The University of Seychelles (UniSey) and the National Institute for Culture, Heritage and Land (SNICHA) have launched a new phase in their relationship with the signing of a choir, as well as a band, during a ceremony yesterday afternoon.

This agreement, which was signed by the vice-chancellor of UniSey Joelle Perreau and the general secretary of SNICHA, David Andre, covers the collaboration between these two institutions to promote the development and protection of culture, through research in the field of culture, conservation, and training.

Mr. Andre during his speech said that this signature shows that SNICHA is committed to ensure that culture has its place at the level of academic research, and produce more in-depth works on Seychellois culture.

Through this organization, different programs are expected to be developed by the University and SNICHA, and also make it possible for the University to develop and offer high-level and more specialized courses for recruiters in the institution.

During this ceremony, the institutions took advantage of this opportunity to also sign the first agreement under this agreement, and to reveal the first phase of a first project that was realized through a collaboration between the Research Institute for Creole Language and Culture at the University, and the National Council for Seychelles Heritage Resources.

The agreement was signed by the Director of the Creole Research and Culture Institute, Penda Choppy, and the Executive Director of the National Council for Seychelles Heritage Resources, Benjamine Rose.

This agreement aims to research and create tools for cultural development and long-term conservation.

“The university will add value and expand its Creole language section, increasing the interest and participation of students, not only in collecting information, but also increasing their cultural knowledge. The Institute of Culture will ensure that the folklore of Seychellois will be accessible to all members of the public, including linguists and searchers.”

He added that such a commitment will allow more credibility in the literary and academic space at the local and international level, and that will also allow everyone to have access to more information when completed.

This database is still in progress, and the Institute hopes to expand it to include other forms of intangible cultural assets, with the contribution of members of the public and others who collect, or have knowledge of, such assets.

On his part, UniSey’s vice-chancellor, Joelle Perreau, noted that the Research Institute for Creole Language and Culture located at the university, based in the Faculty of Arts and Social Development, wants to help develop academic and scientific work, especially on cultural elements, heritage and figure skating.

He added that the University is encouraging more contributions in the cultural field because there are not many articles, researches and documents that are well indexed and represented academically.

“The university has a duty to motivate, guide and train Seychelles to do and publish more research on our people and our country, but it also has a duty to interest more foreign researchers to come and contribute and do research on Seychelles, its language, its culture and its tradition,” Mammzel Perreau said.

“When we document our existence, it assures us that our way of doing and the literary, artistic and cultural creations of our people will be preserved for many years so that our future generations will understand and appreciate where they came from,” Ms. Perreau said.

This database was officially launched by Abdourahamane Diallo, who directed the research and documentation of the first Creole history collections in the 1980s, as well as Gabriel Essack and Erica Franchette, who have been involved in the production of the Kont ek Lezann series at the Creole Institute since the 1990s. .

This folklore database can be explored on laptops, as well as mobile phones.

The stories and folklore that have been collected, transcribed and translated by specialized institutions since the 1980s need to be presented in a more permanent form and put together instead of in a scattered way, like the summer before it was discovered, Mrs. Choppy made a comeback.

In the coming months, members of the public will be invited to also contribute stories that they know and that can be included in this database. At the moment, there are about 200 stories that are being put on the database.

Vincent Milius, a member of the Seychelles Poetry Association, Bling Bling, interpreted two stories found in this database, entitled ‘Mr. Saser’ and ‘Kabobo and Tig’.

Source: Seychelles Nation