It is a new year, but our mode of operating remains the same. We have recharged and are working steadfastly towards the main historic event of the nation’s UNESCO ICH-sponsored National Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Project.
That is, the creation of Antigua and Barbuda’s first ever Intangible Cultural Heritage Database, the key to re-invigorating our intangible cultural heritage. Look out for a comprehensive update on the ICH project and its history-making cultural database on January 30, 2026!
And, yes, the Warri Revival Program, the ICH safeguarding pilot exercise launched August 2025, will continue this year, venturing into more schools, and institutions in the private and civil sectors.
Since the launch of the Warri Revival Program, we have been getting many questions. Below are the top three along with our answers.
Question 1: Are the official UNESCO-sponsored Warri Revival Program boards for sale?
Answer: Sorry, no. The official Warri boards are not for sale. They are for the use of our Warri trainers in the training sessions designed to spread the knowledge and skill of Warri across Antigua and Barbuda. HOWEVER, we will soon be introducing Warri board-making training sessions for nineteen (19) youths in Antigua and Barbuda. Look out for more on that in our January 19th update.
Question2: Is there an age limit for participation in the Warri playing training sessions?
Answer: Well, let’s put it this way, so far, we have had trainees from five years old to 80 years plus-some-ABST old.
We have undertaken, and will continue conducting, training in schools, and with groups from the private and civil sectors. Want to book a group session/attend a training session? Please contact Mr. Trevor Simon of the Antigua and Barbuda Warri Academy (ABWA) at (268) 784-7172. The ABWA is the facilitator of the Warri Revival Program.
Question 3: When will the Warri Revival Program and all training come to an end?
Answer: An END? An END!! We do not use words like those around here. The UNESCO-funded portion of the program will end this year, but the Warri Revival Program is here to stay!
Stay tuned for our January 30th update!
Visit here in the meantime for an overview of the Warri Revival Program and the National ICH Project.
This just in! In a world of screens, swipes, and fancy video games, our young people are enthusiastically embracing our traditional mathematical board game, Warri. All thanks to the School Call Een phase of the Warri Revival Programme. Could this lead to higher maths scores in the future? Listen, as our youth speak out about Warri !
Warri 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀: Trevor “Simple” Simon, Terrance “Kambue” Charles, and Peter Derryck of 𝗔𝗕𝗪𝗔.
With the School Call Een phase of the Warri Revival Programme, repeating in school is a good thing! This phase features repeat training sessions at schools across Antigua, with sessions in Barbuda scheduled for late November.
The Warri Revival Programme, facilitated by ABWA, falls under the National ICH Project that is funded by the UNESCO ICH Fund and led by Cultural Advisor Dr. Hazra Medica.
One of the Revival Programme’s main goals is to 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. The programme has already surpassed its target number for adult participation and is well on track to meeting its target for youth engagement.
For its part, theICH Projectis 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. To learn more about the project, click here.
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.
Dr. Hazra C. MedicaReginald Murphy, CN, MBE, GOH, PhD
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.
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.
How about a little pop quiz? Topic: Our Cultural Heritage.
Are you able to easily guess/tell the “who”, the “what”, the “where”, and even the “when” in these pictures and videos featuring iconic places, creatives/people, and events?
(Clues are in the tags!)
Category: Iconic Creatives/People.Who,What, Where, and When?
Category: Iconic Places. What, and Where?
Category: Iconic Creatives/People. Who, and What?
Category: Iconic Creatives and Places. Who, What, Where, and When?
Category: Iconic Creatives. Who, What, and Where?
Category: Iconic People and Places. Who, What, and Where?
Do you remember when our beloved calypsonian Boldface would sing “when you na know, you jus na know”? (“When you do not know, you just do not know”.) These words now sit comfortably in our repertoire of proverbs. The year is still new. Our journey through the rest of it would benefit from remembering some other thought-provoking local proverbs. After all, where would we be without our proverbs and their meanings to help us make sense of the world and our resulting worldview? Let the remembering begin!
Put some distance between yourself and known danger.
Also, do not venture where you are not welcomed.
One rotten sheep will ‘poil de whole flock.
One bad person or thing can ruin or spoil everything around them/it.
Parson christen e pickney fus.
Everyone looks after their own interest or take care of their own first!
E mout sleep a dew.
A person who talks too much/without fear of consequences.
Two man-crab carn lib in de same hole.
There can only be one authority figure in a household. Two strong-willed individuals cannot exist under the same roof. (One would have to pack a bag/suitcase and leave!)
