Traditional Art Forms and Cultural Identity Preservation in Enugu

Abstract

Enugu State, in South-East Nigeria, has a dense heritage of traditional art forms, including masquerade performance, uli painting, pottery, music and verbal arts. Together these have long carried the cultural identity of Igbo communities. Evangelical Christianity, urbanisation, formal schooling, language shift and the commercialisation of culture are now changing how these forms are practised and passed on. This article examines how traditional art forms in Enugu serve as vehicles of cultural identity, what threatens their continuity, and which strategies can safeguard them. It draws on Stuart Hall's theory of cultural identity as both "being" and "becoming", Laurajane Smith's critique of the authorised heritage discourse, and UNESCO's framework for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage. Methodologically, it is an integrative documentary review of peer-reviewed studies, monographs and policy instruments on Enugu and the wider Igbo cultural area, analysed with reflexive thematic analysis. Four themes emerged. First, art forms act as living archives of identity. Second, erosion pressures are uneven and are driven mainly by religious change, urbanisation, weakening apprenticeship and language shift. Third, communities show adaptive resilience through youth-led revival, festivalisation and artistic reinterpretation. Fourth, the institutions that transmit these arts are fragmented. The article proposes a five-pillar Enugu Living Heritage Safeguarding Framework: community-led documentation, intergenerational transmission, curriculum integration, ethical economic valorisation and participatory governance. It concludes that preservation should aim at keeping practices alive and meaningful to their communities, not at freezing them in place.