African Cultural Heritage

African royalty, referred to as ‘traditional leadership’ in South Africa, evolved over centuries in Africa amidst the ravages and pillage of colonialism and apartheid through the strategies of indirect rule and divide-conquer-and-rule. This article focuses on the former approach and provides a brief outline of how the indirect rule affected the institution of African royals. However, specific focus is on the continuation, or not, of indirect control in post-apartheid South Africa by scrutinising Lord Frederick JD Lugard’s three specific institutional reforms promulgated in his indirect rule strategy. It will also be done by examining whether apartheid’s demise ended indirect rule or whether it continued in post-apartheid South Africa. Although Sir Theophilus Shepstone’s 1891 Natal Code of Natives Laws were briefly consulted, the focus is on Lugard’s reforms. The article argues that in many instances, the ushering in of democracy on the African continent, including South Africa, did not imply that African royals would revert to living and enjoying their precolonial status, roles, and powers. Instead, they continued to serve as disempowered cultural figureheads within their communities. Relying on the three institutional reforms of Lugard, the article uses different scenarios to demonstrate this view. This article is also a review of 25 years (1994 to 2019) of the ‘traditional’ leadership institution in South Africa.

African government and museum officials, members of international agencies, academics, and journalists examine why the African past is disappearing at a rate perhaps unmatched in any other part of the world. Each looks at the international network of looting and trafficking from a different perspective. Here, for the first time, is a frank indictment of African contributions to the problem-voiced by the distinguished African essayists. The book concludes with a discussion of specific steps that could halt the disappearance of Africa's art and antiquities

The paper sets out to demonstrate that any emerging post Cold War theology, in Africa, ought to underline the concept of hospitality as it is not only an inherently African conception but more importantly, it is both a reconstructive and reconciliative element in the Africa of the 21st century. In particular, it is critical to include hospitality into the theological schema of reconstruction. To do this, it has
attempted a survey on the socio-religious expressions of African hospitality – as it shows its relevance in our modern day African theological articulation.

... The medieval Islamic astronomers also improved on the astrolabe, an instrument that was used to predict positions of stars and planets (King 1986; Saliba 1991). ... It continued until after dawn. Recorded by the humble servant of his Lord, Alfafi Kati Mahmud . . . ...

For many years, the Royal Museum of Central Africa (RMCA) - often called “the last colonial museum in the world”- had not changed its settings and the permanent exhibition was kept intact since the 1960s. After the reopening of the Museum, many were discontent with what the museum was proposing to the public. Many anthropologists and members of the diasporas therefore condemned the perpetuation of the colonial gaze in the scenography of the renovated RMCA as well as a pervading paternalistic attitude still very much anchored in the philosophy of the museum. In my thesis, I analyzed the new philosophy of the renovated museum as presented by its main curators and on its website presentation. I developed a discursive analysis of the written presentation of the renovation project, as well as a perspective from the global theories on the epistemological and ontological position of the museum and its integration of the "universal" Western museums' rhetoric. From my analysis of the weak decolonial museology and philosophy, I argue that the museum should integrate the findings of the postcolonial and new museum studies in order to engage in a self-investigation process and decolonize its curation and sciences first.

Public Interest or Strategic Litigation (PIL) - by which term is meant court action that operates to vindicate the welfare or collective well-being of the general public, is fast gaining acceptance and popularity in the Ugandan legal context. Through it, public-spirited individuals as well as Civil Society Organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations have acted; and, continuously, are acting to challenge governmental lawlessness, administrative indiscretion and the exploitation of the poor by the rich. PIL is also being employed to engender the rule of law, promote noble notions of constitutionalism and democratic governance; and also, push back against retrogressive cultures and other bad tendencies like violation of human rights by State organs. More recently, PIL is also being used to promote social justice, precipitate policy and statutory reform as well as shine bright lights upon historical injustices suffered by minorities and other marginalized or disadvantaged sections of society with view to correction. It is also being used to advance or project such causes like environmental justice and public accountability.

In the Ugandan context, the legal framework in place for PIL is quite extensive and permissive.  It ranges from the supreme law of the land which is the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, 1995 (as amended) to Acts of Parliament and other subsidiary rules and regulations which act to operationalize specific provisions of those Acts of Parliament.

The practice and procedure of PIL can also be gleaned from judicial pronouncements. In addition, the PIL tradition in Uganda has also borrowed heavily from progressive jurisprudence by judges and courts  in Kenya, South Africa, India and; as well, the wider Commonwealth.

However, despite its rising popularity, PIL has suffered some pitfalls which have acted to diminish its value as an effective weapon for social change. These are procedural and systemic. The paper, therefore, considers the state of PIL in Uganda; its history, practice and procedure. It evaluates its success and pitfalls and makes proposals for the future.

This document provides a general management plan for Bunce Island National Historic Site, Port Loko District, Sierra Leone. This site is a unique cultural monument to the Atlantic slave trade and Sierra Leone’s intersection with the Atlantic World. The island was a center of British trade in West Africa from about 1670, when the English founded an outpost on the island, to 1808 when the Britain abolished the slave trade. During this period, the traders on Bunce Island exiled thousands of enslaved Africans to the Americas. The Island’s history is also intertwined with prominent Americans, including an ancestor of two American presidents and both American and British signers of the Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolutionary War. Today, the island is one of the world’s best preserved eighteenth century British trading sites and it is an officially protected historic site of the Republic of Sierra Leone. Recently, Bunce Island was added to the World Monument Fund’s watch list of the 100 most endangered sites worldwide (see listing at www.worldmonumentswatch.org). This recognition is particularly timely given that the United Nations has declared January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2024 as the decade for people of African Descent. This Management Plan provides guidelines for the management, development and use of Bunce Island National Historic Site to best serve visitors, while preserving the site’s cultural and natural resources. The plan’s aim is to support the establishment of a formally recognized and institutionally supported historic site, identify specific conservation priorities, and to formalize the future direction of the site’s management. Bunce Island is part of a rich historic landscape that encompasses other areas and islands within the Sierra Leone Estuary.  However, the focus of this plan is on Bunce Island and its immediate environs.

This article focuses on the recent emergence of an “Afro-Dutch” category of self-identification among young people in Amsterdam. Dutch-born youth of different Afro-Caribbean and African backgrounds show a new sense of (and search for) a shared African heritage, and a growing desire for public exposure and recognition of this Africanness. Manifesting in, for example, media initiatives, performing arts, cultural
festivals, and bodily fashions, this trend is characterized by an aesthetic emphasis on globalized African styles and by political struggles about the inclusion of African heritage in Dutch imaginations of nationhood. Approaching Africanness as a process of becoming and a practice of self-styling, this article explores the convergence between the renewed interest in African roots among Dutch-born Afro-Caribbeans and the ways in which Ghanaian youth engage with their African origins. It discerns three prominent, but contested tropes with regard to their framing and design of Africanness: “African heritage”, “blackness” and “Afro-cool”.

South Africa is unique in the contemporary world in that it uses indigenous rock art images in its major national symbols. For example, rock art appears at the heart of the national coat of arms (see below) and on all banknotes (Figure 7.1a). One can judge whether a banknote is genuine by folding it and seeing whether the rock art lines up to create a coherent rock art panel. And, one can spend these banknotes at a highway service station on a take-out burger that comes in a rock-art-themed carton with rock-art-themed condiments (Figure 7.1b). Or, one can get directions to a South African casino toilet by following rock-art-themed signage. One can also go to one of many tourist markets and find artists of European descent making a living out of selling artistic reproductions of South African rock art in the form of watercolors, jewelry, tea towels, T-shirts, candles, painted stones, and so on. Some of these uses of rock art are empowering, appropriate, and sensitive; others are crass, unethical, and overtly racist. This chapter explores the use of rock art in South Africa within its historical context since 1900.

ONLINE LEARNING ON AFRICAN ARCHAEOLOGY & HERITAGE: pp. 137-39
SOFIA FONSECA

The main objective of the ONLAAH project is to offer the first MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on the Archaeologies and Heritage of Africa, accessible worldwide. This MOOC project will provide the possibility to a new generation of students, university teachers, researchers, administrative officials and political decision makers, from around the world to engage in the study, diffusion and protection of African Archaeology and Heritage.

www.onlaah.com
info@onlaah.com

This paper explores the plurality and dynamics of ‘cultural heritage’ formation in Ghana by looking at key players in the historically constituted heritage arena and the contestations between them. Focusing on the intersecting domains of the state, religion, and entertainment media, it discerns several tendencies with regard to the framing of cultural pasts: mobilization of ‘heritage’ by the state as part of national identity politics; contestation of this state project by Pentecostal churches that view ‘heritage’ as demonic and dangerous; and revaluation of ‘heritage’ as aesthetic style in local television and video making. Recent, market-driven trends towards a more positive representation of ‘African heritage’ depart from earlier state initiatives in their explicit focus on visual style and design, raising new questions about the links between heritage and visual aesthetics and asking for an understanding of cultural heritage that takes into account issues of style, design, and commerce.

The myths associated with albinism in South Africa and Zimbabwe have a profound influence on the lives of people with the condition, from the moment of their birth until their death. The beliefs and superstitions surrounding the condition affect family life and interfere with access to education, employment and marriage. Drawing on a common interest in albinism, specialist research interests, and recent multi-disciplinary studies and research carried out in South Africa and Zimbabwe, we examine these myths and trace their impact on the lives of people with albinism. We trace the actuality of living with the condition in parts of present-day southern Africa, as reported in the first-hand accounts of people with albinism. We compare attitudes to albinism in different cultures and groups, and suggest ways in which the myths that have surrounded people with albinism for so long, which frequently have very negative connotations, can be challenged by a more scientific and culturally neutral explanation.

A first, pre 2013 reflection on the state of misunderstanding, utter abandonment and impending destruction of Medieval Addis Ababa, a recently recovered unique African Heritage. Further Ethiopian space archaeology has discovered a few dozen more significant sites in the Addis Ababa area. And dispelled the risk tied to cobblestone making. It is rather anti-erosion barrier erection that causes concerns, on mountain forts, as stones are picked and broken to erect lowly walls. Cobblestone quarries, though diffused are not really part of the problem. Their irrational management damages, at times seriously the environment in peri-urban contexts.
The issues are with local developers, irrational power lines, debunking and the general lack of interest of authorities.

First published in 2013 on the Misrak Kirs, Cultural Heretage Ethiopian association in 2013, as a blog entry: https://misrak.webs.com/apps/blog/show/22331961-2008-a-year-of-last-hope-medieval-ethiopia-cancelled

Introduction au dossier "Patrimoines africains : les performances politiques des objets" (Politique africaine, n° 165) :

Comment les chefs d'État africains, les grands commis de l'État ou les militants politiques ont-ils envisagé le rôle politique du patrimoine en Afrique et dans les diasporas ? De quelles façons ont-il agi sur les significations attribuées aux objets et sur leurs parcours ? Comment les pratiques populaires informent, infléchissent ou réfutent ces conceptions ? Les contributions ici réunies dénaturalisent et questionnent le sens accordé à des objets très célèbres ou méconnus — pièces de musée, cadeaux diplomatiques, sorties de masques, bobines filmiques ou objets coutumiers. Elles s'intéressent aux négociations à l'œuvre, aux tensions qui influent sur leurs traitements ou leurs trajectoires, souvent transnationales, en faisant place aux demandes et aux enjeux des restitutions. Elles interrogent l'investissement politique — notamment genré — des objets, au-delà des seules institutions muséales, dans leurs circulations et leurs usage, au sein d'arènes variées depuis le XVIIIe siècle jusqu'à nos jours.

Workshop at the Centre for Advanced Studies “Multiple Secularities – Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities”, Leipzig University, in conjunction with the working group “Africa” of the German Association for the Study of Religion (DVRW)

02-04 February 2022

Convenors: Marian Burchardt, Magnus Echtler, and Katharina Wilkens (all Leipzig University)

In the field of secularity studies, Africa has remained the 'heart of darkness', marked by a peculiar absence. One line of argumentation suggests that this absence is justified as Africans allegedly never entered what Charles Taylor has described as the 'immanent frame'. In this reading, African ways of being in, or knowing the world are outside the religious-secular divide. This interpretation also suggests that the idea of modernisation as secularisation is an instance of epistemic violence that has underwritten much of Africa's colonial history. However, arguably this position underestimates the impact of the colonial encounter, essentialising and othering African societies as shaped by holistic indigenous cultures rather than differentiated religions. This second interpretation explains secularity's apparent irrelevance by Africa's revenant otherness which formed part of its secularisation while hiding the process. This workshop seeks to tackle epistemological distortions and blind spots through empirical studies of African social realities. In particular, we are interested in the heuristic values of divergent conceptualisations (religious/secular, spiritual/material, sacred/profane, transcendent/immanent, or singularly mundane). Regarding Africa and its diaspora, the power/knowledge topography of religion and secularity surely requires deeper investigation.

Rapport pour la Direction générale des politiques de la planification de l’Agence de la Francophonie (ACCT). Publié dans Le Fonds international pour le développement des études sur les langues et les civilisations africaines (FIDELCA) : bilan et perspectives. Paris : Agence de la Francophonie (ACCT), pp. 53-163.

Based on a fieldwork carried out in the town of Veracruz (Mexico), this article explores the ethnic and racial identifications, which come under the African roots of the mestizaje. In absence of afro militant mobilization in the area, it’s mostly in the field of popular music, that one attends the highlighting of the black or African cultural dimension. At first, the elements, which contributed to the implementation of a cultural policy centred on the afro-Caribbean aspect, are recalled. Then, the uses of social categories to qualify these music styles are analysed. Finally, the ethnographic description of a cultural program will allow us to understand how this African aspect of the mestizaje, is played on in the urban public space.

In 2012, radical Islamic factions established a quasi-state in northern Mali. Using the experience of similar groups from previous years, they engaged in planned, regular and organised destruction of UNESCO World Heritage sites. In Timbuktu, more than ten mausoleums of Suf saints were destroyed, while the Sidi Yahya mosque was seriously damaged. The sole purpose of the operation was propaganda. There were no strategic reasons for the destruction of the buildings. The only objective was to shock the world public through mass media. During that time, all UNESCO could do was call for respect for cultural assets. The situation changed between January and February 2013, when the extremists were driven out of the occupied area by a French-led coalition. Immediately after the liberation of Timbuktu, UNESCO engaged in activities aiming to restore the damaged sites to their condition before 2012. After the initial enthusiasm, however, fnancial diffculties brought the projects to a halt. The situation changed rapidly in 2014, when extremists from the so-called Islamic State, following in the footsteps of West African radicals, also carried out planned destruction of cultural sites in Syria and Iraq. This mobilised UNESCO to show its determination on the example of Mali and respond to the events in the Middle East by making it clear that no such operations would be effective and all damage would eventually be repaired. Paradoxically, the situation in the Middle East accelerated the reconstruction of the destroyed heritage of the Republic of Mali.

This paper is a philosophical attempt to examine the vital role culture plays in human scientific and technological explorations, and especially how the viable aspects of a people's culture can be explored for technological development in Africa. Indeed, the continent of Africa is a multi-cultural society that is endowed with abundance of systematic knowledge, dynamic cultural practices, human and natural resources and valuable attributes that can be used as a stepping stone towards achieving collective development. However, this cultural pluralism and dynamism has not been creatively exploited to actualize the pertinent quest for technological advancement in Africa. In this context we know that creative genius, resourceful intentions and artistic inventions of humans do not spring forth exnihilo. There has to be " something " fundamental that drives the conceiving and birth of mechanistic and intellectual creations – a catalyst that must spread through the total sphere of human cognition and existence. This " something " is culture; an all-breasted phenomenon that constantly propels the human instinctive attempt at technological innovation scientific explorations, and holistic development within society. This somewhat explains why this paper affirms that any group of people that is capable of evolving a culture is also capable of evolving technology; so the existence of culture within Africa is an accentuation that there is a huge possibility for the development of technology in Africa. Thus, this paper employs an analytic methodology in its conceptual analysis and contends that the viable aspects of African culture can provide the primary base for scientific and technological development.

Cet article aborde les arts contemporains au Senegal et leur exposition du point de vue de la politique culturelle. C'est une approche particulierement importante au Senegal ou, depuis la periode coloniale, la politique a joue un role cle en ce qui concerne l'exposition et la pratique artistique. Cette trajectoire historique est examinee a travers un cadre nationaliste qui revele la distinction que le gouvernement a voulu faire entre «tradition» et «modernite». La pratique et la rhetorique de l'exposition ont renforce cette dichotomie, ce qui a permis a l'Etat senegalais de se positionner comme pourvoyeur et arbitre de l'heritage culturel. Cependant, diverses expressions creatives produites a travers la ville de Dakar remettent en question cette position rigide de la rhetorique nationaliste et en revelent les limites.

L'article discute des enjeux de préservation et de valorisation touristique des sites d'art rupestre du massif de l'uKhahlamba–Drakensberg, Afrique du Sud. A la frontière avec le Lesotho, ce massif présente la particularité d'être inscrit depuis 2000 au patrimoine mondial de l'UNESCO en tant que bien mixte, pour ses richesses à la fois environnementales et culturelles, avec plus de 600 sites d'art rupestre aujourd'hui recensés. Pour autant, un important décalage s'observe entre la forte valeur patrimoniale attribuée aux sites d'art rupestre et leur peu d'attractivité sur le plan touristique, le Drakensberg restant une destination connue pour ses activités de pleine nature. Cette absence de lisibilité touristique des sites d'art rupestre se traduit par un manque d'appropriation de la part des acteurs territoriaux des enjeux associés aux sites d'art rupestre, avec, en arrière plan, la question de la préservation des peintures. L'article analyse dès lors les facteurs explicatifs de la faible fréquentation touristique des sites d'art rupestre, avec comme objectif d'impulser un tourisme durable, à même de garantir la préservation des sites ornés tout en permettant aux populations locales de « vivre avec le patrimoine mondial ». Mots clés : art rupestre, patrimoine culturel, tourisme durable, jeux d'acteurs, massif du Drakensberg, Afrique du Sud Introduction « Vivre avec le patrimoine mondial » pose la question du « vivre-ensemble » et de l'articulation entre les populations résidentes et les mesures de protection des sites inscrits au patrimoine mondial de l'UNESCO. Le développement touristique est l'une des voies de conciliation possible : les retombées économiques liées à la fréquentation touristique des sites UNESCO permettent à la fois d'associer les populations locales et de favoriser le « vivre-ensemble », tout en générant des revenus à même de financer la protection et l'entretien des sites en question. A contrario, l'absence d'une fréquentation touristique suffisante peut se révéler être préjudiciable en terme d'appropriation des enjeux de préservation et de valorisation par les acteurs locaux, voire conduire à une remise en question de la préservation des sites UNESCO. La présente étude de cas sur les sites d'art rupestre du Drakensberg revient précisément sur ces logiques interactives entre les enjeux de préservation et de valorisation touristique. Depuis 2000, le massif sud-africain de l'uKhahlamba-Drakensberg est inscrit au patrimoine mondial de l'UNESCO en tant que bien mixte, statut par ailleurs confirmé avec la récente extension de juillet 2013 incluant le parc national de Sehlabathebe, versant Lesotho. Haut-lieu de la biodiversité, cet espace montagnard abrite également plus de 600 sites d'art rupestre, considérés comme les plus beaux du sud de l'Afrique (Lewis-Williams, 2003).

Contributeurs : Dominique Guillaud, Muriel Samé-Ekobo, Pascal Nlend, Claude Abé, Romain Calaque.

Le patrimoine concerne aujourd’hui autant des zones naturelles protégées que des vestiges du passé, des manières de table, ou des traditions orales. C’est un phénomène qui a plusieurs facettes : processus de patrimonialisation d’un bien naturel ou culturel, qu’il soit matériel ou immatériel, muséologie, archéologie préventive, mise en valeur touristique, etc. Non seulement ce phénomène donne à voir et à penser des phénomènes sociaux particulièrement dynamiques dans les pays du sud - et en cela constitue une cible de choix pour la recherche fondamentale des sciences humaines et sociales - mais il rassemble aussi à lui seul une multitude de métiers impliqués dans le développement durable, autant que dans le management de projet. Il est aussi le révélateur de la gouvernance.

Cette contribution analyse les défis pour les chercheurs africains dans leur appréhension des questions autour du patrimoine culturel africain issu de contextes coloniaux dans le cas spécifique du débat en Allemagne. A côté des barrières linguistiques, l’analyse des défis s'interesse aux politiques de confidentialités et de gestion de données par les musées allemands qui généralement rendent l’accès aux sources pas très aisé aux chercheurs africains. Elle mène des réflexions sur une approche permettant de mieux appréhender ces questions. La contribution est une plaidoirie pour la décentralisation de la recherche sur l’héritage colonial, dont les plus importantes sources sont difficilement accessible aux chercheurs africains.

Contribution à l'édition 2020 des rencontres des Jeunes Chercheur.es en Etudes Africaines (JCEA). Les rencontres qui devaient tenir en Juillet 2020 à Marseille sous le thème "LAfrique en mouvement, en question" ont été annulées en raison de la crise sanitaire.