Kenya should invest in its heritage, which will bring in more tourists and create employment opportunities for youth, a heritage forum heard yesterday.
Swahilipot Hub Foundation founder and chief mentor Mahmoud Noor said Kenya, like many African governments, have not prioritised heritage, thus allocate it little or no funds.
This makes European nations dictate what constitutes African heritage, thus missing out on the real heritage of African societies.
“This is because they (Europeans) are mostly the funders of these heritage sites. He who pays the piper calls the tune,” Noor said.
He spoke yesterday at Swahilipot in Mombasa during the Africa24 summit.
Africa24 is a gathering of many of the scientific committees on heritage.
This is the first time the committees are meeting on a large scale in Africa in 20 years.
Noor said there are many heritage experts of African descent but they are employed by the European and American organisations.
He said Europeans will only accept heritage sites that have connection to Europe, like Fort Jesus.
However, sites like the Kaya forests in the Coast will not be accepted even when nominated because they have no connection to Europeans, he said.
To solve this, Noor said, more Africans must be allowed into the world organisations such as Unesco, Icomos, World Heritage Convention, among others.
“We need to have more voice in such bodies. That is why we have to invest more in our heritage. Europeans invest billions in heritage, while we focus more on education and health,” Noor said.
He said Kenyan and African leaders are not yet convinced heritage is a big issue worthy investing in.
“I wish we had a problem like Barcelona. Barcelona are mulling over rejecting tourists because they have too many,” he said.
Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s heritage centre director Webber Ndoro said it is wrong not to classify the Kaya forests in Kenya as a heritage site just because it has no connection to Europe.
“They would start telling you there is no OUV (Outstanding Universal Value) in the Kayas because they are not connected to it,” he said.
“But the OUV is the interest of the European. There is OUV for me as a resident of Kilifi in the Kayas.”
Ndoro said if the common man in Africa is to enjoy world heritage they have to be part and parcel of it.
“We have to stop nominating things, which are related to colonial issues. Let’s hear the voice of the common person to understand their heritage,” he said.
International Council on Monuments and Sites (Icomos) director general Marie-Laure Lavenir said Icomos as the international organisation that gathers all heritage experts from all over the world and are also in charge of implementing the World Heritage Convention with Unesco, has to change its way.
“The aim of the meeting is to put African heritage at the centre of Icomos interests,” Lavenir said.
She said it is true that “we need to put more focus on the specificities of the African heritage”.
Lavenir said local communities need to be involved more in their heritage discussions as opposed to what is being done currently, where a local heritage site in Kenya, for example, will be dictated by Europeans sitting in Icomos, which has no local representation.
She, however, said this is a problem all over the world, including in Europe.
“The solution is really capacity building. The problem is there have been too few African experts and African people within Icomos, Unesco and World Heritage Convention,” Lavenir said
