The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has inscribed the Sango Oyo Festival, a Yoruba traditional festival to celebrate Sango, the African god of thunder, on the list of World Heritage.
The body inscribed Sango Oyo Festival at the 2023 Eighteenth Session of the Intergovernmental Committee Convention For The Safeguarding Of The Intangible Cultural Heritage.
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Reacting to this development, Wasiu Olatubosun, the Oyo State Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, said this had ranked Oyo State, Nigeria among the countries of the World as a Giant in the Tourism Industry, and by extension, the Cultural Proliferation.
According to him, the next Sango Festival in Oyo Town which holds in August 2024, will be witnessed by over 2,000 International Tourists across 167 Countries of UNESCO.
Wasiu Olatubosun hinted at UNESCO Recognition of the festival during the last Sango Festival Celebration on August 19th this year is worth celebrating.
Olatubosun expressed optimism at this feat, saying “it is a beacon of expansion in the Economy Sector of the State, as well as unprecedented growth in the hospitality business, with the astronomical influx of Tourists in a space of time”.
The session, chaired by Mustaq Moorad, Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of the Republic of Botswana to UNESCO, was ongoing at Kasane, in the Republic of Botswana from Monday 4th to Saturday 9th December 2023.
“The Inscription of Sango Oyo Festival as a global recognition is a testament on the representative list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity by UNESCO”, according to the representative of the Honourable Minister of Arts and Culture and Creative Economy in Nigeria.
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Responding at the Convention, Paula Gomes, the Cultural Ambassador to The Alaafin of Oyo appreciated the recognition by the Committee for the nomination of the Sango Festival of Oyo, which had been in process for a decade, stressing the significance of Sango to the Throne of Alaafin, the Yoruba Kingdom and the Global Community.
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