Intangible Heritage as a Cultural Asset for African Tourism

Abstract

This chapter evaluates intangible heritage in postmodern tourism in Africa. In most parts of the world, heritage as a tourism asset is often defined as buildings, archaeological sites, museums, heritage centres, bridges, factories, fortresses, and other such tangible elements of the historic environment. Yet, these are the exception rather than the rule regarding heritage tourism in Africa. Most heritage resources in the region are intangible and include music, dance, traditional dress, language, faith, family, and social structures. Part of this is “living heritage”, or the everyday life of ordinary people. The chapter also examines this phenomenon, especially as manifested in living “cultural villages” that have become salient tourist attractions throughout Africa to demonstrate elements of ordinary life. Therefore, this chapter covers the important role of intangible heritage in the region, providing a typology of this aspect of culture and examining the role of intangible heritage in tourism. The results indicate that multifaceted interactions between tourism and heritage are revealed in the tensions between African traditions and modernity. Five challenging issues in linking intangible heritage and tourism are discussed. These include historical impediments affecting indigenous participants’ success in heritage tourism – ownership and access to heritage resources, availability and access to development capital, and tourism physical infrastructure; intangible heritage tourism and cultural appropriation dynamics, and multiple-stakeholders managing of cultural intangible heritage – multi-interests and conflicts. Differences in approaches to the above-identified issues illustrate that intangible heritage tourism raises more than planning and management issues for Sub-Saharan African countries; they are fundamentally the problems of cultural tourism development and community development.