Africa-Press – Mauritius. At the opening of the Tambour Chagos School at Lisette Talate Centre in Pointe aux Sables, today, the Minister of Arts and Cultural Heritage, Mr Avinash Teeluck, highlighted the importance of keeping cultural heritage alive through the transmission, preservation, and promotion of cultural knowledge and practices.
The objective of the Tambour Chagos School is to protect, preserve, and convey to future generations the knowledge and practices of the Sega Tambour Chagos, including the performance of music, song and dance, so that the young generation does not lose the Chagossian roots and culture.
It is recalled that the Sega Tambour Chagos was inscribed in 2019 on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.
The opening ceremony was held in the presence of the Chairperson of the Chagossian Welfare Fund, Mr Olivier Bancoult; the Chairperson of the Nelson Mandela Centre for African Culture Trust Fund Board, Mr Jean-François Chaumière; the Chairperson of the National Heritage Fund, Mr Vijaye Anand Ramchurn; and other personalities.
In his address, Minister Teeluck affirmed that cultural heritage should be transmitted from generation to generation as it provides a sense of identity and a rootedness.
He thus lauded the joint initiative of the National Heritage Fund, the Nelson Mandela Centre for African Culture, and the Chagossian Welfare Fund to set up a Tambour Chagos School.
This endeavour, he stressed, adds to the safeguarding efforts of the Ministry of Arts and Cultural Heritage, in line with UNESCO’s guidelines of raising awareness on the importance of intangible cultural heritage at the local and national level.
Saluting the fighting spirit of the Chagossians, Mr Teeluck reaffirmed Government’s commitment and support to retrieve the Chagos Archipelago. He also spoke of the expectations of travelling to the Chagos Archipelago next year.
The Minister added that talks would be held soon on the possibility of dedicating a space in the Intercontinental Slavery Museum to Chagossian history.
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