No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
How Do African States Think about Cultural Property? Re-Visiting Management Elites in Southern Africa
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 December 2019
Abstract:
This article addresses a methodological lacuna in studies of African cultural property: states are rarely subjected to the same detailed ethnographic enquiry as communities local to heritage sites. I argue that this is the result of historical circumstances and disciplinary trends treating states as nebulous “up there” entities distinct from the grassroots—and, thus, subject to different modes of enquiry. I demonstrate a corrective approach through a historical ethnographic examination of the government of Lesotho’s archives, examining a period from 1991 to 1993 that saw early efforts to create a national monument at Thaba Bosiu. This detailed view reveals habits of thinking about heritage among bureaucrat-intellectuals, administrators, and international consultants. It offers new insights into how state actors articulated visions for new industries, public participation, and spirituality in public life as well as how to demonstrate incapacity to secure future development funds.
- Type
- Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © International Cultural Property Society 2019
References
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aerni-Flessner, John. 2018a. Dreams for Lesotho: Independence, Foreign Assistance, and Development. Notre Dame, IL: University of Notre Dame Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aerni-Flessner, John. 2018b. “Passports, Citizenship, Residency and Asylum: The Meanings of Decolonisation in Lesotho.” Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 46: 758–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arthur, Charles, Mohapi, Moleboheng, and Mitchell, Peter. 2011. “Archaeology and Dam Projects in Lesotho.” Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites 13: 231–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bayart, Jean-Francois, Ellis, Stephen, and Hibou, Beatrice. 1999. The Criminalisation of the State in Africa. Oxford: James Currey.Google Scholar
Chalfin, Brenda. 2010. Neoliberal Frontiers: An Ethnography of Sovereignty in West Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chirikure, Shadreck, Ndoro, Webber, and Deacon, Janette. 2018. “Approaches and Trends in African Heritage Management and Conservation.” In Managing Heritage in Africa: Who Cares?, edited by Ndoro, W., Chirikure, S., and Deacon, J., 2–21. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Clapham, Christopher. 1996. Africa and the International System: The Politics of State Survival. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coombe, Rosemary J. 2012. “Managing Cultural Heritage as Neoliberal Governmentality.” In Heritage Regimes and the State, edited by Bendix, R. F., Eggert, A., and Peselman, A., 375–88, 2nd ed. Gottingen: Universitatsverlag Gottingen.Google Scholar
Cooper, F. 2002. Africa since 1940: The Past of the Present. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coplan, David B., and Quinlan, Tim. 1997. “A Chief by the People: Nation Versus State in Lesotho.” Africa 67: 27–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eldredge, Elizabeth A. 1993. A South African Kingdom: The Pursuit of Security in Lesotho. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ferguson, James. 2006. Global Shadows: Africa in the Neoliberal World Order. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, James, and Gupta, Akhil. 2002. “Spatializing States: Toward an Ethnography of Neoliberal Governmentality.” American Ethnologist 29: 981–1002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gill, Stephen. 2015. Museums Lesotho: Building upon the Legacy: An Inquiry into the Idea and Reality of a National Museum in Lesotho. Morija: Morija Museum and Archives.Google Scholar
Grundlingh, Albert. 2006. “Revisiting the ‘Old’ South Africa: Excursions into South Africa’s Tourist History under Apartheid.” South African Historical Journal 56: 103–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jopela, Albino de Jesus. 2017. “The Politics of Liberation Heritage in Postcolonial Southern Africa with Special Reference to Mozambique.” PhD dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.Google Scholar
Keitumetse, Susan O. 2011. “Sustainable Development and Cultural Heritage Management in Botswana: Towards Sustainable Communities.” Sustainable Development 19: 49–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keitumetse, Susan O. 2014. “Cultural Resources as Sustainability Enablers: Towards a Community-Based Cultural Heritage Resources Management (COBACHREM) Model.” Sustainability 6: 70–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keitumetse, Susan O. 2016. African Cultural Heritage Conservation and Management: Theory and Practice from Southern Africa. Cham: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keitumetse, Susan O., Matlapeng, Geoffrey, and Monamo, Leseka. 2007. “Cultural Landscapes, Communities, and World Heritage: In Pursuit of the Local in the Tsodilo Hills, Botswana.” In Envisioning Landscape: Situations and Standpoints in Archaeology and Heritage, edited by Hicks, D., McAtackney, L., and Fairclough, G., 101–19. London: Springer.Google Scholar
King, Rachel, and Arthur, Charles. 2014. “Development-Led Archaeology and Ethics in Lesotho.” Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 49: 166–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lafrenz Samuels, Kathryn. 2018. Mobilizing Heritage: Anthropological Practice and Transnational Prospects. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J. David, and Thorp, Carolyn. 1989. “Archaeology: Lesotho Highlands Water Project Environmental Study,” report of an assignment comprising part of the Sixth European Development Fund Project no. 6200.16.33.001. London: Environmental Resources.Google Scholar
Li, Tania Murray. 2007. The Will to Improve: Governmentality, Development, and the Practice of Politics. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meskell, Lynn. 2018. A Future in Ruins: UNESCO, World Heritage, and the Dream of Peace. New York: Oxford.Google Scholar
Mkandawire, P. Thandika, and Soludo, Charles C.. 2003. “Introduction: Towards the Broadening of Development Policy Dialogue for Africa.” In African Voices on Structural Adjustment, edited by Mkandawire, P. T. and Soludo, C. C., 1–16. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press for CODESIRA.Google Scholar
Ndoro, Webber. 2001. “Your Monument, Our Shrine: The Preservation of Great Zimbabwe.” PhD dissertation, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.Google Scholar
Ndoro, Webber. 2003. “Traditional and Customary Heritage Systems: Nostalgia or Reality? The Implications of Managing Heritage Sites in Africa.” In Linking Universal and Local Values: Managing a Sustainable Future for World Heritage, edited by de Merode, E., Smeets, R., and Westnik, C., 81–84. Paris: UNESCO.Google Scholar
Ndoro, Webber, and Pwiti, Gilbert. 2004. “Heritage Management in Southern Africa: Local, National and International Discourse.” In Heritage, Museums and Galleries: An Introductory Reader, edited by Corsane, G., 154–68. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ndoro, Webber, and Wijesuriya, Gamini. 2015. “Heritage Management and Conservation: From Colonization to Globalization.” In Global Heritage: A Reader, edited by Meskell, L., 131–49. London: Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar
Peterson, Derek R.. 2015. “Introduction: Heritage Management in Colonial and Contemporary Africa.” In The Politics of Heritage in Africa: Economies, Histories, and Infrastructures, edited by Peterson, D. R., Gavua, K., and Rassool, C., 1–36. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogerson, Christian M. 1990. “Sun International: The Making of a South African Tourismus Multinational.” GeoJournal 22: 345–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenberg, Scott, and Weisfelder, Richard. 2013. Historical Dictionary of Lesotho, 2nd ed. Plymouth: Scarecrow Press.Google Scholar
Tsing, Anna. 2001. “Inside the Economy of Appearances.” In Globalization, edited by Appadurai, A., 155–88. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar