The University of Zambia denied on Wednesday that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is funding a degree program at the institution to train students in witchcraft.
Damaseke Chibale, a spokesman for the university said in a statement to the Lusaka Times, which previously reported that UNESCO was funding witchcraft studies at the school, said UNESCO is providing the university with $340,000 in funding to develop a degree program in Intangible Cultural Heritage studies connected to the organization’s Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage that was passed by the UNESCO General Conference in 2003.
“At that time, the international community recognized the need to raise awareness about cultural manifestations and expressions that until then had no legal or programmatic framework to protect them,” the organization explained.
The convention recognizes intangible heritage “such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe, and traditional craftsmanship knowledge and techniques.”
“Zambia, as a nation and a people, is rich in these intangible cultural heritage which include Gule Wa Mukulu and Makishi Dance, which were inscribed on the UNESCO Safeguarding List in 2006,” Chibale said.
While the practice of witchcraft is culturally embedded in Zambia, a landlocked country in south-central Africa with an estimated population of under 18 million people, it is also illegal.
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Source: Christian Post
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