Management Versus Preservation: Archaeological Heritage Management in a Transforming South Africa

Abstract

The discipline of archaeology has, like any other discipline, undergone transformation of various kinds over years. Such transformation is encouraged by various factors, which may range from the need to improve research techniques and theoretical frameworks to extract better results from the material culture to racial transforming within the discipline. The latter is true in the case of South Africa. An effort to bring about racial transformation within South African archaeology was initiated in 2007 by three African archaeologists who had the desire to see meaningful changes happening in the discipline following the democratic transition in 1994. A transformation charter was approved by the professional structure of archaeology in Southern Africa a year later. In it, we not only strive to achieve racial balance within the archaeological discipline, but explore how archaeology is practised in the context of archaeological heritage management. What does this transformation agenda mean for the management of archaeological resources? How can South African archaeological heritage management, through the transformation charter, bring about a truly post-colonial and Africanist archaeology? A review of post-colonial and Africanist ideology in the context of heritage management will be presented. In the case of South Africa, current archaeological heritage management principles are one-dimensional and Eurocentric in that the physical approach to heritage management is emphasized. This approach is at loggerheads with an approach based on African understanding of archaeological heritage management. To highlight this phenomenon, I shall briefly discuss the current heritage legislation. I conclude the paper by arguing that a post-colonial and Africanist archaeology cannot be meaningfully achieved by a mere change of theoretical principles, but by the full incorporation of professionals from across the racial divide. In the context of the paper, archaeological heritage management should not be about managing African heritage for the Africans in their absence.