Ours or yours? Localizing the ‘mixed sites’ concept for the sustainable preservation of heritage in Africa: the case of Chongoleani Peninsular, Tanzania

Abstract

ABSTRACT Heritage scholars, professionals, and practitioners continue to debate the separation of nature and culture and their linkage. The discussion, however, centres on World Heritage Sites (WHS) but not those valued locally, some of which are on the national register. This practice threatens many local heritage sites that would have benefited from having a management plan that treats nature and culture as interconnected and interlinked. For example, in north-eastern Tanzania, a Wall Enclosure, namely Chongoleani, was declared a National Monument in 1961. A hundred metres away from the enclosure, there is a Sacred Grove the local people value and protect using customary laws. Whereas the Government of Tanzania considers the Wall Enclosure a national monument, the Chongoleani local community does not regard it (the Wall Enclosure) as necessary for protection. Instead, they have let it deteriorate. While the Wall Enclosure continues to decline, the Sacred Grove enjoys complete protection from the local community. For the two assets’ sustainable preservation, the current paper proposes a decolonial approach that considers the localisation of UNESCO’s World Heritage ‘mixed sites’ concept. We argue in this paper that, had the two properties been declared together as one national monument, valuing one heritage over the other would have been minimised.