Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the places of subversive narratives about heritage that are deviant from those of big international institutions like UNESCO. In the urban context of Dakar, tourist workers fuel discussions on how to decolonize the ‘Western gaze’ that is currently found in tourism.

Paper long abstract:

Gorée is the most important tourist site in Senegal regarding its role within the Atlantic slave trade and colonialism in West Africa. Due to the remaining architecture, archaeological records and historical documentation, the island was granted UNESCO heritage site status. By these means, it became a significant tourist attraction, especially for the African diaspora on the one hand and French-speaking Europeans on the other. Like at all tourist sites, the visitor’s interactions and emotions are greatly influenced by their formal framing, mainly the feeling of the trauma and the horrors of the slave trade. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of the island and the adjacent capital Dakar have become more and more critical of the supposed foreign idea of ‘heritage sites’ and feel the urge to express their own conceptions about the island, which can contest the established gaze on it. Their interpretations and meaning-making of place, architecture and spirits are much more multifaceted and complex than the above named. They seek to share their perspectives with tourists as well, by alternative guided tours, spontaneous invitations to passing tourists and so on.

This contribution presents a part of my research for my dissertation. I will discuss the layers of meaning-making of space on a heritage site and the decolonial and urban-induced narratives that residents of the island circulate. Local tour guides shall be regarded as cultural brokers in postcolonial encounters with tourists whose expertise not only includes the established presentations of history but also the subversive interpretations of the colonial heritage.