The UNESCO Concept of Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage: Its Background and Marrakchi Roots

In 1998 UNESCO started a programme for the proclamation of 'Masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity', a pre-project for the new UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Jemaa el Fna Square in Marrakech was one of the first Masterpieces proclaimed by UNESCO in 2001. This paper examines the genesis and history of this new UNESCO concept of safeguarding intangible heritage. The Spanish writer Juan Goytisolo gave the decisive impulse for the new UNESCO concept in 1996 in order to safeguard Jemaa el Fna Square in Marrakech. Worrying that contemporary plans of local authorities would definitely change the character of the square and destroy its cultural traditions, Goytisolo asked UNESCO to proclaim the square as 'oral heritage of humanity'. The wish to protect Jemaa el Fna Square on the one hand, and the existing Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage on the other, can be seen as two reference points for the new UNESCO concept.