Celebrating the 4th edition of the Janjangbureh Kankurang Festival in the historic island of Janjangbure also known as McCarthy, the Honorable Minister of Tourism and Culture has used the event to once again dilate on importance of the Gambia’s cultural heritage to the national development as espoused in the National Development Plan.
Speaking on behalf of Honorable Hamat NK Bah at 2-days celebration of the held in the island, Hassoum Ceesay, Director General of NCAC described cultural heritage as the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations.
As described, this can be movable cultural heritage such as paintings, sculptures, coins, manuscripts and can also be immovable cultural heritage like monuments, archaeological sites, and can as well be underwater cultural heritage (UCH) such as shipwrecks, underwater ruins nd cities.
According to him, in 2005 Kankurang was listed under UNESCO Intangible Heritage of Humankind which means that The Gambia has particular obligations to respond as a host of such an inscription and also as a signatory to the 2003 UNESCO Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Therefore, “The Gambia has particular obligations to respond as a host of such an inscription and also as a signatory to the 2003 UNESCO Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Whatever, The Gambia can boost of richness in all these various areas of heritage because “we have our festivals, attires, foods and our traditional games. And also, our rituals like lip tattooing and ceremonies of life cycle such as naming ceremony, weddings, initiation and funerals,” he disclosed.