Five Cape Verdean UNESCO heritage projects will be suspended in 2021 due to a lack of funding, which the government justifies by the parliament’s rejection of the proposal to increase the public debt ceiling.
According to official information from the Ministry of Culture and Creative Industries of Cabo Verde consulted today by Lusa, that sector will have a budget cut, which was not foreseen until now, of 112 million escudos (€1 million) in 2021, so the priority will be to focus on the conclusion of projects that were already underway and in the final phase.
These cuts include five projects for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), from the former concentration camp of Tarrafal, on the island of Santiago, but whose work to rehabilitate the camp, built during Portugal’s dictatorship, which would precede the application, is in the final phase, and also the town of Nova Sintra (Brava Island) and the city of São Filipe (Fogo Island), the three World Heritage Sites.
The application projects of Tabanca (musical genre) and the Festas de São João (which take place in various parts of the archipelago) to the Intangible Cultural Heritage, also of UNESCO, are also suspended.
This setback occurs when ‘morna’, typical Cape Verdean musical genre, marks on Friday the first anniversary (11 December 2019) of the proclamation of UNESCO’s World Intangible Cultural Heritage. Ten years ago, the Old Town on the island of Santiago had already been elevated to a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
