“The concept of heritage, promoted today by organisations dealing with the ’heritage industry’ from government departments to museums and cultural tourism organisations, has been constructed within the frame ofWestern consumer capitalism where ’culture’ is a part of the economy. Heritage is packaged, priced and sold to the public including the inheritors themselves.”

Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage ensures the continuity of cultural practices that tradition bearers recognise as invaluable. The UNESCO 2003 Convention offers the platform for selling these practices so as to, amongst different issues, foster wholesome relationships amongst nations which based on the conference, are known as state events/member states. In easy phrases, practices which can be flourishing and want continuity or extra recognition, after nomination and acceptance, are inscribed on the Representatives List for the nominating nation, whereas those which can be thought of endangered are inscribed on the Urgent Safeguarding List. According to Article 2 (UNESCO 2003) within the Texts of the Convention for Intangible Cultural Heritage; Intangible Cultural Heritage, means the practices, representations, expressions, information, abilities – in addition to the devices, objects, artefacts and cultural areas related therewith – that communities, teams and, in some instances, people recognise as a part of their cultural heritage.

This intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from technology to technology, is continually recreated by communities and teams in response to their surroundings, their interplay with nature and their historical past, and offers them with a way of identification and continuity, thus selling respect for cultural variety and human creativity. For this Convention, consideration might be given solely to such intangible cultural heritage as is appropriate with present worldwide human rights devices, in addition to with the necessities of mutual respect amongst communities, teams and people, and of sustainable improvement” and these practices can vary from oral traditions to performing arts, social practices, conventional craftsmanship and many others.

Having established the meanings and foundations for Intangible Cultural Heritage, I proceed to the core of this paper, to acceptable and focus on, as talked about above by anthropologists Gore and Grau, the “Western consumer capitalism” evident within the UNESCO 2003 ICH Convention, with particular reference to Nigeria, particularly with the usage of language in a few of her inscribed practices.

According to the principles set out within the Convention, the nomination varieties submitted to UNESCO by nominating nations should be in French or English. In my view, this requirement has colonial undertones so far as safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage is anxious as a result of it assumes a degree of privilege, prominence, and common acceptance of those chosen languages over others.

An identical instance to this language privilege by UNESCO ICH Convention is the prominence and commodification of sure colonial languages that additionally exist in academia. To be accepted to review in most universities overseas, particularly within the United Kingdom, Canada or the United States of America, as a Nigerian, even with Nigeria being a former British colony, the place the English language is the official language of educating and studying throughout all tutorial levels from main to tertiary schooling and English language can also be the one widespread language spoken throughout all ethnic teams, I’m nonetheless required to write down an English Language pro-ficiency check of about or over 200 Euros. This additionally applies to many different African college students who wish to examine overseas, a check of competence within the tutorial language of instruction judged by the extent of Listening, Writing, Reading and Speaking.

Appropriating this expertise of language proficiency into the Heritage trade, the identical degree of language scrutiny I and my different African colleagues obtain overseas was not applied for the video recordsdata within the first two inscriptions of Nigeria’s Representatives Lists on the UNESCO 2003 Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention.

The narrations on the YouTube video recordsdata (UNESCO, 2009) connected to the inscription for Nigeria’s objects “Oral Heritage of Gèlèdé” and “Ifá Divination Systems” weren’t achieved by an indigene. These practices had been initially proclaimed in 2001 and 2005 respectively, earlier than being included into the Representative’s List in 2008. The “Ifá Divination Systems” was inscribed by Nigeria on its Representatives List of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List, whereas the “Oral Heritage of the Gèlèdé” was collectively inscribed by Nigeria, Togo and the Benin Republic as a result of all three nations have the identical follow.

Nigeria is a rustic wealthy in oral traditions, so I discover it ironical {that a} foreigner needed to do the voice-over of a follow inscribed for Nigeria. Is there no certified Nigerian, particularly a tradition bearer from the group the place the follow(s) are from, who’s proficient sufficient in each English and Yoruba Language who might have recorded the voice-over? The requirement that the texts that must be submitted for the nomination must be in English or French is already problematic, though, there might also be a compelling argument concerning the practicality of this resolution that UNESCO might not have the capability to cope with lots of of various languages from nominating nations. In the above talked about YouTube video recordsdata, most of what was spoken had been in English however there have been sure Yoruba phrases the narrator needed to pronounce and the pronunciations of those key phrases weren’t sufficiently articulated within the tonality of the Yoruba language and the Yoruba talking group. According to Chanta-Martin, ‘Yoruba like many other African and Asian ethnic languages is characterised by multiple tones and monosyllabic words. That means a specific word has a different meaning depending on how it is intonated’.

For instance:
• igbá calabash
• ìgbà time
• igba 200
To additional buttress Chanta-Martin’s declare, I might spotlight a number of the phrases pronounced by the narrator of each inscriptions. The narrator’s pronunciation ofwords like, “Ifá, Babaláwo, Òrúnmìlà, Odù, Gèlèdé, Ìyá-nlá,” are innacurate. For the advantage of non-native Yoruba students or readers, the musical intonations within the Yoruba language might be defined with the European tonic sol-fa (DO RE MI FA SO LA TI DO) in music and we are able to give attention to simply the primary three, (d-r-m/do-re-mi). In the Yoruba language, these three are symbolised otherwise on high of vowel sounds, similar for higher and decrease case.
• d is symbolised as [à è ì ò ù]
• r has no image [a e i o u]
• m is symbolised as the alternative of d / [á é í ó ú]
For higher readability for non-native readers we are able to have a look at extra examples with additional reference to Chanta- Martin’s (ibid) examples:
• i-gbá [r-m] calabash
• ì-gbà [d-d] time
• i-gba [r-r] 200
The phrases poorly intonated and inaccurately pronounced by the narrator are:
• I-fá [r-m]
• Ba-ba-lá-wo [r-r-m-r]
• Ò-rún-mì-là [d-m-d-d]
• O-dù [r-d]
• Gè-lè-dé [d-d-m]
• Ì-yá-nlá [d-m- m]

This element in image issues an excellent deal to the native speaker as a result of if the phrase ifá [r-m] is wrongly pronounced, it may sound as or imply ìfà [d-d]. The change within the image impacts the pronunciation and which means and on this case, the which means modifications from a “divination system” to “luck or fortune”. It is identical spelling however the symbols on the vowels are totally different, which modifications the which means. Another instance is the phrase ògùn [d-d] which suggests “medicine” and is totally different from ogun [r-r] which suggests “war” simply as they’re totally different from ogún [r-m] which is “property/inheritance”. To the Euro/American or different non-native readers, the complexity of accents and intonation might not imply a lot nevertheless it makes an enormous distinction to the tradition bearers, if certainly it’s their follow, it ought to be expressed precisely from their standpoint.

‘European colonising powers were ignorant of the complexity of the tribal compositions of Africa. They dealt with each tribe in the same way that the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have dealt with African countries in the latter half of the 20th century one cap fits all, one medicine cures all’.

I might even argue additional about Omotosho’s declare, to say that what he posits in previous tense with the phrase “were ignorant” in his above quote, nonetheless exist in current day dealings. There continues to be this ignorance concerning the complexities of the African composition by Euro/Americans in geography, politics, heritage, and academia in addition to on a regular basis life or as I prefer to name it a “crisis of consciousness.”

However, after a current trade with Emeritus Professor Egil Bakka, about this paper, he wrote to me yesterday and mentioned ‘as far as I remember the video is the responsibility of the nominating country. I remember that when we evaluated nominations, we would sometimes advise the nominators to use the practitioners for the voice-over, and have the translation in subtitles’.

This dialog with Professor Egil Bakka made me realised that other than predictably arguing colonial ignorance or misappropriation which is one aspect of the coin, it is necessary, particularly on this context, to know that the opposite a part of this argument is the colonial perspective of African nations like Nigeria. African states also needs to detach from this colonial perspective and be “conscious of this crisis” by decolonising their minds and champion their very own heritage and linguistic rights.

If anybody ought to concentrate on the ethnic complexities of Nigeria, or any nation for that matter, it ought to be the nation itself. Narratives about tradition ought to be informed by those that belong to that tradition. In the examples talked about above, I referred earlier to the narrator as a foreigner as a result of it’s apparent in his accent and intonation. However, within the context of the analysed inscriptions, not all Nigerians will qualify as an indigene. For these inscriptions even a narrator from Northern Nigeria that speaks Hausa/Fulani as a mom tongue or a Nigerian from the East that speaks Igbo as mom tongue should fall within the categorization or classification of “foreigner” though they’re Nigerians, they communicate a distinct language and will not do justice to the intonations of the Yoruba language. If such complexity exists inside Nigeria, think about utilizing somebody of Euro/American descent or accent. The mispronunciation of these phrases might have been averted if the narration had been achieved by a tradition bearer of Yoruba descent, with subtitles. As a Nigerian, it’s one factor to see a whole lot of linguistic, dressing, and cultural misrepresentations of Nigeria or the African continent in Hollywood motion pictures, it’s one other factor to see such lack of consideration to essential element on UNESCO Intangible Heritage narration representing the nation.

UNESCO’s intention, for Intangible Cultural Heritage is alleged to be very a lot located in the neighborhood or the tradition bearers and one ought to anticipate that there ought to be a degree of cultural correctness from States Parties/Member States and UNESCO within the nomination and inscriptions in addition to within the expressions of oral custom which incorporates the narration.

I conclude by revisiting the quote by Gore&Grau, from the start of this paper, that, based mostly on the YouTube video recordsdata analysed, these practices inscribed for my nation have been constructed inside the body of Western client capitalism, packaged, priced and bought to the inheritors by a overseas narrator. Although the movies used are precisely from the cultural practices inscribed, the one downside is the narrator. It is totally unacceptable that such was inscribed by Nigeria, Togo and Benin Republic. International universities pay a lot consideration to particulars of language proficiency as a requirement for admission, and UNESCO additionally insists on nominations to be submitted in English or French, the least element an inscribed follow by Nigeria, Togo and Benin Republic on the Representatives List of UNESCO 2003 Intangible Cultural Heritage deserves is to not be poorly articulated and narrated when the roots of that follow have wealthy orators which can be educated and have a superb grasp of each English and Yoruba languages with educated individuals amongst the tradition bearers.

African nations particularly former British or French colonies ought to concentrate and do higher within the impartial improvement of their cultural practices particularly in areas of correct documentation, presentation and illustration of those cultural practices. African nations should not proceed to fall into the entice of whetting the western, institutional, heritage, financial, political, archaeological, scientific, anthropological, and historic urge for food which is deeply rooted of their colonial previous and nonetheless evident of their current colonial perspective.
• The authentic title of this piece from Adeniyi is, Decolonising African Heritage Practices: Matters Of Language And Tonality In The Inscriptions On UNESCO 2003 Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention.