The government of Seychelles is preparing a dossier for submission to UNESCO’s Memory of the World programme. The dossier contains stories and oral traditions collected since the 1980s through more than 600 audio cassettes.
The recordings were part of an initiative launched by the Ministry of Education under a unit called Oral Traditions, led by Abdourahamne Diallo. He worked with Eudoxie Labiche, Gabrielle Essack, and Marcel Rosalie to document memories, experiences, and cultural practices across Seychelles.
The team began recording in the 1980s, capturing family histories, traditional occupations, economic activities, cultural beliefs, and stories such as proverbs, songs, and tales. Interviews were carried out not only on Mahé but also on islands like Silhouette and Félicité.
Mr. Diallo said that he and his team often spoke with elderly people, some as old as 96, who shared how life was in earlier years — their customs, beliefs, and superstitions passed down through generations. The interviews were recorded on cassette tapes and later transcribed in Seychellois Creole. “It was not an easy task,” Mr. Diallo recalled, adding that the late Danielle de St. Jorre, then Principal Secretary for Education and Information, played a key role in supporting the project.
Linguist Susanne Michaelis, a senior researcher at Leipzig University in Germany, is assisting Seychelles in preparing the submission. She said the recordings are an invaluable resource for researchers studying Seychelles’ culture, language, and history.
“As a linguist specialising in Seychelles Creole and creoles worldwide, I believe these recordings are extremely valuable…They document different stages of the Creole language and show how it has evolved over the last 100 years or so.”
Gabrielle Essack, Technical Advisor at the National Institute for Culture, Heritage and the Arts, explained that stakeholder consultations are part of the submission process. A dedicated committee is reviewing the dossier before it is submitted to UNESCO.
Mr. Essack said the goal is to submit the dossier by the end of November 2025. “It’s a two-year process that includes several rounds of consultation after the first submission,” he added.The collection includes about 700 hours of first-hand accounts and has been used in more than 50 academic works, including around 30 international studies.
Efforts are ongoing to digitise the recordings, though progress has been irregular. Mr. Essack noted that the cassettes are not a chronological record of Seychelles’ history but rather field interviews covering various aspects of Seychellois life.
Once approved, the inclusion of Seychelles’ oral history collection in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register would mark a major step in preserving the nation’s cultural identity. It would also give global recognition to decades of work documenting the voices, traditions, and experiences that shaped the Seychellois way of life.