In 2005, the samba de roda, a music-dance form from the Recôncavo region in Bahia, Brazil, was included in Unesco's Third Proclamation of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity. This award was the issue of a 20 months-long journey in wich public policy makers, anthropologists, ethnomusicologists and, specially, samba practitionners from Recôncavo were brought together. This included the writing of a Plan of Action, scheduled for five years, to safeguard samba de roda. In this paper, after a brief introduction on the process leading to Unesco's award, I will adress questions raised by the implementing of the Plan, which was built around four main themes: the organization of the sambadores; the transmission, diffusion and documentation of samba de roda.
Samba; Samba de roda; Intangible heritage; Cultural policy; Folk music from Bahia (Brazil)