Archaeology and world heritage sites in west africa
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Date
2019-07-09
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Abstract
The need to integrate world heritage curriculum in the academic
programmes of African educational institutions has become the
clarion call of UNESCO and the African World Heritage Fund to
African institutions. According to UNESCO, Africa boasts of a heritage
of unrivalled natural and cultural diversity that constitutes the very
essence of its identity. Yet, sub-Saharan Africa is underrepresented on
the World Heritage List. With 93 properties (51 cultural sites, 37 natural
sites, 8 mixed sites), Africa is the most under-represented region on the
List. Despite the adoption of the Global Strategy for a representative
balanced and credible World Heritage List, the continent hosts only 9
per cent of all World Heritage sites, while the European and North
American Regions account for 47 per cent of properties inscribed on
the List. Thus, the call for African educational institutions to implement
the World Heritage Convention is an undeniable expectation that we
must champion; as a credible regional body in Africa. This conference
among other things offers the platform for us to brainstorm and
dialogue on how to facilitate our contributions to the existing curricula
related to research, conservation and management of world heritage
sites in West Africa.The low inscription rate has been adduced to factors such as; i) the
poor quality of the nomination dossiers, which often results from the
lack of close collaboration between academic institutions, specialized
institutions in World Heritage and the governments of African member
states; ii) the limited budget allocated to the national heritage sector
in many African countries; especially concerning the process of
archaeological research and inscription on the Tentative and World
Heritage Lists; iii) the limited number of experts specialized in the field
of heritage management and conservation of Africa’s heritage as well as
insufficient academic guidance and lack of sufficient integration of world
heritage studies into the existing programmes of academic institutions
in Africa. How do we convince government institutions to support
academic institutions in the creation or strengthening of curricula
oriented towards increasing heritage professionals and with a view to
expanding job prospects and supporting Africans in taking ownership oftheir unique heritage? It is in this context that this conference would like
to complement the efforts of our international partners. The sessions
and papers cover, but not limited to, issues and case studies on the role
of archaeology in world heritage research, documentation and inventory
of sites, site management and conservation practices, the preparation
of tentative lists and nomination files, innovation and job creation with
archaeotourism and heritage resources as well as the creation of homegrown
academic theories and practices to enhance this discourse.
Description
Colloquium
Keywords
academic theories, UNESCO, Global Strategy, World Heritage Convention