Summit on cultural heritage preservation opens in Yaounde today.

Miss Culture Cameroon 2026, Ache Cyvoline, widely known as Lady heart is at the heart of the initiative. 

According to organisers, the Summit will provide a sustainable framework to safeguard Cameroon’s diverse cultural identity for future generations.

Ache said the event is the first national forum to convene Fons focused explicitly on cultural preservation. She said it will be supported by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO.

She said it is part of her longstanding commitment to safeguard Cameroon’s diverse cultural identity. 

“I see in our 250+ ethnic groups not division but infinite possibility. Every language, every sacred dance, every traditional governance system, every culinary ritual, every piece of art is a thread in the tapestry of who we are,” she stated.

As Miss Culture Cameroon 2026, Ache said she uses every platform and resource to ensure the preservation, celebration and promotion of cultures as engines of sustainable change.

Organisers said the event is crucial as it comes at a time when the country’s rich cultural heritage is facing unprecedented erosion. 

Such, Ache and co said, is driven by rapid urbanisation, language loss, youth disengagement and weak institutional coordination. 

They said it will feature thematic workshops and panel discussions, on documentation, school integration, diaspora engagement and tourism models. 

The introduction of the Virtual Reality App, “250 Hearts Our Rhythm”, is programmed to be unveiled. This is expected to be done with the endorsement of Fons, youth and delegates. 

The platform, officials said, is tailored to digitally archive Cameroonian cultures, languages, rituals and traditions for distributions to schools, communities and the diaspora.

Another key moment will be the production of the Chiefs’ Accord. It is a collective declaration aimed at committing the participating Fons to documented and actionable preservation initiatives.

The Accord, officials noted, will strongly position the traditional authorities as partners in national development.

To further ensure the durability of the targeted impacts of the Summit, stakeholders indicated that the adoption of robust sustainability mechanisms headlined by the Council of Fons is also on the agenda.

The Council, organisers revealed, will provide a platform for traditional authorities and other stakeholders to hold quarterly meetings to track commitments, troubleshoot and share best practices.

A Diaspora Network and an Annual Summit Cycle will equally be established, documents about the Summit indicate. 

The Diaspora Network plans to use social media platforms to create content, coordinate visits and facilitate fundraising while the Summit Cycle will facilitate planning for the 2027 edition.

Mini-documentaries will also be commissioned and produced for educational and promotional use, it was said. 

The documentaries will notably accompany over 50 kingdom-specific preservation commitments that will be documented alongside some 500 media assets, the Summit’s programme indicates.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3890 of Wednesday August 26, 2026