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West Africa is a rich storehouse of heritage resources belonging to different time periods. Archaeologists attempt to exhume, analyse, and interpret aspects of human history found in artifacts and their contexts. The longstanding assumption that archaeology is simply a science of the past, with little thought for the present, must be rejected. This book makes a striking argument for a curricular revolution which taps into the strengths of such allied fields as heritage, tourism, and museum management, which come together to constitute Cultural Resource Management (CRM). This account reveals, in an inspiringly clear fashion, that the era of conceptualising archaeology as a near-complete academic exercise is over. Trans-disciplinary knowledge application, such as that which is found in CRM, has the capacity to create employment opportunities for archaeologists, and other cultural resource management graduates, in West Africa and beyond. It is time to take a first step in constructing the pathways of progress in the competitive world of modern education.
Cultural Heritage and Tourism in Africa examines the multiple and diverse manifestations of cultural heritage-based tourism in Africa from a regional, social science, and sustainability perspective. This book delivers a comprehensive treatise on the interdependent concepts of cultural heritage and tourism. Heritage is one of the most pervasive tourism assets worldwide and lies at the foundations of tourism in many localities, including Africa. However, despite its salience, there has not been a systematic examination of Africa’s heritage resources, markets, policies, practices, successes, and challenges in a tourism framework, despite the continent’s immense heritage value. This book reviews the different types of heritages that pervade the cultural environment of Africa and comprises its vast heritagescapes. It also examines the increasing potential for the growth of heritage tourism throughout the entire continent. The contributions in this volume delve into current thinking about space and place and their effects on heritage, mobilities, globalization, colonialism and indigeneity, conflict, identity and nation-building, connections with other regions through migration and the slave trade, and a greater emphasis on the ordinary heritage of Africa, which has long been ignored by tourism scholars and industry representatives. The chapters herein are authored by Africa specialists, most being from Africa, offering a truly African perspective. The chapters are conceptually rigorous and empirically rich with examples from all regions of the African continent. This unparalleled interdisciplinary glimpse at cultural heritage and tourism in Africa delivers strong value and is a vital resource for all students and researchers of tourism, cultural studies, heritage studies, geography, anthropology, sociology, history, and global studies.
This final report describes the study of an exceptionally well-preserved Iron Age building discovered in northern Burkina Faso, West Africa. The site of Oursi hu-beero, meaning "the big house of Oursi" in the locally spoken Songhay language, was excavated in 2000 and 2001 by a scientific team from the universities of Frankfurt am Main and Ouagadougou. It is situated in the middle of a group of settlement mounds, nearby the modern village of Oursi. In the year 2000, deep erosion gullies were threatening the architectural remains on the surface, which were provisionally dated to the 10th century AD. Scholars from both universities saw the importance of this site and undertook immediate action. But even they were not prepared for what they uncovered under only one metre of destruction debris. The rich diversity of incredible finds in the 25 different rooms rendered their exposure of enormous importance for the archaeology and history of Burkina Faso. Complete storage jars, metal equipment, wooden furniture, rope and textile fragments, grinding stones and charred botanical remains are only a fraction of the total assemblage of finds. Although we are dealing with the results of a single occupation phase and from one building only, the density of finds, the preservation of the architecture and the absence of later disturbances add considerably to our understanding of daily life in this part of West Africa. Up to now the limited contextual information about life in villages and towns prior to the historical periods has promoted divergent and weakly argued interpretations. This volume breaks open new grounds of investigation and calls for further study. Additionally, the editors hope that this report will stimulate and encourage the discussion between historians and archaeologists of the fascinating West African past. The current volume presents an introduction to the expedition, an analysis of the site formation processes, the presentation of the architectural features, in-depth studies of the findings and a lively account of the heritage management project that resulted in an on-site museum. Nine authors contributed to this rich and multifaceted final report. The account of the construction, intensive use, violent destruction and subsequent rediscovery of the building is the enthralling subject of this volume, which is richly illustrated with numerous coloured drawings, photographs, maps and reconstruction drawings. It melds archaeological, historical and environmental data into a thrilling story. A story that reads like a new Crime Scene Investigation episode but happens to have been a real-life tragedy in the African Sahel almost 1,000 years ago.
This handbook is a foundational reference point for critical heritage research about Africa and its diaspora. Foregrounding the diversity of knowledge systems needed to examine heritage issues in such a diverse continent, the contributors to this volume: argue for an understanding heritage that is at once both natural and cultural, tangible and intangible, political and dissonant, going beyond the physical and objective to include subjective narratives, performances, rituals, memories and emotions examine the pre-coloniality, coloniality, post-coloniality, and decoloniality of current African heritage discourses and their consequences analyse how heritage legislation derived from colonial law is compatible or otherwise with how heritage is perceived, identified and remembered in African communities discuss questions of repatriation, restitution and reparations in relation to the return of artefacts from Western countries illuminate the importance of ‘difficult heritage’ within Africa and its diaspora consider the role of heritage for development in Africa Making a crucial contribution to our understanding of African conceptions and practices of heritage, this book is an important read for scholars of African Studies, heritage and museum studies, archaeology, anthropology and history.
This volume provides new insights into the distinctive contributions that community archaeology and heritage make to the decolonization of archaeological practice. Using innovative approaches, the contributors explore important initiatives which have protected and revitalized local heritage, initiatives that involved archaeologists as co-producers rather than leaders. These case studies underline the need completely reshape archaeological practice, engaging local and indigenous communities in regular dialogue and recognizing their distinctive needs, in order to break away from the top-down power relationships that have previously characterized archaeology in Africa. Community Archaeology and Heritage in Africa reflects a determined effort to change how archaeology is taught to future generations. Through community-based participatory approaches, archaeologists and heritage professionals can benefit from shared resources and local knowledge; and by sharing decision-making with members of local communities, archaeological inquiry can enhance their way of life, ameliorate their human rights concerns, and meet their daily needs to build better futures. Exchanging traditional power structures for research design and implementation, the examples outlined in this volume demonstrate the discipline’s exciting capacity to move forward to achieve its potential as a broader, more accessible, and more inclusive field.
This book is an assemblage of diverse yet homogenous research papers that bring together the issues and challenges of cultural heritage conservation and tourism sustainability. The richness of this book stems from its inclusion of diverse case studies from around the globe while scrutinizing the cases of both deterioration and sustainability of cultural heritage belonging to different eras. This book sheds light on the connections between culture as an essential dimension of local sustainability and cultural dimensions of sustainable tourism, further contributing to the complex discussion between culture and tourism. This book gives an overview of current research and subjects of discussion that focuses on cultural sustainable tourism through several sections, such as planning and management of sustainable tourism, sustainable cultural tourism development in a digital era, social and economic impacts of cultural tourism, and sustainable tourism development in urban areas
Cultural Heritage Management in Africa explores the diversity of Africa’s cultural heritage by analysing how and why this heritage has been managed, and by considering the factors that continue to influence management strategies and systems throughout the African continent. Including contributions from prominent scholars and heritage professionals working across Africa, the volume presents critical, contemporary perspectives on the state of heritage in the area. Chapters analyse the practices that emanated from different colonial experiences and consider what impact these had – and continue to have – on the management of African heritage. It also critically examines the ideological influence of independence movements on the African continent’s management and remembering of heritage, and considers whether there are any differences in heritage management between countries that experienced armed conflicts and those that did not. The volume will be the first to critically assess the state of heritage management now, at a time when vital conversations about the balance between heritage and development is ongoing and the actions of new players have begun to impact the management and practice of heritage in the region. Cultural Heritage Management in Africa will be essential reading for those engaged in the study of museums and heritage, development, archaeology, anthropology, history and African studies. It will also be of interest to heritage and museum professionals who wish to learn more about the decolonisation of heritage.
This Handbook provides a transnational reference point for critical engagements with the legacies of, and futures for, global archaeological collections. It challenges the common misconception that museum archaeology is simply a set of procedures for managing and exhibiting assemblages. Instead, this volume advances museum archaeology as an area of reflexive research and practice addressing the critical issues of what gets prioritized by and researched in museums, by whom, how, and why. Through twenty-eight chapters, authors problematize and suggest new ways of thinking about historic, contemporary, and future relationships between archaeological fieldwork and museums, as well as the array of institutional and cultural paradigms through which archaeological enquiries are mediated. Case studies embrace not just archaeological finds, but also archival field notes, photographic media, archaeological samples, and replicas. Throughout, museum activities are put into dialogue with other aspects of archaeological practice, with the aim of situating museum work within a more holistic archaeology that does not privilege excavation or field survey above other aspects of disciplinary engagement. These concerns will be grounded in the realities of museums internationally, including Latin America, Africa, Asia, Oceania, North America, and Europe. In so doing, the common heritage sector refrain 'best practice' is not assumed to solely emanate from developed countries or European philosophies, but instead is considered as emerging from and accommodated within local concerns and diverse museum cultures.
This book is about the way that professionals in archaeology and in other sectors of heritage interact with a range of stakeholder groups, communities and the wider public. Whilst these issues have been researched and discussed over many years and in many geographical contexts, the debate seems to have settled into a comfortable stasis wherein it is assumed that all that can be done by way of engagement has been done and there is little left to achieve. In some cases, such engagement is built on legislation or codes of ethics and there can be little doubt that it is an important and significant aspect of heritage policy. This book is different, however, because it questions not so much the motivations of heritage professionals but the nature of the engagement itself, the extent to which this is collaborative or contested and the implications this has for the communities concerned. Furthermore, in exploring these issues in a variety of contexts around the world, it recognises that heritage provides a source of engagement within communities that is separate from professional discourse and can thus enable them to find voices of their own in the political processes that concern them and affect their development, identity and well-being. This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of Heritage Studies.
The global popularity and lucrative potential of tourism has made sustainability a major concern for archaeologists, site managers, politicians, local communities, tourism officials, and other stakeholders. This book establishes new, interdisciplinary ground for tourism and archaeology that will foster a new generation of sustainable thinking and practice. First, three teams of co-authors from both disciplines tackle key conceptual dilemmas: exploration vs. exploitation, education vs. entertainment, and cultural sensitivity vs. embeddedness. Then, international case studies examine site development, marketing, community relations, and other on-the-ground examples of heritage work. The volume launches an important new era of collaboration in this growing field.