18 April 2008
Luanda — Angolan Government will endeavour to update with Unesco the list of the country's cultural and natural heritage, through campaigns, inventory and classification of existing assets.
This was said Friday in Luanda by the acting director of the National Institute of Cultural Patrimony, Ziva Domingos.
According to the official who announced the fact during the main event of the celebrations of the World Day of Monuments and Sites, the intention is to show to Unesco and to the international community the country's current effort in the field of culture.
The campaign, the source said, aims mainly at sensitising people on the World Heritage Convention concerning the preservation of cultural and natural assets, training of personnel on criteria for classification of the Cultural and Natural Patrimony, taking into account the Cultural Patrimony Law.
It is also intended to publicise the criteria of evaluation of the universal value, establishing a thorough inventory of the assets. The updating is also intended to be a supplementary argument with potential sponsors of the campaign in favour the Mbanza Kongo project as a Humanity Cultural Patrimony.
According to him, the Ministry of Culture has been reflecting on the preservation of the historical-cultural and natural patrimony and working on the correction of the indicative list that will be submitted to Unesco's World Cultural Patrimony Committee tasked with registering the items on the said list.
According to Ziva Domingos, the interest in consolidating and multiplying efforts towards the creation of a national and international synergy for the drafting of the indicative list, has led the Angolan Government, through the Ministry of Culture, to resort to Unesco for a technical advisory for its formulation.
The purpose of the update, the official said, is to include on the lists such cultural and natural assets as the Quedas de Kalandula (Kalandula Falls), Parques da Quissama and Kangandala (wildlife parks), Chitundu Hulu (paints and engravings), Tunda Vala and Serra da Leba (mountains), Mayombe Forest and ancient Mbanza Kongo city.
Ziva Domingos stated as well that the updating strategy will be fully implemented through a participative management that will imply the active participation of specialists and managers of the patrimony, as well as all local authorities, local communities and the civil society.
The actual indicative list of Angola's Cultural and Natural Patrimony with Unesco dates back to 1996 and is comprised in 90 percent by colonial cultural, religious and military items, representing churches and fortresses.
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