Cultural Heritage and Culture - Inheritance in Africa: Some Insights from the Makonde of Tanzania

Abstract

Heritage studies have received remarkable interest among cultural heritage professionals in the world. Most of these studies are so much related to the conservation and protection of cultural heritage resources. Another area of concern has been on local communities' understanding and engagement in protection of cultural heritage resources. It is this later concern that influenced this study on cultural heritage with emphasis on ‘culture - inheritance' in Africa. The problematic question that this paper attempts to unveil is the fact that cultural heritage professionals in Africa have paid little attention to the dynamics of ‘culture-inheritance' among Africans across generations. There is a miss-link in the process of inheriting culture, hence resulting to a state of ‘culture-exclusivity' leading to culture deterioration among the community members particularly the youth group. With focus to the Makonde of Tanzania, the study through interviews, observation, narratives and community engagement in site-survey noted the lacuna of ‘heritage culture' among the local communities especially young generation. The dialectical understanding and lack of awareness on cultural heritage resources among some members of the society is part of the discussion of this paper. It is suggested in this paper that, the problem of poor conservation of cultural heritage in Africa has to a large extent a direct link to the lack of ‘heritage culture' of heritage resources. It is this problem that hinders inclusive efforts for sustainable conservation of cultural heritage resources in Africa.