UNESCO adds Reggae music to list of international cultural treasures

Reggae has been added to a list of international cultural treasures which the United Nations has deemed worthy of protecting and promoting.

The music, which grew out of Jamaica in the 1960s thanks to artists like Toots and the Maytals, Peter Tosh and Bob Marley, was added to the collection due to its “intangible cultural heritage”.

Reggae is “cerebral, socio-political, sensual and spiritual,” said Unesco.

It has “penetrated all corners of the world,” added a Jamaican spokesperson.

Reggae emerged from the Caribbean in the late 1960s, growing out of the ska and rocksteady genres, with early pioneers like Lee Scratch Perry, Prince Buster and the Wailers, founded by Marley, Tosh and Bunny Wailer