South Africa’s biggest-selling reggae artist the late Lucky Dube must have been on to something when he said that ‘nobody can stop reggae.’
The genre of music has won a spot on the United Nations’ list of global cultural treasures as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has today inscribed the reggae music of Jamaica on the intangible heritage list.
🔴 BREAKING#Reggae music of #Jamaica🇯🇲 has just been inscribed on the #IntangibleHeritage List! Congratulations! 👏
ℹ️ https://t.co/1SDzLr4U5F #LivingHeritage pic.twitter.com/7t1jkD2Z8n
— UNESCO (@UNESCO) November 29, 2018
UNESCO, the world body’s cultural and scientific agency, added the genre that originated in Jamaica to its collection of “intangible cultural heritage” deemed worthy of protection and promotion.
According to the definition provided by UNESCO, intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is made up of oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals and festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe, and traditional craftsmanship knowledge and techniques.
Some characteristics of ICH are that it is simultaneously traditional and contemporary, it is integrative and contributes to cultural identity, it is representative and transmitted from generation to generation and it is based on communities.
Reggae music’s “contribution to international discourse on issues of injustice, resistance, love and humanity underscores the dynamics of the element as being at once cerebral, socio-political, sensual and spiritual,” UNESCO said.
“While in its embryonic state Reggae music was the voice of the marginalised, the music is now played and embraced by a wide cross-section of society, including various genders, ethnic and religious groups.”
Jamaica applied for reggae’s inclusion on the list this year at a meeting of the UN agency on the island of Mauritius, where 40 proposals were under consideration.
Reggae music, whose chill, lilting grooves found international fame thanks to artists like Bob Marley, Lucky Dube and UB40 was competing for inclusion alongside Bahamian strawcraft, South Korean wrestling, Irish hurling and perfume making in the southern French city of Grasse.
The musical style joined a list of cultural traditions that includes the horsemanship of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, a Mongolian camel-coaxing ritual and Czech puppetry, and more than 300 other traditional practices spanning from boat-building and pilgrimages to cooking and dance.
Reggae emerged in the late 1960s out of Jamaica’s ska and rocksteady styles, also drawing influence from American jazz and blues.
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