Introduction: Heritage management and tourism in Africa

Abstract

This thematic issue on postcolonial heritage management and tourism in Africa offers a selection of case studies that reveal the significance of heritage to the construction of identity in postcolonial and post-apartheid African states. Drawing insights from the critical literature on heritage, as well as from the discussion on identity as discursive and continually rejuvenated, the authors reveal the complexities of heritage management on the continent and in its nearby Diaspora in the southwest Indian Ocean in the post-independence period. In South Africa, post 1994, heritage management and tourism are still heavily influenced by the legacy of apartheid. There appear to be two processes at play. The one continues the representation of identity as bounded, primordial and ready to advance ethnic chauvinism. The other seeks to anchor new identity projects in the post-apartheid discourse of liberation and freedom. The discussions also reveal that heritage projects are regularly contested and re-grounded in the postcolony. The authors also concur that in the postcolony there is a concern to develop and maintain sites of archaeological significance for political purposes. This introduction outlines the key concepts either used or referred to in this special issue. It also highlights particular themes in heritage management, notably, the role of heritage in the construction of postcolonial identity and the role of heritage as a source of knowledge in Africa. Following Erve Chambers, the introduction also discusses the value of perceiving heritage as a category of practice rather than a category of analysis in Africa. It discusses the relevance of this distinction for an alternative engagement with heritage and its management in Africa.