African Cultural Heritage Conservation and Management


Book Description

For a long time, resource conservationists have viewed environmental conservation as synonymous with wilderness and wildlife resources only, oblivious to the contributions made by cultural and heritage resources. However, cultural heritage resources in many parts of the developing world are gradually becoming key in social (e.g. communities’ identities and museums), economic (heritage tourism and eco-tourism), educational (curriculum development), civic (intergenerational awareness), and international resources management (e.g. UNESCO). In universities, African cultural heritage resources are facing a challenge of being brought into various academic discourses and syllabi in a rather reactive and/or haphazard approach, resulting in failure to fully address and research these resources’ conservation needs to ensure that their use in multiple platforms and by various stakeholders is sustainable. This book seeks to place African cultural heritage studies and conservation practices within an international and modern world discourse of conservation by presenting its varied themes and topics that are important for the development of the wider field of cultural heritage studies and management.




Conservation of Natural and Cultural Heritage in Kenya


Book Description

In Kenya, cultural and natural heritage has a particular value. Its pre-historic heritage not only tells the story of man's origin and evolution but has also contributed to the understanding of the earth's history: fossils and artefacts spanning over 27 million years have been discovered and conserved by the National Museums of Kenya (NMK). Alongside this, the steady rise in the market value of African art has also affected Kenya. Demand for African tribal art has surpassed that for antiquities of Roman, Byzantine, and Egyptian origin, and in African countries currently experiencing conflicts, this activity invariably attracts looters, traffickers and criminal networks. This book brings together essays by heritage experts from different backgrounds, including conservation, heritage management, museum studies, archaeology, environment and social sciences, architecture and landscape, geography, philosophy and economics to explore three key themes: the underlying ethics, practices and legal issues of heritage conservation; the exploration of architectural and urban heritage of Nairobi; and the natural heritage, landscapes and sacred sites in relation to local Kenyan communities and tourism. It thus provides an overview of conservation practices in Kenya from 2000 to 2015 and highlights the role of natural and cultural heritage as a key factor of social-economic development, and as a potential instrument for conflict resolution




The Management Of Cultural World Heritage Sites and Development In Africa


Book Description

Ever since the signing of the World Heritage Convention 40 years ago and ratified by 33 African countries, to date, only 43 cultural heritage sites have been successfully proclaimed as World Heritage Sites in Africa. These include archaeological and historical sites, religious monuments and cultural landscapes. This book is a re-evaluation of the nomination and management of cultural World Heritage sites in Africa from the late 1970s when the Island of Gorée of Senegal and the Rock-Hewn Churches of Ethiopia were first inscribed on the WHL until today. It considers whether a credible and well balanced WHL has been attained, especially in regards to the nomination of more sites in Africa. The book also examines the roles and contribution of various heritage organizations and African governments to the nomination and management of cultural World Heritage sites in Africa. Lastly, the volume also scrutinizes economic development, which may result from the nomination and successful management of cultural World Heritage sites in Africa.




Handbook of Research on Heritage Management and Preservation


Book Description

Archives, museums, and libraries are pivotal to the management and preservation of any society's heritage. Heritage assets should be systematically managed by putting in place proper policies, maintenance procedures, security and risks measures, and retrieval and preservation plans. The Handbook of Research on Heritage Management and Preservation is a critical scholarly resource that examines different aspects of heritage management and preservation ranging from theories that underline the field, areas of convergence and divergence in the field, infrastructure and the policy framework that governs the field, and the influence of the changing landscape on practice. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics, such as community involvement, records legislation, and collection development, this book is geared towards academicians, researchers, and students seeking current research on heritage management and preservation.




Managing Heritage in Africa


Book Description

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of figures -- List of tables -- List of contributors -- Series general co-editors' foreword -- 1 Approaches and trends in African heritage management and conservation -- 2 The challenges of the preservation of archaeological heritage in West Africa -- 3 The African response to the concept and implementation of the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting Illicit Import and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property -- 4 Reorienting heritage management in southern Africa: lessons from traditional custodianship of rock art sites in central Mozambique -- 5 Traditional methods of conservation: a case study of Bafut -- 6 Sites of pain and shame as heritage discourses: case study of Shimoni slave cave in south-eastern Kenya -- 7 The evolution of cultural and natural management systems with the waterlogged villages in Benin -- 8 Managing sacred places as heritage in West Africa -- 9 The sacred groves in the Bight of Benin: a misunderstood heritage? -- 10 Investigating incorporation of community cultural values in archaeological impact assessment processes: case studies from Botswana -- 11 Heritage management at a crossroads: the role of contract archaeology in South Africa -- 12 Dammed if you do, damned if you don't: archaeology and the Lesotho Highlands Water Project -- 13 Managing the built environment and the urban landscape in South Africa -- 14 Heritage and energy development issues: a controversial complex relationship -- 15 Conflict between local communities and heritage managers in the conservation of Historic Cairo -- 16 The triple development dilemma confronting historic urban areas: Mombasa Old Town and Lamu World Heritage Site -- 17 Caring matters: the future of managing heritage in Africa -- Index




The Politics of Heritage Management in Mali


Book Description

This critical investigation highlights the politics of cultural heritage management, including authenticity and conservation, and its effects on the everyday lives of the peoples it claim to be representing through the example of Djenné in Mali.




Memory and Cultural Landscape at the Khami World Heritage Site, Zimbabwe


Book Description

This book focuses on a forgotten place—the Khami World Heritage site in Zimbabwe. It examines how professionally ascribed values and conservation priorities affect the cultural landscape when there is a disjuncture between local community and national interests, and explores the epistemic violence that often accompanied colonial heritage management and archaeology in southern Africa. The central premise is that the history of the modern Zimbabwe nation, in terms of what is officially remembered and celebrated, inevitably determines how that past is managed. It is about how places are experienced and remembered through narratives and how the loss of this heritage memory may mark the un-inheriting of place. Memory and Cultural Landscape at the Khami World Heritage Site, Zimbabwe is informed by the author’s experience of living near and working at Great Zimbabwe and Khami as an archaeologist, and uses archives and traditional narratives to build a biography for this lost cultural landscape. Whereas Great Zimbabwe is a resource for the state’s contentious narrative of unity, and a tool for cultural activism among communities whose cultural rights are denied through the nationalisation and globalisation heritage, at Khami, which has lost its historical gravity, there is only silence. Researchers and students of cultural heritage will find this book a much-needed case study on heritage, identity, community and landscape from an African perspective.




World Heritage and Sustainable Development


Book Description

In 2015, the General Assembly of State Parties to the World Heritage Convention passed a ground-breaking Sustainable Development policy that seeks to bring the World Heritage system into line with the UN’s sustainable development agenda (UNESCO 2015). World Heritage and Sustainable Development provides a broad overview of the process that brought about the new policy and the implications of its enactment. The book is divided into four parts. Part I puts the policy in its historical and theoretical context, and Part II offers an analysis of the four policy dimensions on which the policy is based – environmental sustainability, inclusive social development, inclusive economic development and the fostering of peace and security. Part III presents perspectives from IUCN, ICOMOS and ICCROM – the three Advisory Bodies to the World Heritage Committee, and Part IV offers ‘case study’ perspectives on the practical implications of the policy. Contributions come from a wide range of experienced heritage professionals and practitioners who offer both ‘inside’ perspectives on the evolution of the policy and ‘outside’ perspectives on its implications. Combined, they present and analyse the main ideas, debates and implications of the policy change. This book is key reading for all heritage professionals interested in developing a better understanding of the new Sustainable Development policy. It is also essential reading for scholars and students working in the area.




African Heritage Challenges


Book Description

The richness of Africa’s heritage at times stands in stark contrast to the economic, health, political and societal challenges faced. Development is essential but in what forms? For whom? Following whose agendas? At what costs? This book explores how heritage can promote, secure, or undermine sustainable development with special focus on sub-Saharan Africa, and in turn, how this affects conceptions of heritage. The chapters in this volume identify shared challenges, good practices and failures, and use specific case studies to provide detailed insights into varied forms of heritage and heritage defining processes on the continent. By critically analysing the often romanticised discourses of ‘heritage’, ‘community engagement’, and ‘sustainable development’ the volume suggests ways of harnessing aspects of heritage to tackle some of the socio-economic and political pressures facing heritage practices on the continent, including the legacies of colonialism.




Heritage


Book Description

Heritage and its preservation is a major concern around the world. In order to establish identities, as well as attracting visitors, the natural and cultural heritage is protected, conserved, managed and interpreted, by families, by cities, by nation states and at international level. Environmental and cultural heritage is now accepted as a major feature in business location, as the demand for quality of life becomes insistent.This major movement has resulted in the development of Heritage as a field of study, both on its own, and as elements within many other disciplines, such as geography, art history, archaeology, ecology and tourism management. While the techniques of conservation remains within specialist disciplines, Peter Howard offers a textbook for students approaching heritage as a combined field of study for the first time. The fields of heritage under review range from the nature trail to the cathedral, and from the family album to the national park, viewed at a variety of levels, including family and local heritage as well as the national and international dimensions. Heritage is seen as a demand led activity, with interested stakeholders being academics, governments, owners, school-children, pilgrims and the media as well as the ubiquitous tourist. There is a process by which some things are selected as heritage, but others are ignored, and it is the practical management of this process which is the focus to which the text constantly returns.