Paper short abstract:

We will analyse the present situation of the Island of Mozambique, a World Heritage Site, considering the programme developed by UNESCO and the cultural production influenced by the singularity of this Island.

Paper long abstract:

Island of Mozambique, in the north of Mozambique, was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1991. The cultural richness of this small island is connected to its inclusion in the routes across the Indian Ocean. It was a slave market place and the different communities that lived in the Island, Swahili, makua, Arabs, Indians and Portuguese, marked its architecture and cultural heritage. The influence of the Island in literature is also clear (see for example the anthology A Ilha de Moçambique pela voz dos poetas, published in 1992), indeed the Island inspired many Mozambican writers, which identified it as a metonymical representation of the nation for its multicultural identity. A documentary by Licínio Azevedo made in 2010, A Ilha dos Espíritos, shows how the islanders live a present characterized by tourism and cultural preservation, which includes also the recuperation of slave memory. Indeed the Island, inserted in the routes of the Indian Ocean, is part of the world heritage sites in connection with slavery and slave trade. Our intention is to reflect about the recent historical, economical and cultural challenge represented by the Island of Mozambique. Considering also the importance of the literary and cultural production influenced by the Island, our aim to reflect about the capacity of the initiatives and programmes developed by UNESCO to rediscover a complex past and to preserve the tangible and intangible cultural heritage developed in the small but significant space of the island.