By Iminza Keboge
Published May 25, 2018
A traditional celebratory dance performance from Kenya has been put on the list of intangible cultural hieritage and the East African country asked to make a report every four years on what it is doing to preserve the art.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) expects Kenya to make its first report on the Isukuti dance of Isukha and Idakho communities that live in Kakamega County in the western part of this former British colony on December 15, 2018 after the performance was placed on the ‘List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding’ in 2014.
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“When elements are inscribed on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding, the submitting State Party commits itself to take safeguarding measures aimed at strengthening the viability of the heritage concerned,” UNESCO says. “Four years after inscription, the State Party reports to the Committee on the current situation of the element, the effectiveness of the safeguarding measures it has implemented, and the challenges it has encountered, allowing the Committee, State Party and community concerned to monitor whether the inscription is achieving its goal of focusing attention and resources on heritage at risk so that it can continue to be practised and transmitted.”
Isukuti is a fast-paced, energetic and passionate dance accompanied by drumming and singing among the Isukha and Idakho clans of the larger Luyia nation.
The inscription by UNESCO says Isukuti is an “integral tool for cultural transmission and harmonious coexistence between families and communities [that] permeates most occasions and stages in life including childbirths, initiations, weddings, funerals, commemorations, inaugurations, religious festivities, sporting events and other public congregations.”
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Isukuti, the inscription says, “derives its name from the drums used in the performance, played in sets of three – a big, medium and small drum – and normally accompanied by an antelope horn and assorted metal rattles. A soloist leads the dance, singing thematic texts in tandem with the rhythm of the drumbeats and the steps of the dancers, arranged in separate rows for men and women.”
Noting that transmission of Isukuti dance is weakening and the frequency of performance diminishing, UNESCO expresses concern that “Many bearers [of Isukuti dance] are elderly and lack successors to whom they can pass on their knowledge.”
Diminishing financial resources and material to make the instruments and costumes; performers’ preference for contemporary entertainment by both performers and consumers are other challenges the Isukuti dance must overcome in order to survive.
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Meanwhile, Encounters South African International Documentary Festival returns, for the 20th year, with half of its serving of 40 movies not only directed by women but also focusing on women who have made an indelible mark on history.
The festival shall run in various venues around Johannesburg and Cape Town between May 31 and June 10, 2018.
The festival opens with WHISPERING TRUTH TO POWER that tracks Thuli Madonsela, South Africa’s first female Public Protector, as she builds her second case against erstwhile President Jacob Zuma. Through the story of Madonsela, her office and children, the film navigates the major forces at play in South Africa today, charting various contested lines in the dual battle against corruption and inequality.
“Post-apartheid South Africa has thrown out a messy and complex reality that we, here at home, are keen to confront,” says human rights lawyer Shameela Seedat of WHISPERING TRUTH TO POWER, her début as a moviemaker. “I am keen to bring another type of African character to the international documentary audience. A strong, super-lawyer-woman in a position of power.”
The festival takes place at the Labia, Nouveau V&A Waterfront and Bertha Movie House, Isivivana Centre in Khayelitsha in Cape Town and the Bioscope and Nouveau Rosebank in Johannesburg.
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