate research among university students.
Therefore, from 1st to 2nd August, 2024, CCFU facilitated a training for 8 university staff to equip them with relevant skills for documenting and archiving ICH elements through universities institutions’ repositories and libraries. The staff were further equipped with skills and knowledge to appreciate and promote the notion of cultural heritage. It was noted during the training the ICH archives will be one way to contribute to the safeguarding of ICH elements whether or not they are recognized at the international level.
The proposed ICH digitized archives shall enhance skills and knowledge in ICH safeguarding among university students by facilitating their interactions with ICH elements and their attendant communities. They will further strengthen the confidence of the learners to interact with ICH elements and support their safeguarding through research, documentation and publicity.
During her closing remarks, Ms. Mary Stella Apiyo who represented the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Uganda Martyrs University encouraged the participants to develop digital archives as a way of facilitate research in their respective universities.
Background
The Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda is implementing a 2nd phase of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) project supported by the UNESCO 2003 convention. The project – Consolidating the promotion of intangible cultural heritage education in institutions of higher learning in collaboration with bearer communities – is being implemented for the period of 24 months. The project builds on the achievements of a previous intervention aimed at raising awareness of the relevance of living heritage in Uganda’s current development context among the management and academic staff of four universities. The key achievement of the previous intervention was the introduction of a Bachelor of cultural heritage studies in four universities.