UNESCO on Tuesday added Arabic calligraphy, a key tradition in the Arab and Islamic worlds, to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list. A total of 16 Muslim-majority countries, led by Saudi Arabia, presented the nomination to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which announced the listing on Twitter. "Arabic calligraphy is the artistic practice of handwriting Arabic script in a fluid manner to convey harmony, grace and beauty," UNESCO said on its website.

"The fluidity of Arabic script offers infinite possibilities, even within a single word, as letters can be stretched and transformed in numerous ways to create different motifs." Saudi Culture Minister Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan Al-Saud welcomed the decision and said it would "contribute to developing this cultural heritage", in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency. Abdelmajid Mahboub from the Saudi Heritage Preservation Society, which was involved in the proposal, said calligraphy "has always served as a symbol of the Arab-Muslim world".

But he lamented that "many people no longer write by hand due to technological advances", adding that the number of specialized Arab calligraphic artists had dropped sharply. The UNESCO listing "will certainly have a positive impact" on preserving the tradition, he added. According to the UNESCO website, intangible cultural heritage "is an important factor in maintaining cultural diversity in the face of growing globalization". Its importance "is not the cultural manifestation itself but rather the wealth of knowledge and skills that is transmitted through it from one generation to the next".

Congolese dance

Also, the United Nations' cultural agency UNESCO on Tuesday added the Congolese rumba dance to its intangible cultural heritage list, sparking delight in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Congo-Brazzaville. A UNESCO summit approved the two countries' joint application to add rumba to its Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list, where it joins Cuban rumba, the Central African Republic's polyphonic pygmy music and the drums of Burundi. DRC President Felix Tshisekedi welcomed the news "with joy and happiness" as citizens from both nations celebrated on social media.

"This cultural jewel unique to the two Congos is recognized for its universal value," Tshisekedi wrote on Twitter. "Rumba is our identity! Its international recognition is a source of pride and a treasure," said DRC culture minister Catherine Furaha. Specialists have located rumba's origins in the ancient central African kingdom of Kongo, where people practiced a dance called "Nkumba". The word means navel as performances involved a man and woman dancing with their navel opposite the other person's.

'National life'

Africans brought their music and culture across the Atlantic through the slave trade, eventually giving birth to jazz in North America and rumba in South America. Traders then brought the music back to Africa through records and guitars in more recent times. The modern version of rumba is 100 years old and symbolizes cities and bars, Andre Yoka Lye, a director at the DRC's national arts institute in the capital Kinshasa, told AFP.

Rumba has been marked by the political history of the two Congos before and after independence and is "present in all areas of national life", he added. It draws on nostalgia, cultural exchange, resistance, resilience and the sharing of pleasure through its flamboyant "sape" dress code, said Lye. "These treasures from Congo and exported throughout the world are part of our pride," DRC government spokesman Patrick Muyaya tweeted last week in anticipation of the announcement.

Rumba stars are occasionally controversial or mired in scandals. A French court on Monday convicted high-profile DRC performer Koffi Olomide of holding four of his former dancers against their will during tours. But the people of both countries say the dance lives on and hope its addition to UNESCO's list will give it greater fame even among Congolese. "It is our common duty to promote rumba," said the DRC's communications minister Muyaya. "We are the country of rumba, what will we make of it?" he asked.- AFP