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Mobilizing African knowledge for heritage
Dr Keitumetse’s research focuses on how the spectacular natural landscapes of her native Botswana reconnect people and communities with their identities, particularly dislocated people. Her starting point is the Okavango Delta in north-west Botswana from which the traditional communities were dislocated in the 1960’s when Botswana was still under colonial rule. She says that this raises lots of complex and sensitive questions, citing the recent example of a being denied the right to bury their elder, Pitseng Gaoberekwe, on his ancestral land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Dislocation of people from their ancestral lands have actually led to greater problems, she argues, and that is why so many African natural heritage sites are listed as ‘in danger’. For example, the removal of the traditional custodian communities exposed the animals to greater risk of illegal poaching.
“Dislocating peoples from their identities is like ripping a child from its mama and still wanting it to grow without trauma”.
For Dr Keitsumetse, part of the problem is that the current conservation model was developed mainly on the basis of the European and North American models, whereby people were seen as problematic as natural spaces were destroyed for industrialization and animal became extinct. The Okavango Delta, for example, is listed as a natural World Heritage site due to being an ‘exceptional example of the interaction between climatic, hydrological and biological processes’. Under the 1972 World Heritage Convention, it is listed as a ‘natural’ site, as opposed to a ‘cultural’ site or a ‘mixed’ site, and the “core zone” of such a site require a minimum of human disturbance.
However, she laments that these categorisations - established half a century ago - do not apply especially well in the African context: “when you look at the listed natural World Heritage sites, you find that most of them were established through a colonial model of preservation of spaces for wilderness and wildlife… but the knowledge that informed that did not come from the African practice. When you come to Botswana, to the Okavango Delta, nobody destroyed anything! It was intact. My thesis has always been that when we look at the Sustainable Development Goals and apply them to the World Heritage Convention, it will tell us that something is not quite right. You have to build sustainable communities. The people are the custodians of those environments. We really have to look beyond the conservation models that we have been applying.”
Dr Keitumetse is working closely with the Botswanan government to identify cultural landscapes and devise ways for people to reconnect with the landscape and express cultural heritage connected to the wildlife in their natural habitats, even if this does not necessarily mean bringing them back into those space. To do so, she also draws upon the - which was informed by non-European thought systems - and places communities at its heart and focuses on ‘living heritage’. Her work on cultural landscapes also researches ways in which these communities can benefit from tourism.
However, she underscores that evolving concepts and management systems for cultural heritage must be handled with sensitivity: “We have to be very, very strong about saying nobody is blaming anybody. We just really have to look at every idea as open for debate, not to say that the 1972 Convention was wrong but to say, societies have changed with time. In my view, African knowledge has been neglected regarding conservation knowledge. It is high time we look at these issues really critically and see how we can improve.”
Affirming our stories for our development
This issue of marginalisation of local communities is similar to that observed and researched by Professor Thomas Thondhlana, Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair on African Heritage at the University of Great Zimbabwe. One of his early projects as a UNESCO Chair was to support the elaboration of a new development policy for the , working with all the stakeholders, including traditional leaders. Of the five World Heritage sites of the country, the Great Zimbabwe National Monument is a city made of stone which was an important trading centre between 11th-15th centuries. Literally meaning “House of Stone”, it was declared a national monument in 1937 whilst still under colonial rule and the local communities were removed and replaced by a government agency.
He admits that ‘bottom-up’ inclusive approaches to cultural heritage management working with communities are “not always easy”; one has to be acutely aware of local politics, particularly when several traditional chiefs at the site claim custodianship. But Professor Thondhlana views it as positive that heritage sites are a way of getting communities around the same table to dialogue: “In Zimbabwe, we have different ethnic groups, different languages but we all identify with the Great Zimbabwe National Monument, which gave the country its name.” He sees that there has been a shift in recent years: “Due to the recent past when we were enslaved and colonised, we thought that we lost our self-esteem along the way and our history was distorted. But we can affirm our stories, our narrative, our perspectives as African people.”
In recent years there has been an African Renaissance guided by a vision for continental development, through the African Union’s Agenda 2063 which calls for ‘an Africa with a strong cultural identity, common heritage, values and ethics.’ Africa indeed has made immense contributions to the heritage of humanity, from prehistoric times to the present day, as presented in the 8 volumes of the General History of Africa, following a 35 year-long collaboration between 230 historians and other specialists. Yet, it remains under-represented on UNESCO heritage lists. Only around 100 World Heritage properties on the out of more than 1000 are in Africa, with some 100 elements inscribed on the . Africa World Heritage Day, celebrated every year on 5 May, aims to honour the natural wonders and cultural legacies of Africa, with a view to redressing these imbalances.
“We can affirm our stories, our narrative, our perspectives as African people. And heritage sites affirm that we used to be great in the past. We were innovative, we constructed monuments that have lasted for thousands of years. It inspires us!”
Undervaluing African heritage, according to Professor Thondhlana, is a missed opportunity. African heritage holds valuable lessons beyond the continent when dealing with some of the key challenges of our time. As a historian, he sees how our ancestors were able to adapt to challenges, including climate change, and that knowledge can provide insights. For example, African that uses materials that are sustainable and provides good insulation, could provide useful insights for new building techniques.
Changing mindsets
For Professor Imane Bennani, UNESCO Chair for Historic Urban Landscape, between research and training", connecting people with their cultural heritage is also hugely important. Her approach is very hands-on: with her students, she creates digital and physical models of heritage sites. So far, they have modelled the Moroccan capital inscribed for its Arabo-Muslim past and Western modernism, as well as in , an 18th-century fortified town and international trading seaport. Once the digital models are complete, the Architecture School then donates them to the town to use for free, so that the information can be shared with a wider public. She sees digital technology as a very important tool, saying, “paper archives are useful, they are available in the library. But anyone can work on the digital archives, for restoration, rehabilitation or just to get to know the history.”
However, she stresses that, as an educator in an architecture school, her job is also ensure that future architects fully take into account cultural heritage with new urban projects. “What motivated me to apply to become a UNESCO Chair was that highly competent people were making grave errors, even in good faith, as regards the historic urban landscape,” she remarks. “My role is to train researchers so that that are aware that we can appropriate heritage, adding new touches, without distorting the previous layers.” By not having this awareness, such urban projects can undermine the characteristic of ‘Outstanding Universal Value’ of a World Heritage property, the standard by which a site is deemed worthy of the label.
In the Moroccan context, she says that meticulous records have been kept on heritage sites for over 100 years and that there are laws and management mechanisms in place for a long time, which facilitates her work. Morocco has a strong interest in conserving build heritage and even uses it to appropriate sites that are a legacy of the French protectorate. She is particularly inspired by the and sees its strength bringing together aspects of the World Heritage Convention with aspects of intangible cultural heritage, such as the traditional souks or spaces for cultural performance. In Morocco, living heritage is also kept alive by still artisans who know how to use the traditional wood and plaster building techniques, for example. She gets her students them to inventory not only the physical attributes of a building but also the intangible aspects.
She laments that the Historic Urban Landscape approach, and particularly using digitisation as a tool, is not more widespread in the world, she advocates for other countries to adopt similar approaches. Professor Bennani has great ambitions for the next stage of the work. Collaborating with other universities in Italy and France, she is planning to launch a new experimental project to create a digital atlas of Rabat, piecing together the work of 10 years of digital projects. Professor Bennani is keen to expand the work of the UNESCO Chair to other parts of Africa and the Arab States but has found that it is not easy as different countries have different approaches to safeguarding cultural heritage.
“The tools that we have developed work and they can be shared with African countries. The UNESCO Chair is the perfect platform to do this.”
Professor Thondhlana has already experienced that collaborating with international experts through the UNESCO Chairs network is beneficial, saying, “we notice that we are not talking from the same worldview but that many of the challenges are the same, so we can try to come up with solutions.” For example, he has worked with other researchers to demonstrate how facets of traditional management systems for heritage sites can be effective. Often based on religious beliefs and promoted inclusivity through their governance systems, he believes that some of these aspects can be combined with the formal management systems - more based around legislation – to bring together the most beneficial aspects of both approaches. For Dr Keitumetse, being part of the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chair Programme also means having a greater say in debates around African heritage: “I realize in my career that you don't have to be doing big things sometimes, just changing the mindset is enough of a contribution, and then somebody else will take it another step. That is not something that I take lightly.”
