As part of the Wiki Heritage Hour, Mutanu Kyany’a from African Digital Heritage joined panelists on a virtual discussion around Innovation and Cultural Heritage Entrepreneurship in Africa. The session focused on how heritage entrepreneurship can pave ways for a better future for Africa by providing opportunities for youth to connect with their own heritage.
Click here to watch the virtual discussion.
Key Takeaways
Current Challenges Faced in the Preservation of African Heritage
1. Poor Documentation / Undocumentation
The effects of colonialism are unfortunately still being felt in present Africa today. If you refer back to our histories, especially in countries where our colonizers ruled via direct rule, there was a lot of destruction of who we were, and what our cultures were about. Our cultures were frowned upon while the cultures from the West were glorified.
Regrettably, there was a lot of obliteration even after gaining independence. Bits and pieces that would remind us who we were, or what our independence stories were, were either completely destroyed or taken away from us. Sad to say, as is in the case of Kenya, the leaders that took over from our colonial masters told us to forgive and forget. We now have a generation that still romanticizes Western Culture because this is what they know, this is what they grew up interacting with.
In an effort to document these stories and reimagine these spaces that are central to our stories, African Digital Heritage had adopted technological strategies. For example, they have used digital reconstruction and 3D simulation to try to generate and continue conversations around Kenya’s independence journey. A history that in the past, was rarely talked about.
African Digital heritage is planning on building a community driven digital archive so that new generations can always have an accessible point of reference.
2. Colonial Legacies
Most cultural institutions that Africa has today were set up during the colonial period, and sad to say, they still promote a legacy that is colonial. We are seeing cases where African archaeologists are being criticized when it comes to their role in societal development by their own governments. Governments’ failure to recognize the knowledge derived from this field or viewing it as inferior is due to colonial attitudes where they try to argue that development does not need culture. This affects the responsibility of the locals to promote their culture. Nevertheless, cultural institutions are attempting to reverse these colonial legacies. In Zimbabwe, Amagugu International Heritage Centre (AIHC) provides a space for the public to learn and appreciate different facets of indigenous heritage, history and cultural context from pre-colonial Zimbabwe.
For the case of Tanzania, the only gazetted historical sites are the ones that were registered during the colonial period. No new sites have been registered due to lack of current initiatives or policies that will protect the Tanzanian heritage space from colonial legacies. One can argue that the sheer luck of urgency from the government has made the citizens nonchalant about their culture.
The Tanzanian Heritage Initiative is working on making Tanzanians appreciate their culture away from the Western gaze, through music. They contribute to the preservation, digitization, and restoration of priceless audio collections and endangered sounds by amplifying the sounds of the past and the voices of artists, communities, and cultures who want to keep their heritage alive.
Heritage Entrepreneurship and Youth Engagement
1. Adoption of Digital Technologies
To involve the youth in this space, it is high time cultural heritage organizations spoke the language of the youth. Data has shown that half of Africa’s population that is online are the youth, so why not involve them on platforms where they already are? Digitization does not have to be intensive, it can be as simple as taking a picture or a video with a smartphone and sharing it with the world. By involving the youth and demonstrating with that they already have, they can share their own cultures and to promote it, especially as people who are experiencing it. This strategy will also help re-document the African story that is online by giving it an African voice. For example, the Green Initiatives Tanzania is working to help the youth embrace their cultures by running experiential events around traditional foods, clothing and indigenous language. They invite the youth to document and share these events on their social media media platforms. This not only ensures that the involved youth have been paid while learning about their cultures, it also an opportunity to invite those who could not make to come celebrate and learn about these cultures.
2. Education:
It is important to open up the cultural heritage space and invite the youth to come learn from those who have been in the field for a long time. These young cultural heritage practitioners need mentors to guide them and show them the ropes. Actually working with them makes them feel seen. In Zimbabwe for example, Savannah Heritage and Tourism Consultants teach the youth on ways to penetrate the market, gain recognition and remain relevant in the field. This encourages them to generate ideas that are futuristic, realistic, creative and sustainable.
Practitioners also called upon African governments to introduce cultural studies in the school curriculum. They argued that attitudes, beliefs and worldviews are formed during childhood, thus the best time to build a foundation of cultural awareness and the importance of celebrating one’s culture and cultural heritage is when citizens are still young. Recommendations included methods such as oral narrations of our history and culture in line with the educational curriculum.
****
In your opinion, what ways do you think heritage entrepreneurship can provide opportunities for the youth to connect with their own heritage? Please leave a comment down below:
