A planned community-led documentation programme for the Batuque percussive tradition of Santiago Island, conducted in partnership with practising community elders and rooted in shared authorship from the first session. The project seeks to produce an open audio-visual archive, a contextual scholarly companion, and a community-owned right of withdrawal — building toward eventual UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage recognition while ensuring the tradition continues to belong to the communities that hold it.
Why now
Batuque is alive — practised in courtyards and at festivals across Santiago — but the documentary record is thin, scattered across decades of ad-hoc recordings, often made without the consent or ongoing involvement of the practitioners themselves. As elder bearers of the tradition age, the window to record contextual knowledge alongside the music itself is narrowing.
Approach
The programme adopts community-engaged authorship as its starting design constraint, not its closing acknowledgement. Each documentation session is co-designed with the participating practitioners. Recordings, transcripts, and analytical notes remain under joint custody. Community members hold the right to withdraw any material at any stage of the project, including after publication.
Outputs
• An open-access audio-visual archive of practised Batuque sessions, with full informed consent
• A scholarly companion contextualising the tradition’s history, regional variants, lineage of practitioners, and contemporary practice
• A community-facing booklet in Cape Verdean Creole returning the documented knowledge to the communities that produced it
• A submission dossier supporting eventual UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage recognition
Partners and resources
The project is being scoped in partnership with cultural community organisations on Santiago Island and the Cape Verdean Ministry of Culture’s heritage office. Initial recording sessions are planned for Q4 2026, contingent on consent finalisation, community readiness, and the close of the framework review.
Ethical framework
Operates fully within the LAGAI Cultural Research and Ethics framework. No recording, transcription, or publication occurs without written, plain-language consent — and consent is treated as ongoing, not a single signature. All financial benefits flowing from publication, licensing, or institutional use return to the participating communities through a shared-stewardship agreement to be agreed before field work begins.
Status
Programme design phase. Active field documentation begins Q4 2026.