UNESCO Deepens Nigeria’s Capacity to Protect Living Cultural Heritage as Safeguarding Effort Expands

By Simpson Global Media News Desk

Nigeria is strengthening its institutional capacity to protect and transmit living cultural traditions, following a UNESCO-supported workshop that brought government officials, cultural practitioners, civil society representatives and heritage specialists together to examine how communities can play a stronger role in safeguarding the country’s intangible cultural heritage.

The four-day capacity-building workshop, held from August 26 to 29, 2026, in Nasarawa State, focused on implementation of the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. UNESCO updated its report on the initiative on September 22, bringing the development back into focus as Nigeria continues efforts to document, promote and transmit cultural practices across generations.

The workshop involved 20 participants drawn from the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy, the National Institute for Cultural Orientation, the National Commission for UNESCO, cultural civil society organisations and other resource persons.

Rather than concentrating solely on preserving physical objects in museums, the programme focused on forms of heritage that live within communities: oral traditions, performing arts, rituals, social practices, traditional craftsmanship and bodies of knowledge passed from one generation to another.

The emphasis reflects a broader understanding of cultural heritage.

A cultural tradition can survive without being housed behind glass. It may exist in the songs performed at a ceremony, the knowledge of a traditional craftsperson, the techniques used to produce an object, the language used to transmit stories, the rituals surrounding a festival or the knowledge held by practitioners and community elders.

UNESCO's latest intervention places those people at the centre of preservation.

A Shift From Documentation to Living Practice

Nigeria currently has eight elements inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. They include the Durbar in Kano, Sango Festival of Oyo, Kwagh-Hir theatrical performance, Argungu International Fishing and Cultural Festival, Ijele masquerade, Oral Heritage of Gelede, Ifa divination system and the multinational element covering midwifery knowledge, skills and practices.

The country's first entries on the Representative List included the Oral Heritage of Gelede and Ifa divination system in 2008, followed by Ijele masquerade in 2009 and the Argungu International Fishing and Cultural Festival in 2016. Kwagh-Hir was inscribed in 2019, while Sango Festival of Oyo and the multinational midwifery tradition were added in 2023. Durbar in Kano followed in 2024.

The growing number of recognised elements demonstrates the breadth of Nigeria's cultural traditions, but UNESCO's latest intervention also underlines an important distinction: recognition is not the same thing as preservation.

Inscription on an international heritage list can increase visibility, attract research interest and strengthen cultural recognition, but the tradition itself must continue to be practised and transmitted.

That was one of the central messages communicated by the Minister of Arts, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy, Hannatu Musa Musawa, whose remarks were delivered at the workshop by the Director of International Cultural Services, Yohanna Envadu.

The minister stressed that the responsibility after recognition is to ensure that cultural elements remain living traditions within the communities that carry them.

This distinction has practical consequences.

A festival can be listed internationally but lose some of its traditional meaning if younger generations stop learning its practices.

A craft can be documented but disappear if there are no apprentices.

An oral tradition can be recorded but weaken if the language, social setting or community relationships through which it was transmitted disappear.

A traditional knowledge system can be recognised while the people who possess the knowledge struggle to maintain the institutions required to pass it on.

The workshop therefore focused on what happens between recognition and continuity.

Why Communities Are Central

UNESCO's 2003 Convention places communities and practitioners at the heart of efforts to safeguard intangible cultural heritage.

That approach differs from treating heritage as something that can simply be collected, stored and displayed.

Physical artefacts can often be conserved through controlled environmental conditions, restoration, cataloguing and museum storage.

Living heritage requires people.

A dance requires dancers.

A traditional performance requires performers and audiences.

A craft requires practitioners and apprentices.

An oral tradition requires people who remember, teach and retell it.

A ritual requires communities that continue to attach meaning to it.

A traditional knowledge system requires a mechanism through which knowledge can be passed from one generation to another.

UNESCO said the Nasarawa workshop was designed to help participants understand these practical dimensions and develop safeguarding approaches that respond to the needs and priorities of communities.

The implication for Nigeria is significant because cultural practices are distributed across hundreds of communities and different social environments.

Federal institutions can establish policy and documentation systems, but many of the actual custodians of cultural knowledge live far from national institutions.

Traditional authorities, local cultural organisations, practitioners, families, religious communities, artists, craftspeople and elders may possess knowledge that is not fully represented in formal institutional records.

Effective safeguarding therefore requires communication between those groups and government institutions.

Building Institutional Knowledge

The Nasarawa workshop brought together representatives from several Nigerian institutions with responsibilities connected to culture.

Among them were the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy, the National Institute for Cultural Orientation and the National Commission for UNESCO.

Cultural civil society organisations, including the People and Culture Protection Initiative, also participated alongside resource persons.

The combination is important because heritage safeguarding cuts across institutional boundaries.

A ministry can formulate policy.

A national institution can document traditions.

Universities can conduct research.

Museums can preserve associated materials.

Traditional institutions can provide community authority and knowledge.

Civil society organisations can work directly with practitioners.

State governments can support local festivals, cultural centres and training.

Communities themselves remain the custodians and active practitioners.

The workshop sought to improve understanding of how those different responsibilities can connect under the 2003 Convention.

For Nigeria, strengthening that institutional network could make it easier to identify cultural practices that require support before they face serious decline.

Community-Based Inventorying

One of the practical areas covered by the workshop was community-based inventorying.

An inventory is more than a list of cultural practices.

A useful inventory can help identify who practises a tradition, where it is practised, how knowledge is transmitted, what resources are required and what risks may threaten its continuity.

Community participation is particularly important because outside researchers may not have complete knowledge of a tradition.

A community may understand the meaning of a ceremony, the role of particular practitioners, the sequence of a ritual or the significance of a craft technique in ways that are difficult to capture from external observation alone.

UNESCO said the workshop explored approaches to inventorying that place communities and practitioners at the centre of safeguarding.

For Nigeria, that could create opportunities to strengthen documentation of traditions that have not yet received international recognition.

The country already has eight elements on UNESCO's Representative List, but UNESCO's own database also shows that additional Nigerian traditions are being considered.

The Amaseikumor Festival, Deity of Peace, and Ikeji Masquerade Festival are among the Nigerian elements identified as pending priority treatment on the UNESCO country page.

That means the safeguarding process is not limited to traditions that have already achieved international inscription.

Documentation and community engagement can also help establish a stronger foundation for future nominations.

Preparing Future Heritage Nominations

Another area covered during the workshop was the preparation of nomination files.

For a cultural tradition to be considered for inscription under UNESCO's intangible heritage framework, the nomination process requires documentation and evidence about the element, the community concerned and the safeguarding measures associated with it.

The workshop therefore provided participants with an opportunity to develop knowledge relevant to preparing such documentation.

However, nomination should not become the sole objective.

UNESCO's latest message is that safeguarding comes before and beyond listing.

A community should not have to wait for international recognition before efforts are made to preserve a tradition.

Indeed, the strength of a nomination may depend partly on whether the community is already involved in maintaining the practice and whether realistic safeguarding measures exist.

That makes community participation both a cultural principle and a practical component of heritage policy.

The Meaning of “Living Heritage”

The phrase living heritage captures a key idea in the latest UNESCO intervention.

Living heritage is not necessarily frozen in its oldest form.

Traditions can change.

Communities can adapt practices to new social circumstances.

Younger generations may introduce new interpretations.

Technology can influence how knowledge is transmitted.

Festivals may change in scale.

Craftspeople may experiment with materials or markets.

Performers may adapt presentation styles.

Such changes do not automatically mean that a tradition has ceased to be authentic.

The central question is whether the community continues to recognise, practise and transmit the heritage.

UNESCO's approach therefore emphasises viability — ensuring that cultural practices remain capable of being practised and transmitted rather than attempting to preserve them as completely static objects.

For Nigeria's cultural sector, that approach creates room for tradition and innovation to coexist.

Oral Traditions and Language

Oral traditions are particularly dependent on transmission.

Stories, songs, proverbs, praise poetry, historical accounts and specialised knowledge can be passed between generations through speech, performance and participation.

When fewer young people understand the language or social environment in which those traditions are transmitted, the chain can weaken.

Nigeria's cultural diversity makes the issue especially important.

The country's intangible heritage includes traditions connected to many linguistic and ethnic communities.

Safeguarding therefore involves not only recording content but also sustaining the social environments in which that content has meaning.

The UNESCO workshop's community-based approach recognises that distinction.

Documentation can preserve a record, but transmission keeps a tradition alive.

Traditional Craftsmanship

Traditional craftsmanship provides another example.

A finished object can be placed in a museum and preserved for decades.

But the knowledge required to make the object may disappear if the practitioners who understand the technique are not able to teach younger people.

Craft safeguarding therefore involves people as much as objects.

It can require apprenticeships, workshops, access to raw materials, markets for finished products and recognition of the knowledge held by experienced practitioners.

UNESCO includes traditional craftsmanship among the forms of intangible heritage that Nigeria's safeguarding efforts cover.

This creates an economic dimension to cultural preservation.

A craft tradition that generates sustainable income may provide stronger incentives for younger people to learn it.

At the same time, commercialisation must be handled carefully so that economic demand does not undermine the cultural meaning or integrity of the practice.

The objective is not simply to turn every tradition into a commercial product.

It is to create conditions under which communities can continue practising and transmitting their heritage.

Festivals as Living Institutions

Nigeria's recognised heritage elements include several festivals and performance traditions.

The Sango Festival of Oyo, for example, is recognised by UNESCO as part of Nigeria's intangible cultural heritage. UNESCO describes it as marking the beginning of the Yoruba traditional New Year in August and involving ancestral worship associated with Sango.

The Argungu International Fishing and Cultural Festival brings communities together around fishing and associated cultural activities in north-western Nigeria.

The Durbar in Kano involves a large procession featuring men on horseback and participants on foot and is associated with Eid celebrations.

These examples demonstrate how cultural heritage can exist simultaneously as ritual, performance, community gathering and public event.

Safeguarding such traditions therefore involves more than protecting costumes or ceremonial objects.

It requires maintaining the knowledge, skills, social relationships and community participation that make the events meaningful.

Traditional Knowledge and Education

Education can play an important role in that process.

If younger Nigerians encounter their cultural heritage only through textbooks or occasional museum visits, transmission may remain disconnected from everyday community practice.

By contrast, direct participation can allow young people to learn skills from practitioners.

That is consistent with the UNESCO approach, which emphasises communities and practitioners as central participants in safeguarding.

Schools, universities and cultural institutions can support this process through documentation, research, exhibitions, performances, workshops and community partnerships.

Universities can also provide spaces for researchers and practitioners to collaborate.

Such partnerships could help ensure that academic research does not simply extract information from communities but contributes to the preservation and transmission of the knowledge being studied.

The Role of Traditional Institutions

Traditional institutions can also be important partners.

In many Nigerian communities, cultural knowledge is linked to traditional authorities, family structures, guilds, age groups, religious institutions and community associations.

Their involvement can provide context that formal institutions may not possess.

The minister specifically encouraged stronger collaboration with traditional institutions, communities, state governments, cultural organisations, universities, researchers, practitioners and relevant agencies.

That broad partnership model recognises that no single institution can safeguard the full range of Nigeria's cultural heritage.

It also creates opportunities for states and local communities to develop their own safeguarding initiatives within a national framework.

State Governments and Local Action

Nigeria's federal structure means that many cultural practices are strongly connected to state and local institutions.

State governments can support cultural festivals, cultural centres, museums, local documentation projects and practitioner programmes.

They can also help create infrastructure for cultural events and provide financial or logistical support.

UNESCO's emphasis on cooperation with state governments reflects the importance of that local level.

For communities, local institutions may be easier to access than national agencies.

For policymakers, state-level engagement can also provide a mechanism for identifying cultural traditions that may not yet have national visibility.

The challenge will be maintaining coordination so that different programmes complement rather than duplicate one another.

Nigeria's Existing Heritage Record

Nigeria's eight elements on UNESCO's Representative List provide a useful picture of the country's cultural diversity.

They span religious and knowledge systems, masquerade traditions, theatre, festivals, community practices and professional knowledge.

The list includes:

• Ifa divination system

• Oral heritage of Gelede

• Ijele masquerade

• Argungu International Fishing and Cultural Festival

• Kwagh-Hir theatrical performance

• Sango Festival, Oyo

• Midwifery: knowledge, skills and practices

• Durbar in Kano.

The multinational midwifery element demonstrates another feature of intangible heritage recognition: some traditions cross national borders.

UNESCO's listing identifies the midwifery element as involving communities and practitioners across Colombia, Cyprus, Germany, Kyrgyzstan, Luxembourg, Nigeria, Slovenia and Togo.

Similarly, Oral Heritage of Gelede is listed as a multinational tradition involving Benin, Nigeria and Togo.

These examples show that cultural traditions do not always fit neatly within modern political boundaries.

The Importance of Transmission

Transmission is perhaps the most important word in the latest UNESCO intervention.

A tradition exists through continuity.

One generation learns from another.

A practitioner trains an apprentice.

Parents teach children.

Elders share stories.

Communities organise festivals.

Performers learn songs and movements.

Craftspeople teach techniques.

Knowledge is adapted while remaining connected to its cultural foundation.

When those transmission channels weaken, a tradition can become vulnerable.

UNESCO therefore says safeguarding should create conditions that enable living traditions to thrive and continue to be transmitted.

This places responsibility not only on cultural agencies but also on communities themselves.

Government can provide support.

Institutions can document.

Researchers can study.

Museums can preserve associated objects.

But communities remain central to the actual continuity of living heritage.

Digital Documentation Has a Role

Modern technology also provides new tools for safeguarding.

Audio and video recordings can document performances.

Digital databases can preserve information about practitioners and traditions.

Geographic mapping can help identify where cultural practices are maintained.

Online educational resources can provide access to documentation.

Digital archives can help researchers compare changes over time.

But digital documentation cannot replace living practice.

A recorded festival is not the same as a festival that continues to be held.

A video of a craft technique cannot by itself create new craftspeople.

A database of oral traditions cannot reproduce the community relationships through which knowledge is transmitted.

Technology is therefore most useful when it supports people rather than becoming a substitute for them.

That principle is consistent with UNESCO's emphasis on communities and practitioners.

Cultural Heritage and the Creative Economy

Safeguarding living heritage also intersects with Nigeria's expanding creative economy.

Traditional designs, music, performance, storytelling, fashion, craft and culinary knowledge can influence contemporary creative production.

Artists and designers may draw on traditional forms.

Filmmakers may incorporate historical narratives.

Musicians may use traditional instruments or rhythms.

Fashion designers may reinterpret indigenous textiles.

Tourism businesses may develop cultural experiences.

However, the relationship requires sensitivity.

Using cultural expressions commercially without proper recognition, community participation or respect for cultural meaning can create tensions.

The UNESCO framework's community-centred approach provides a basis for thinking about these relationships.

Communities should not simply be treated as sources of raw cultural material.

They should be participants in decisions about how their heritage is documented, promoted and used.

Heritage, Tourism and Local Economies

Cultural heritage can also support tourism when communities are involved and infrastructure is appropriate.

Festivals can attract visitors.

Museums can provide educational experiences.

Traditional crafts can create markets.

Historic locations can become cultural destinations.

Performances can generate employment.

But tourism can also create pressure if cultural practices are altered solely to satisfy visitors.

The objective of safeguarding is therefore not simply to maximise visitor numbers.

The priority is maintaining the cultural viability of the tradition while allowing communities to benefit from appropriate forms of public engagement and economic activity.

UNESCO's emphasis on community needs and priorities is relevant to this balance.

What the Workshop Could Change

The immediate outcome of the Nasarawa workshop is increased capacity among the participating cultural stakeholders.

The longer-term objective is to translate that knowledge into practical safeguarding measures.

UNESCO identified several areas for application: community-based inventorying, identifying heritage elements that require safeguarding, preparing nomination files and developing measures responsive to community needs.

The effectiveness of the initiative will therefore depend on what happens after the workshop.

Participants will need to apply the knowledge within their institutions and programmes.

Communities will need opportunities to participate.

State governments and traditional institutions will need to be engaged.

Researchers and universities can contribute documentation and analysis.

Cultural organisations can help with practitioner networks and public education.

The process is likely to require sustained coordination rather than a single intervention.

A Continuing UNESCO-Nigeria Partnership

The latest workshop is part of a broader UNESCO commitment to work with Nigeria on cultural heritage.

UNESCO said it remains committed to supporting the Nigerian government and partners in implementing the 2003 Convention and strengthening conditions for living traditions to continue.

UNESCO's project database also lists an ongoing capacity-building project focused on safeguarding and promoting intangible cultural heritage in Nigeria, with a stated implementation period from January 1, 2026, to December 31, 2027 and a budget of $10,000 under UNESCO's culture sector. The project is intended to build the capacity of national experts and institutions to support implementation of the 2003 Convention.

A separate UNESCO project covering natural and cultural heritage in Nigeria also runs from 2026 to 2027 and is designed to strengthen national expertise for implementation of the 1972 World Heritage Convention.

These projects indicate that capacity development is being approached as a continuing process rather than a single workshop.

Protecting Heritage Before It Becomes Vulnerable

One of the practical advantages of stronger inventories and community engagement is the possibility of identifying risks earlier.

A cultural practice may face pressure from urbanisation.

A craft may lose apprentices.

A festival may experience declining participation.

A traditional language may become less widely spoken.

Raw materials required for a craft may become scarce.

Economic pressures may force practitioners into other occupations.

Migration may separate younger people from cultural institutions in their home communities.

Religious, social or environmental changes can also influence how traditions are practised.

Not every change threatens a tradition, but systematic documentation can help communities and institutions understand where support may be needed.

That is why safeguarding cannot begin only after a tradition is considered endangered.

Keeping Recognition Connected to Communities

Nigeria's growing list of internationally recognised cultural practices provides opportunities for visibility, tourism, research and cultural diplomacy.

But recognition can only have lasting meaning if communities remain able to practise and transmit the traditions.

UNESCO's latest message is therefore both institutional and community-focused.

The organisation is helping Nigerian stakeholders understand how to implement the 2003 Convention, while emphasising that safeguarding ultimately concerns people and communities.

Its report states that safeguarding intangible heritage is about supporting people to sustain the knowledge, skills, practices and expressions that form part of cultural identity and continuity.

That principle places a human dimension at the centre of heritage policy.

The objective is not simply to produce longer lists of recognised traditions.

It is to ensure that the people who carry those traditions can continue to practise them.

What Comes Next for Nigeria

The next phase will involve turning the capacity developed through the Nasarawa workshop into practical programmes.

That could include stronger inventories of cultural practices, identification of traditions requiring additional support, preparation of future nomination files and development of community-led safeguarding measures.

The process could also strengthen relationships between federal cultural institutions and state governments, traditional authorities, universities, practitioners and civil society.

Nigeria's existing eight UNESCO-inscribed elements provide an established foundation, while other traditions remain candidates for future consideration.

UNESCO's country information identifies additional Nigerian elements, including Amaseikumor Festival and Ikeji Masquerade Festival, as pending priority treatment.

The challenge will be ensuring that future nominations are accompanied by credible safeguarding plans and meaningful participation by the communities concerned.

A Cultural Policy Built Around People

The latest UNESCO initiative offers a broader way of thinking about Nigeria's cultural heritage.

Heritage is not limited to monuments, museum collections or historical buildings.

It also includes knowledge that lives in people.

It includes songs remembered by elders.

It includes performances learned by younger artists.

It includes craft techniques passed between generations.

It includes festivals that bring communities together.

It includes traditional knowledge about childbirth, food, craftsmanship, rituals and social practices.

It includes the stories communities tell about themselves.

Protecting those forms of heritage requires a different type of cultural policy — one that invests in people, skills, documentation, education and community institutions.

The Nasarawa workshop was designed around that principle.

Beyond the Workshop

The significance of the initiative will ultimately be measured outside the conference room.

It will be seen when a young practitioner learns a traditional craft from an experienced artisan.

It will be seen when a community documents its cultural practices before important knowledge disappears.

It will be seen when researchers work with communities rather than simply studying them from outside.

It will be seen when cultural institutions create opportunities for traditional knowledge holders to teach.

It will be seen when festivals remain meaningful to the communities that organise them.

And it will be seen when Nigeria's internationally recognised heritage continues to be practised rather than existing only as documentation.

UNESCO's latest report makes clear that inscription is only one stage of the process. The continuing task is to maintain the conditions that allow heritage to remain alive.

For Nigeria, with eight elements already on the Representative List and a much larger landscape of cultural traditions beyond those internationally recognised, the scale of that responsibility is considerable.

The country possesses an extensive network of cultural knowledge, practices and expressions.

The question is how effectively that knowledge can be transferred to future generations while allowing communities to adapt their traditions to changing circumstances.

Preserving the Past by Supporting the Present

The latest UNESCO intervention ultimately reframes cultural preservation as a present-day development responsibility.

The traditions Nigeria seeks to safeguard are not only memories of the past.

They are practices carried out by people today.

They can provide opportunities for education, research, artistic expression, community cohesion and, where appropriate, economic activity.

But their survival depends on whether the people who carry them have the capacity and opportunity to continue.

That is why the workshop's focus on community-based safeguarding is significant.

Rather than treating cultural heritage as something that exists independently of its custodians, the approach recognises the custodians as essential to its survival.

The 2003 Convention provides the international framework.

Nigerian institutions provide policy and administrative support.

Researchers and cultural organisations contribute expertise.

Traditional institutions provide community knowledge and authority.

State governments can support local implementation.

But the final link remains the community.

If knowledge is transmitted, the tradition remains alive.

If practitioners continue to teach, the skill survives.

If young people participate, the cultural chain continues.

If communities retain meaningful ownership of their heritage, recognition can become a foundation for continuity rather than an endpoint.

Nigeria's latest engagement with UNESCO is therefore not simply about adding more names to an international heritage register.

It is about building the capacity to ensure that the traditions already recognised — and the many more that remain outside international lists — continue to be practised, taught, adapted and transmitted.

As UNESCO's September 22 update makes clear, the central task is to strengthen the conditions in which living traditions can thrive.

For Nigeria, that means moving from documentation to transmission, from recognition to safeguarding, and from institutions alone to sustained community participation.

The country's cultural heritage ultimately remains strongest not when it is merely recorded, but when the people who carry it continue to live it.