Engabu Za Tooro to hold a 10 days training on community-self documentation and revitalization of Empaako

Engabu Za Tooro will hold a 10 day residential training starting on 19^th to 28^th August, 2018 at Fort Breeze Hotel, Fort Portal. The training dubbed, “community-self documentation and revitalization of ceremonies and practices association with Empaako naming system in Uganda” targets training of trainer’s to develop a team of community based trainers in documentation of intangible cultural heritage who will in turn train practitioners of ICH to document their own practices.

Workshop banner

Some of the key topics which will be covered during the training are understanding the 2003 UNESCO convention for safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage, understanding the intangible cultural heritage domains, understanding the differences and relationship between inventorying, documentation and research, Uganda’s national strategy on inventorying, community-self documentation of ICH, creating interview guides and data collection formats for ICH documentation.

Other topics are understanding the different formats of audio-visual productions, developing scripts for different audio-visual production formats, understanding the different information management systems, understanding the different online and offline information and knowledge dissemination formats, understanding the Empaako online platform, traditional and modern archiving methods, technical aspects of photography and videography, technical aspects of videography, technical aspects of photo and video editing.

Fort Breeze Hotel where the training will tke place

The training which will attract 27 participants  like the community coordinators, cultural officers, community development officers, elders, performing artists, media practitioners, photographers, videographers and publishers will generate and share knowledge and information that strengthens the draft practical guide to community self-documentation of ICH, produce a certified team of community-based trainers who will facilitate capacity building workshops under UGA-01210 project and the subsequent ICH initiatives in five communities and the country at large.

In addition, the training will produce a certified team of technical people who will form the crew that will be adopted to operate the biopics high tech equipment in documentation exercise under the current project and beyond and finally a published workshop report will be produced to act as a future reference material in building competences in documentation of ICH.

The skilled and experienced facilitators who will be incharge of the training are Ms. Juliana Naume Akoryo a Commissioner in the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Mr. Daniel Kaweesi who is the programme Officer incharge of Culture at the Uganda National Commission for UNESCO and Ms. Emily Drani who is the Executive Director Cross Cultural Foundation of Uganda

Others are Mr. Gerald Businge who is a Senior Journalism Lecture at Makerere University, Ms. Agnes Kabaikya the Communications Manager World Vision – Uganda and Mr. Wilson Kaija Senior Journalism Lecturer at Makerere University and Mr. Richard Asiimwe Conservator in charge of Archives at the Uganda National Museum.

Engabu Za Tooro, Technical Facilitating Team will be Mr. Julius Isingoma the head, ICH Documentation Unit at Engabu Za Tooro, Mr. Stephen Rwagweri Engabu Za Tooro Executive Director and Mr. Stephen Alinaitwe, the Programme Coordinator at Engabu Za Tooro.

The 12 Empako names

Currently, Engabu Za Tooro (Tooro Youth Platform) is implementing a UNESCO co-funded project aimed at revitalizing ceremonies and practices associated with Empaako naming system in Uganda among the communities of the Batooro, Banyoro, Batuku, Batagwenda and Banyabindi of Western Ugandaso as to enhance their capacities to transmit knowledge and skills to successive generations and to mobilise practitioners to revive the Empaako naming practice.

Empaako is naming system whereby in addition to a family and given name, a child is given a special name called Empaako selected from a fixed and closed list of 12 (twelve) Empaako names shared by the entire society and used as a declaration of respect, endearment or affection.

This practice has been shared and transmitted from generation to generation in Empaako communities of Batooro, Banyoro, Banyabindi, Basongora, Batuku, Batagwenda, Banyaruguru, Bagungu, Ba Nya Mboga and Baziba located in Western Uganda, Eastern DR Congo and Northern Tanzania respectively.

However, the Empaako naming practice is facing threats of extinction mostly due to decline of its mother language (Runyoro - Rutooro), modernization, abandoning our traditional rituals, weakening cultural institutions, and attack from modern religious extremist denominations.