Africa’s Cultural Heritage

Africa is rich in cultural heritage, encompassing a diverse array of natural and cultural sites, artifacts, visual and performing arts, beliefs, practices, and ways of life that have shaped the continent’s identity throughout history. Heritage matters as it constitutes a source of pride, strength, and resilience and can help people tackle contemporary challenges. It serves as a visual, tangible, or aural archive of the continent’s history, passed down from one generation to the next.Footnote ¹ Cultural heritage can thus foster historical awareness, shaping how people imagine themselves and their place in the world. Its importance extends beyond material value, carrying deep spiritual significance.Footnote ² Safeguarding this heritage can help stabilize, heal, and reconcile post-conflict societies.Footnote ³ Not only has the continent overcome centuries of colonial oppression and looting, but it has also constantly evolved, interacted with, and influenced other cultures. From the prehistoric megaliths of South Africa to the ancient kingdoms of Egypt and Mali, from the sacred forests of Kenya to the rhythm of West African music, Africa’s cultural heritage has also greatly contributed to the world’s cultural diversity and the heritage of humanity.

The concept of cultural heritage is inherently selective – not every cultural practice deserves protection. The protection of cultural heritage has internal and external limits. Internal limits emphasize that countries should not overprotect cultural heritage and should safeguard it as a dynamic concept rather than freeze it in time. External limits require protecting cultural heritage as long as human rights are respected. In conformity with UNESCO conventions and international and regional human rights instruments, this special issue adopts a notion of cultural heritage that includes only cultural practices and manifestations that fully conform to human rights standards.Footnote ⁴ Only cultural policies and practices that respect human rights are protected under international law.Footnote ⁵ Harmful practices that affect the health, physical integrity, and emotional well-being of women and children breach distinct human rights, including the right to health and personal integrity.Footnote ⁶ They are outside the scope of international cultural heritage law and are prohibited under human rights law.Footnote ⁷ The African Union’s Agenda 2063 specifically provides for the elimination of all forms of gender-based violence and discrimination against women and girls, including harmful social practices.Footnote ⁸

After briefly sketching out the broad content of Africa’s cultural heritage and the inner and outer limits of cultural heritage, it is worth highlighting why cultural heritage protection is so important. Not only does Africa’s cultural heritage have aesthetic, historical, and social value for past, present, and future generations, but it can also become a source of sustainable development informed by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable DevelopmentFootnote ⁹ and Agenda 2063.Footnote ¹⁰ The safeguarding of culture can help achieve many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)Footnote ¹¹ like quality education, decent work and economic growth, safe and sustainable cities and agriculture, environmental protection, and peaceful and inclusive societies.Footnote ¹² In parallel, the culturally informed and sustainable implementation of the development goals can also foster cultural flourishing and the African Renaissance, a vision for continental development launched by African intellectuals and promoted by the African Union.Footnote ¹³

Challenges and Prospects

Nowadays, African cultural heritage faces significant existential threats, including human and natural threats such as looting, conflicts, globalization, rapid industrialization, and climate change.Footnote ¹⁴ Existing regulatory frameworks often prove inadequate to ensure safeguarding because they were enacted in colonial times or prioritize Western notions of heritage over local ones. They thus fail to capture the specificity and unique brilliance of African heritage or address the specific challenges it faces. The participation of local communities in the protection of cultural and natural heritage sites has also been minimal, thus endangering both the cultural rights of the same communities and the very preservation of the sites. The restitution of cultural items dispersed across the globe during colonial times is another facet of the complex debates surrounding Africa’s cultural heritage.Footnote ¹⁵ It is crucial, now more than ever, to critically reflect on how to best safeguard it for the benefit of present and future generations.

The Special Issue’s Aims and Objectives

This special issue examines how existing legal frameworks can safeguard African cultural heritage, contribute to the African Renaissance, and promote sustainable development. It is the research product of scientific collaboration across continents and worldviews. Co-edited by Valentina Vadi (School of Political Sciences, University of Florence and Robert Schumann Center for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, Italy) and Senai Woldeab Andemariam (Department of Law, College of Business and Social Sciences, Eritrea), it is a collective effort of academics and practitioners across disciplines. The special issue thus constitutes a platform to spark conversations about Africa’s heritage and identify some methods to realize the African Renaissance. While this special issue highlights Africa as its analytical pivot, its arguments and proposals can and are intended to be useful beyond Africa.

The special issue features five articles that provide unique perspectives on the conceptual and practical challenges for protecting African cultural heritage and achieving sustainable development in Africa. The findings are especially relevant to international cultural heritage law. They also address broader questions discussed in global governance research, such as sustainability, ocean governance, and international dispute settlement. Accordingly, while this special issue principally focuses on international cultural heritage law and how it can be harnessed for good, wherever possible, references will go beyond classical cultural heritage law resources to include general international law, regional and domestic laws, and African studies.

The articles present diverse perspectives on how to protect African cultural heritage to promote the African Renaissance and sustainable development in Africa. The articles reflect the views of the individual authors and may not align with those of the editors. The editing was light to allow the authors to maintain their voices, methods, and opinions. While efforts have been made to enhance clarity, the articles may endorse diverging viewpoints. The wide cultural and geographical diversity of the contributors enables multifaceted analysis while ensuring both a clear vision and in-depth thought on the role culture can play in the African Renaissance.

More fundamentally, this special issue does not endorse one-size-fits-all solutions. This would not be possible given the political, economic, and cultural diversity that characterizes African countries. The continent comprises different linguistic areas, legal systems, zones of colonial experience, and cultural influences. African societies “are not necessarily converging toward a single point, trend, or cycle”; instead, “they harbor the possibility of a variety of trajectories.”Footnote ¹⁶ Similarly, notable pan-African integration instruments, such as Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want,Footnote ¹⁷ the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community (the Abuja Treaty),Footnote ¹⁸ and the African Continental Free Trade Area,Footnote ¹⁹ recognize the differences characterizing African countries. Africa constitutes a massive continent and a microcosm, with its north-south and east and west divergences, centers and peripheries, wealth differentials, distinct histories and geographical features, and cultural, ethnic, linguistic, and political diversity. Accordingly, this special issue cannot canvass a single recipe for protecting Africa’s cultural heritage. Nonetheless, it identifies the shifting laws, ethics, and public perceptions surrounding African cultural governance to foster further reflection in the field.

Modalities

This special issue aims to contribute meaningfully to a broad, dynamic, and multifaceted mosaic of debates concerning African cultural heritage.Footnote ²⁰ As “much of the scholarship about African heritage is carried out by or under the auspices of non-Africans … with externally formulated solutions,”Footnote ²¹ this special issue tries to address this imbalance in three ways. First, it is co-edited by both African and European editors. The composition of the editorial team – characterized by cultural, geographical, and gender diversity – has enabled fruitful and constant exchange of ideas.

Second, most contributors to the special issue are African scholars and practitioners based in Africa. This highlights the importance of amplifying African voices in international cultural heritage law.Footnote ²² Not only can this ensure the protection of African cultural heritage for local communities, African states, and humankind, but it can also enhance our understanding of international cultural heritage law, illuminating its lights and shadows, as well as its promises and pitfalls. Therefore, by embracing diverse voices and methodologies, the special issue aims to contribute valuable insights that will advance critical, future-orientated heritage agendas.

Third, the special issue proactively tried to enhance diversity in citation practices. To counter gender and geographic citation gaps,Footnote ²³ we sought to expand the conversation by incorporating diverse viewpoints. Diversifying sources “isn’t only about justice … It’s about doing robust, rigorous science.”Footnote ²⁴ Not only does it enrich the analysis of available data, but it also expands the questions we ask and contributes to decolonization efforts benefitting knowledge production.Footnote ²⁵

These modalities all relate to ongoing efforts to decolonize international law. Some scholars propose the idea of “Africanizing” international law, which involves examining how international law operates in Africa and what contributions Africa can make to its development. They propose investigating how “the idea of Africa” influences and is influenced by international law.Footnote ²⁶ Additionally, some scholars have highlighted the coalescence of distinct “African approaches to international law” or an “African international law.”Footnote ²⁷ Against this background, this special issue investigates how African States shape, endorse, and implement international cultural heritage law as well as what African approaches can contribute to the area.

On the one hand, the special issue explores international cultural heritage law through the lens of legal developments in Africa. After all, international law is not a uniform entity but is perceived and lived differently across the planet, often adapting to local needs.Footnote ²⁸ On the other hand, this multifaceted reflection can drive progressive reform in international cultural heritage law by considering diverse “legal epistemologies, ontologies, teleologies, and axiologies that break from past and present.”Footnote ²⁹

African perspectives have already played a role in shaping international lawFootnote ³⁰ and international cultural heritage law.Footnote ³¹ For instance, as Spitra highlights, African countries played a crucial role in advocating for several UNGA resolutions focused on the restitution of colonial artifacts.Footnote ³² In the midst of the Cold War, dozens of countries united under UNESCO to help Egypt and Sudan preserve ancient temples from the rising waters of the Aswan Dam. Launched in 1960, the operation relocated over 20 monuments – including Abu Simbel – to higher ground, saving them for future generations. Not only did the Nubia Campaign become a landmark in global solidarity, but it also spurred the adoption of the 1972 World Heritage Convention.Footnote ³³

Nowadays, African epistemologies offer a powerful and inspiring language for decolonizing existing legal frameworks and envisioning other ways of governing heritage. Such a lexicon can humanize the field and acknowledge the deep linkage connecting cultural heritage to local communities. For example, valuable lessons can be learned from the participatory practices that characterize traditional cultural heritage management systems, which view society and nature as interconnected. Often based on religious beliefs, traditional heritage management systems can promote social inclusion and sustainable development. The African view of society as encompassing past, present, and future generations can strengthen intergenerational equity. It can challenge the overprotection of heritage (protecting heritage because it is heritage rather than considering its social salience) within Africa and beyond. African scholars have consistently called for people-centered approaches to heritage management: “Communities should be empowered to engage with their pasts in ways that are beneficial to their lives in the present.”Footnote ³⁴

Contents

The special issue proceeds as follows. Valentina Vadi’s introductory piece discusses the promises and pitfalls of international cultural heritage law in safeguarding African cultural heritage. Mihail Risvas discusses international arbitration as a dispute resolution mechanism in relation to African cultural heritage disputes, including those regarding the return of African cultural objects. Hanae I. Omer, Henok G. Gebrezgabiher, and Senai W. Andemariam explore the international legal framework governing underwater cultural heritage, particularly the rules governing sunken (state) vessels, and examine the relevant laws of several African states on the protection of such heritage considering the said international legal framework. Adam Kyomuhendo critically assesses the effectiveness of law in protecting cultural heritage in Africa during and after colonialism. Finally, Andrew Ngurumi and Francis Kariuki examine African cultural heritage laws and argue that communities should actively participate in cultural heritage governance. Accordingly, they advocate the definitive abandonment of the colonial “fortress conservation” approach, which poses an existential threat to local communities and Indigenous peoples.Footnote ³⁵