“Unless we Value the Intangible Heritage, the Tangible will never be Safe!” Linking the Tangible and Intangible Aspects of Heritage Sites in Africa

ABSTRACT

A few heritage researchers and protection practitioners in some African countries define heritage sites and cultural objects based on European and North American criteria. Such criteria emphasize visual material remains like monumental structures and their aesthetically pleasing features. This Western view overlooks some critical aspects. For example, to local people, the meanings and associated values make the monuments and sites relevant. Despite the inseparability of the tangible heritage and associated intangible aspects such as spiritual practices, some researchers and heritage practitioners, including antiquities department officials, need to pay more attention to the invisible meanings embedded in the sites and cultural objects. Notably, it is these immaterial aspects which the local people value the most. In this article, we survey three fishing villages: Batini, Mkadini and Winde, on the Swahili coast in East Africa, and document what heritage means from the local people's perspective. We argue that fishing communities value features like reef crests, sacred mangrove forests, the ruins of stone-built tombs and sacred baobab trees not because of their physical appearance but the spiritual practices (e.g., healing, rituals, and offerings) the local people undertake within and around these sites. We further contend that to achieve heritage preservation sustainability, government officials and heritage scholars should pay greater attention to the spiritual aspects associated with these places.

KEYWORDS:

• Intangible heritage
• spirituality
• fishing villages
• local heritage
• maritime cultural heritage
• coastal heritage
• baobab trees
• Swahili coast
• monumentality

Acknowledgements

We thank the University of Dar es Salaam and Bagamoyo District Council for granting permission for this research. Likewise, we are thankful to the Gerda Henkel Foundation for funding the research whose this paper is one of the outcomes. The British Council Institute in Eastern Africa, the University of St. Andrews using the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and Scottish Funding Research Council, Rising from the Depths, an initiative of the UK Arts & Humanities Research Council’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), provided additional funding for this work; we are thankful for the support. We thank Thomas Biginagwa, Neema Munisi, Claudia Lubao, Sinyati Robinson, and Chiku Said for supporting our research and comments on the earlier drafts of this paper. Many local people in Mkadini, Batini, and Winde, especially the traditional healers contributed immensely during the research; we appreciate their support. Nevertheless, any problems with the interpretation are solely ours.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The local narratives describe ‘Mfungo Tatu’ as an event which brings majority of the people and others from nearby villages to conduct multiple activities at the tomb and other sacred places, such as continuous prayers, cleaning the sacred surroundings, and slaughtering various animals as an offering. Mfungo Tatu is aimed at giving thanks to the ancestors for the benefits they received the previous year and to ask for continued blessings in the following year.

2 Kombe is a medicine made under qur’anic guidance whereby some Islamic verses are written on a piece of paper. The inscribed paper is then put in a water container, which a bewitched or person with problems must drink to be healed.

 

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Gerda Henkel Foundation: [Grant Number AZ 10/ BE/17].