Abstract
Aspects of Uganda’s cultural heritage damaged by 20th-century religious and political conflicts have enjoyed a resurgence over recent decades. This paper explores how the ‘authorised’ heritage values previously outlined by Laurajane Smith (2006) here fall behind popular material heritage narratives centred on myths, spirits and dreams. The research draws on ethnographic data from heritage sites in southern Uganda, to suggest that the past is being continually reshaped in response to the socio-political, ideological and economic struggles and ambitions of the Ugandan people. This living, developing heritage is facilitated by a central government preoccupied by agendas of development and national unity that is keen to forget the country’s ethnically divided past. The paper contributes to an underdeveloped heritage literature about spiritual understandings of materiality in non-Western settings, challenging the Western secular-rationalism that persistently dominates international heritage discourse.
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