Exciting times are ahead!  By January’s end, Antigua and Barbuda will be launching a first-of-its-kind mammoth project that will inventory, promote, and safeguard important elements of our cultural heritage.  

Cultural Advisor and the project’s manager, Dr. Hazra C. Medica, will be joined by Reginald Murphy CN, MBE, GOH, PhD, Antigua and Barbuda’s UNESCO National Commission Secretary-General, to guide the implementation of this crucial intersectoral and inter-ministerial project.

In 2020, the nation secured US$ 97,754, / EC$ 264,185.07 in funding from the highly competitive UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund for a 19-month-long project. The project title: Strengthening Capacities for the Implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in Antigua and Barbuda.  In the coming months, it will be referred to as “The ICH Project”.

Similar to the now-concluded UNESCO IFCD-sponsored project, the Antigua and Barbuda Cultural Industries Mapping Project, The ICH Project will create several firsts for the nation.   It will result in the nation’s first-ever national living heritage inventory/registry, with the input and involvement of communities across Antigua and Barbuda. The inventory/registry is meant to raise awareness of key living heritage elements, their viability status, and sustainable pathways to safeguard them.

There will also be a one-year Warri revival programme that will involve legendary Warri players, including Grandmaster Trevor Simon (CN), train five hundred and fifty (550) students and fifty (50) members of the business community, churches, community, and sports groups in the history and sport of playing Warri.

Warri is an African cultural retention whose survival undermines the amnesia thrust upon our enslaved African forebearers and their descendants. The skill of playing the game and the intricacies of making Warri boards has persisted through intergenerational transmission. In 1993, a Caribbean Beat Magazine article declared Antigua and Barbuda “the last bastion of Warri in the Caribbean”. Our players have long been highly visible internationally as world champions.

A typical Antiguan scene: Warri being played at the West Bus Station in St. Johns.

© Grandmaster Trevor Simon (CN)

 As a part of this programme, eighteen (18) young people— one group drawn from vocational programmes, and another from within our prison—will also receive training to create Warri boards for local purchase. This will allow for the transmission of the knowledge and continuity of the skills associated with making Warri boards, and allow greater public access to them.  

Competitively priced Warri boards will also ensure earning opportunities will arise for the newly trained artisans. Moreover, tree-planting exercises will be undertaken to increase the number of Caesalpinia Crista trees, the source of the seeds used in Warri.

Additionally, there will be a boatbuilding programme, in which six (6) selected youths will be trained by a traditional boatbuilder to build a tradition-inspired seaworthy vessel. The process will be thoroughly documented for posterity and public dissemination. The intention is to use the programme to elaborate localised occupation standards, certification, and curricula in the field and widen our youths’ maritime skills and the maritime opportunities available to them.

Traditional sailing boats were once built and used in large numbers in Antigua.  The backbone of commerce, they transported goods and people from the land to larger ships anchored in deeper water offshore. In the early years before automobiles and asphalt roads were established, they also transported produce from coastal areas around the island. Over the years several varieties were developed according to their intended function. But in general, the most common vessel type was the sloop. While larger vessels, such as schooners were built for long range trade and transportation, the smaller sloops were versatile, fast, and easy to handle.

Text courtesy Reginald Murphy CN, MBE, GOH, PhD.

Photos courtesy boatbuilder Mr. Alford Cochrane (who also appears in the foreground in the third photo).

Other components of the project will include diverse cultural exhibitions, the publication of a short book based on the Precision Centre’s cultural heritage documentary series, and a programme designed to teach youths traditional toy-making using recycled and indigenous materials.

The ICH Project originally meant for a 2022 launch and to span 19 months will be launched, with a revised timeline, by the end of January 2024.  It was formulated by Cultural Advisor, Dr. Hazra C. Medica, after eight months of consultations with representatives from the private, public, and civil sectors.  The project’s proposal was refined with assistance from the Heritage Department of the National Parks Authority—Reginald Murphy CN, MBE, GOH, PhD (now retired), Dr. Christopher Waters, and Desley Gardner (MA)—and (then) researcher in the Department of Culture, Mr. Anderson O’Marde.

The ICH Project is designed to address the urgent need, long voiced by the public, to safeguard important elements of our living heritage before they vanish. It will also bring to the forefront hitherto untapped economic activities and opportunities existing within our traditional knowledge, skills, and cultural heritage.

More to come!