The United States of America and the Nigerian government have signed an agreement to preserve Sukur’s cultural heritage in Adamawa State.
Sukur is Africa’s first cultural landscape to receive a World Heritage List inscription.
Sukur or Sukur Cultural Landscape is located on a hill above the village of Sukur in the Madagali Local Government Area in Adamawa.
The Memorandum of Understanding signing event for the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation took place in Abuja on Thursday.
The Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. embassy in Nigeria, David Greene, said the grant was awarded to the International Council on Monuments and Sites in Nigeria.
Speaking on the purpose of the grant, Greene said, “The latest grant will support ICOMOS-Nigeria and its local partners to help preserve Sukur cultural heritage through infrastructure enhancements, the revival of threatened traditional crafts, and documentation and preservation of the Sakun language.”
Nigeria’s Minister of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, said the Sukur cultural landscape was threatened by insurgency and immediate danger imposed by global climate change.
She said, “The project aims at undertaking a two-year conservation and preservation work in the Sukur Cultural Landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is regarded as a place of outstanding universal values.
“The work also involves the conservation of the tangible and intangible heritage of Sukur Cultural Landscape, enhancing community capacity, strengthening local, national and international links and networks for conserving the site’s outstanding universal values and buttressing the resilience of the Sukur community in the face of insurgency and climate change.”
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