| COMMUNITY BUILDING | culture & sport | |
| Southern Africa moves to promote cultural tourism | ||
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by Tinashe Madava
“I am an animal of nature. I want people to see me and know who I am. The only way our tradition and way of life can survive is to live in the memory of the people who see us.”
This quotation from Hylton White’s book, In the Tradition of the Forefathers that speaks of the Khoisan people of the southern Kalahari summarises the attitude prevalent in southern Africa as the region explores ways to promoting a tourism package linked to culture.
“Cultural heritage encompasses both tangible and intangible heritage in various forms, be it past and continuing traditions, living experiences and activities, monuments and sites and other built heritage forms. It records and expresses the long processes of cultural change, forming the essence of a diverse national, regional and local identity,” said Dumiso Dabengwa, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Home Affairs, at a recent seminar on cultural tourism in Harare.
He added that cultural tourism is a dynamic reference point and a positive instrument for growth and change which is an integral part of modern life.
Quoting from Kenyan Professor Ali Mazrui’s book, Cultural Forces in World Politics, Dabengwa noted that culture is a mode of communication. He concluded: “Cultural tourism should entail building communication bridges that promote both enlightenment through perception and respect for human values that are based on accepted norms of behaviour.”
The Cultural tourism seminar was organised by the University of Zimbabwe, the French Embassy in Zimbabwe and United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) sub—regional office in southern Africa. Participants, who were mostly from universities, came from France, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.
According to the Protocol on the Development of Tourism in SADC, “Member states shall, in implementing the objectives of this Protocol pursue sound, sustainable policies on utilisation and management of the natural and cultural resources and environment.”
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“Cultural heritage encompasses both tangible and intangible heritage”. |
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The protocol also pledges to “give priority to investment in the sustainable development of natural and cultural resources that transcend territorial boundaries.”
In his address, Dabengwa said tourism necessitates the exchange of information. He emphasised the importance of cultural tourism and its link to the conservation of cultural heritage sites such as Great Zimbabwe and the mighty Victoria Falls, which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1989. In the quest of protecting the region’s heritage sites, some infrastructural development proposals around such sites have been rejected. A particular example were the developments around the Victoria Falls within the World Heritage Site boundary. Ciraj Rassool from the History Department at South Africa’s University of the Western Cape praised the Khoisan people of the southern Kalahari for having managed to retain their cultural identity. He said they recognised their cultural exhibitions to tourists as necessary to the survival of their culture. “We must refrain from the temptation to measure the success of tourism merely in terms of the financial and material rewards derived from the industry,” said Mr C. T. Tsara, Deputy Director in Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture. He added that it has been found that tourism can become a subtle and dangerous form of exploitation and dominance, giving the Caribbean area where American multi-national companies have continued to be the major beneficiaries of the lucrative tourism industry as an example. |
Participants to the cultural tourism seminar urged governments in the region to involve local communities in the planning and management of heritage sites. They stressed that there was need for a tourism strategy which should consider the preservation and marketing of some of the cultural sites in the region.
Explaining the need to form a common regional cultural tourism strategy, the Regional Director of UNESCO Sub-Regional Office for Southern Africa, Dr. Anderson Shankanga, said that the cultural dimension of development should be acknowledged. “Over the last two decades, tourism has developed into a major economic, cultural and social preoccupation. Cultural tourism is the market segment which offers the greatest growth potential today,” said Shankanga. He added that about 50 percent of the tourists currently making their rounds fall into the category of “consumers of culture”. Exhibitions of art, concerts, itineraries based on an historical or cultural theme and other related big events often attract thousands of people.
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