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- Convenor:
-
Rosabelle Boswell
(Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University)
Send message to Convenor
- Discussant:
-
Elena Perez-Alvaro
(Nelson Mandela University)
- Formats:
- Panel
- Mode:
- Face-to-face
- Location:
- Facultat de Geografia i Història 102
- Sessions:
- Friday 26 July, -
Time zone: Europe/Madrid
Short Abstract:
Coastal communities are rich repositories of cultural heritage, and yet in Africa, they are rarely included in ocean and coastal management. In this panel, we discuss why and how coastal communities can diversify and undo hegemonic coastal heritage management in Africa and the nearby diaspora.
Long Abstract:
Presently, critical heritage studies and decolonial researchers call for more historicized, empathetic and holistic perspectives on human cultural life. In doing so, they urge social researchers to work against the longue-duree of global inequality and urge them to remain aware of the impact of poverty on peoples' lives. Researching the place and manifestation of intangible cultural heritage in five African countries, the project presented and discussed in this panel, considers the rich cultural heritage of African coastal communities and the pressure such communities are under, to transform their societies for economic development. The research presents several findings (1) the experience of coastal communities during colonial/neoliberal 'undoing', (2) the ways in which communities are 're-doing' identity, place and social meaning in the selected sites (3) the role of social researchers in these coastal narratives (4) the role of transdisciplinary research in producing new perspectives and approaches to producing a more inclusive human cultural life with the oceans. In this regard, the panel is multidisciplinary and offers a place for a selection of African scholars and artists to engage on the doing and undoing of coastal and ocean heritage management.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 26 July, 2024, -Paper Short Abstract:
The coastal landscape of South Africa is often presented as a visual spectacle and recreational space. This paper proposes a sensory ethnography of the coast that may render national heritage management processes and outcomes, more inclusive and democratic.
Paper Abstract:
Coastal South Africa, specifically the areas of False Bay, Mosselbay and Knysna are visually compelling areas of the country, that attract many recreational tourists. Anthropological research in these sites 2022-2023 reveals however, that the sites are also associated with rich intangible cultural heritage (ICH) which evoke a visceral and sensorial experience of the South African coastline. The paper to be presented offers a recent ethnography of these coastal sites in South Africa and proposes a sensory ethnography of the coast and a consideration of the sensory elements of human experience and history in the identification and management of coastal heritage in the country. The paper adds a consideration of two current coastal management laws: Integrated Coastal Management Act of 2004 and the National Heritage Resources Act of 1999, to argue that the textualization of human experience has the effect of undoing human sensory of nature. By offering a sensory 'lens' of the coast and of ICH, the paper hopes to use a more viscerally attuned anthropology, to 'undo' present, national coastal heritage management.
Paper Short Abstract:
With a focus on the Dias Cross in Kwaai Hoek, local monuments on South Africa's Sunshine Coast emphasise heroic narratives that valorise settler colonial accounts of ocean heritage, but are in dissonant relationship with emergent re-interpretations of both tangiable and intangiable memorialisation.
Paper Abstract:
Local monuments in small towns on South Africa's Sunshine Coast in the Eastren Cape Province emphasise heroic narratives that valorise settler colonial accounts of ocean heritage. This paper explores the dissonance between tangiable monuments and material heritage with social memory of commemorative events associated with the Dias Cross at present day Kwaai Hoek, in between the holiday towns of Boknes & Bushmans River and the township of Klipfontein. Erected by Portuguese navigator Bartholomew Dias in 1488 at the final point of the voyage attempting to find a sea route to the lucrative trade markets of South and East Asia, the Padrao was reconstructed in 1938 when fragements of the original were found, and branded as the oldest memorial site in South Africa. Focusing on individual accounts of transformation of relationship with local ocean heritage memorial practices in communities classified as 'coloured' duirng apartheid, and now experiencing the revival of indigenous Khoe Khoen identities, the ongoing reinvention and reimagining of ocean heritage commemoration practices, both tangiable and intangiable, in material form and in memory, is shown to be inherently unstable and adaptable. Ongoing structures of informal segregation and limited opportunities to participate in local resident associations demonstrate the challenges inherent in transforming settler-colonial heritage.
Paper Short Abstract:
Coastal communities are facing multiple risks such as submersion and erosion. Here, we discuss how relocation in emergency shapes senses of place and vulnerabilities of a fisher community in Senegal, and how this community constructs or undergoes coastal management in the face of risks.
Paper Abstract:
In a context of climate change and high demographic pressure along the coasts, coastal management has to face increasing coastal risks, and deal with the relocation in emergency of thousands of people in Africa. Through this process, hard-infrastructures such as dykes are promoted in the short-term when funding is available, but the relocation is perceived as unavoidable and necessary to protect people from coastal risks. However, communities’ dependence and attachment to place is rarely considered – just as the renewed vulnerabilities created by relocation. In this talk, we present the results of a survey conducted among 160 members of a coastal community in Senegal – strongly culturally and economically attached to the sea. While 80 of them have lost their homes during a submersion in 2018 and have been relocated 8km far from the coast, another 80 still live behind a dyke inaugurated in 2023, but should be relocated by 2025. In this context, we study how vulnerabilities and senses of places have evolved for both communities, as well as their involvement in coastal management policies. We highlight how relocation in emergency reinforced the feeling of attachment to the coast, created renewed vulnerabilities, but also led to a reinvention of place that is still ongoing. We open a discussion on the role of social researchers and on the mobilization of transdisciplinary approaches – especially using participatory theater – to reveal such dynamics and support more inclusive approaches of coastal risks management.
Paper Short Abstract:
This paper examines the extension of public knowledge and representation of shipwreck maritime heritage on the Sunshine Coast, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province, through a case study on ‘The Volo’, a Norwegian barge wrecked near present day Kenton-on-Sea and Bushman's River Mouth.
Paper Abstract:
Maritime heritage and its representation in South Africa has been shaped by a settler colonial community heritage consciousness emphasising a heroic moral discourse legitimising local presence by settler communities. While much has been done to decolonise the representation of South African maritime heritage, at the local level small scale memorialisation continues to valorise maritime narratives that highlight the heroic aspects of historical settler colonial society, effectively concealing more fulsome of historical maritime events. Shipwrecks can function as potent tangible and intangible symbols of historical events, articulating a variety of perspectives on what constitutes social memory and history. This paper examines the extension of public knowledge and representation of shipwreck maritime heritage on the Sunshine Coast in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province through a case study on ‘The Volo’, a Norwegian barge wrecked near present day Kenton-on-Sea and Bushman's River Mouth. This case study demonstrates how shipwreck narratives presented at the local public level articulate a settler colonial community heritage consciousness that erases wider accounts of such stories. The reinterpretation and decentring of settler colonial maritime heritage stories allows for a more diverse and inclusive narrative that has the potential to promote social cohesion and social justice within restorative history work and local education.