ALGIERS- The Ministry of Culture and the Arts has announced that it has submitted a request to UNESCO for the registration of the file “Female costume for ceremonies in the great East of Algeria: knowledge and know-how associated with the making and adornment of the gandoura and the melehfa” on the representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity, said a press release from the ministry on Monday.
“On March 31, the ministry submitted to UNESCO the request for registration of this file, whose preparation in the field dates back to May 2022”, reads the press release, which specifies that “the departments of culture and the arts, the cultural and museum establishments under supervision, specialized experts, university researchers, craftsmen, traditional jewelery making and manufacturing workshops and civil society associations were mobilized to prepare this file, with the coordination of the National Center for Prehistoric, Anthropological and Historical Research (CNRPAH)”.
The file includes all the constituent elements of the female ceremonial costume and the associated ornaments in the great East of Algeria (gandoura, caftan, lqat, qwiyet, elhaf, melehfa, saroual, edkhila, mandil, guenour and hzam) embroidered using the technique of thread gold elmejboud, elfetla, tell and perlage. There are also silver and gold jewels like the chechia soltani, the djebine, Khit Errouh, Menagach (earrings), Mechref, etc. .
This proposal comes after the inscription in 2012 by UNESCO of the traditional wedding costume “the Chedda” from Tlemcen and the pieces and accessories that accompany it, on the representative list of the intangible heritage of humanity, being a luxury outfit historical and heritage value composed of twelve fully classified coherent pieces, including the blouza, the caftan, the hayek, the chechia and jewels like Khit Errouh.
In addition, the ministry affirmed to have finished the constitution of a “file for the proposal of 10 Algerian musical genres during the next session of UNESCO in 2024”, given that “the system in force at the level of this organization does not authorize the filing of more than one file each year and for each country”.
At the end of 2022, UNESCO inscribed the Algerian popular song Rai, with its different genres (Malhoun and Bedoui), on the representative list of the intangible heritage of humanity.
translated from APS
