Abstract
This paper addresses the impacts of globalization on cultural heritage conservation in sub-Saharan Africa. The homogenization and commodification of Indigenous cultures as a result of globalization and it’s impacts on the devaluation of heritage sites and cultural properties is discussed within a Nigerian context. Additionally, the ongoing global demand for African art objects continues to fuel the looting and destruction of archaeological and historical sites, negatively impacting the well-being of local communities and their relationships to their cultural heritage. Global organizations and institutions such as UNESCO, the World Bank, and other institutions have been important stakeholders in the protection of cultural heritage worldwide. This paper assesses the efficacy of the policies and interventions implemented by these organizations and institutions within Africa and makes suggestions on how to advance the protection of African cultural heritage within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Furthermore, cultural heritage conservation is explored as a core element of community well-being and a tool with which African nations may achieve sustainable economic development.
Highlights
As globalization in the past created its own heritage in Africa, so too did it cause destruction to cultural heritage
The growth of globalization in the contemporary world has resulted in the increased destruction of cultural heritage properties over the last two decades
To ensure that globalization is desirable for matters of heritage protection, World Archaeological Congress (WAC), American Anthropological Association (AAA) and the European Archaeological Association (EAA) should ensure that the International Financial Institutions (IFI) maintain the same standards applicable in the West in issues of cultural resources management for projects funded in Africa
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Globalization could be viewed as the speedup of movements and exchanges of human beings, goods and services, capital, technologies or cultural practices all over the world. Viewed through the lenses of the economy, culture and politics, globalization is essentially an economic process of interaction and integration that is associated with social and cultural aspects which have implications for international politics [4]. While globalization in its current form is a relatively modern phenomenon, the genesis of globalization could theoretically be traced to the prehistoric periods when early humans spread and colonized new territories and thereby started to shrink the world, and this has been amplified in historic and modern times resulting to indelible consequences on the world’s cultural landscapes. With the acceleration and intensification in global flows of capital, labor and information, local cultures are being increasingly homogenized. In some ways, encouraged the integration of societies and provided new opportunities to millions of people, it has contributed to the commodification of cultures and loss of marginalized identities in the name of progress and modernization [7]
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