Patricia Green | Culture – intertwined with human DNA

“Culture is the DNA of our humanity,” said Lazare Eloundou Assomo, director of world heritage at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). This was echoed in deliberations at the recent UNESCO international conference, ‘Cultural Heritage in the 21st Century,’ June 2-6 in Naples, Italy. All endorsed community-centred and people-centred efforts to safeguard culture through the intersectionality of two UNESCO culture Conventions of 2003 and 1972.

Let us imagine that ‘Father’s Day’ was inscribed as a specific cultural practice and tradition under the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the ‘Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage’ (ICH). This day was inspired in 1909 by Sonora Smart Dodd, one of 14 children to honour her devoted and selfless single-parent William Jackson Smart, a US Civil War veteran who was twice widowered. Take this a step further, also to imagine that the house where this single-father raised his 14 children became listed as having outstanding universal value under the UNESCO 1972 convention concerning the ‘Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.’ These are the two cultural conventions that would transform Father’s Day with its living traditions (intangible heritage) of gifts and dinners, etc., interconnected with visits to the actual building where the idea was born (tangible heritage).

In Naples, I was an invited speaker in a session discussing both intangible cultural heritage also cultural and natural heritage examples from Latin America and the Caribbean, Pacific, Arab and Africa regions. As the conversation developed, global relatedness became evident. The ‘Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia’ inscribed 2011 on the cultural and natural heritage list had connectivity with the intangible cultural heritage 2015 inscription of the United Arab Emirates seven states plus Jordan ‘Arabic Coffee, a Symbol of Generosity’. How would we consider the Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee cultural landscape within this global context?

POIGNANT ISSUES

From the Pacific came the poignant issues of climate change in small island developing states (SIDS). Tuvalu is sinking, with predictions of more rapid deterioration over the next 25 years. There, living culture is directly intertwined with the tangible culture, as living museums that are disappearing. Are there similar climate change impacts in the Caribbean SIDS? The case of the island of Trinidad may serve as an example alongside Tuvalu.

The eastern coastline of Trinidad is directly on the Atlantic Sea, and is experiencing rapidly increasing coastal erosion, from wave action, storm surges, rising sea levels leading, to shoreline retreat. The main road collapsed, acres of the coconut estates have disappeared, and coastal monuments and architecture like the St Vincent Ferrer Roman Catholic church in Moruga are sinking into the receding shoreline. This area is where Columbus landed in 1498 on the third voyage of exploration. He planted the flag and the cross, birthing linkages of religious monuments and sites with intangible cultural heritage living practices such as ‘Parang’, Trinidad and Tobago’s Christmas Folk Music, and its famous ‘Trinidad Carnival,’ which culminates the night before Ash Wednesday.

The Africa region 1996 inscription by Niger was extended in 2024 when Burkina Faso and Benin enjoined to create a transboundary cultural and natural heritage property, the ‘W-Arly-Pendjari Complex.’ This is a natural heritage wildlife habitat. The World Heritage nomination dossier states that although there is no private ownership of this land and no inhabitants inside the complex, the surrounding buffer zone comprises villages with 200,000 people in Burkina Faso and 700,000 in Benin. This greatly underscores the need to involve the people and the whole community that must become aware of their own importance in such heritage environments.

In a similar manner is the 2024 South Africa ‘Human Rights, Liberation and Reconciliation: Nelson Mandela Legacy Site.’ It relates to South Africa’s political history in the 20th century and is based on the legacy of the collective community memory of key persons linked to the struggle against the apartheid state. These persons have now aged and the authentic voices are passing.

INTERESTING DISCUSSION

One interesting discussion emerged about transboundary nominations in the Africa region, that like the people, animals have traditionally moved across territories regardless of political boundaries and languages. Could it be that the discussions on interconnectedness should involve animal issues in addition to the people? In Jamaica, we are mindful that development has occurred and continues to expand in areas that are natural habitat for wildlife forcing them to seek refuge elsewhere. Yet, these animals often return to the areas of their original habitat. In April, we were deeply disturbed by the death of ten crocodiles trapped inside the treatment ponds at a development sewerage complex, including mothers with eggs in their wombs. This had become the refuge and home for some development-displaced crocodiles, although there are crocodile sanctuaries on the island.

The urban setting requires special attention, especially in conflict environments. There is the engaging case study from the Arab region of the city of Aleppo in Syria, where analyses and investigations of community tangible and intangible heritage have presented that a vacant housing complex was owned by approximately 56 persons. This inevitably brings into focus issues of rights, and governmental intervention, including in the city of Kingston, Jamaica. Whose property is it? Restore, demolish, or redevelop the downtown Kingston garrison environment? What efforts are in place to redress community and people-centred conflict resolutions critical as a key theme globally in urban heritage practice?

I found African countries recognising Jamaica as having connectedness through culture and urban setting, in architecture and especially music. Discussions were invited for the interface and transferral of knowledge, skills and memory in both directions. Downtown Kingston has significant music heritage sites representing both intangible cultural heritage and tangible cultural heritage. Are there opportunities to use these for transnational linkages between the nations of Africa and Jamaica?

Interconnectedness spells a great way forward for cultural heritage globally. In Jamaica, the ‘Maroon Heritage of Moore Town’ became inscribed 2008 as intangible cultural heritage living practice. By 2015, the actual physical environment where this takes place, the ‘Blue and John Crow Mountains’ went on the UNESCO World Heritage List as cultural and natural heritage.

How many Jamaicans recognise this interconnection of global significance? ‘Reggae Music of Jamaica’ in 2018 became a global intangible cultural heritage. Currently, many are excited over the pending inscription of ‘The Archaeological Landscape of 17th Century Port Royal’ on the cultural and natural heritage UNESCO World Heritage List.

When this happens, would there be possibilities to connect the Port Royal site with Africa, adding reggae music? With Kingston inscribed in 2015 as a ‘UNESCO Creative City of Music’, it may be understood globally that culture is the DNA of Jamaica!

Patricia Green, PhD, a registered architect and conservationist, is an independent scholar and advocate for the built and natural environment. Send feedback to patgreen2008@gmail.com and columns@gleanerjm.com