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Presenting Archaeology and Heritage at a UNESCO World Heritage Site: Gorée Island, Senegal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

Ibrahima Thiaw  and
Gerry Wait
Ibrahima Thiaw
Affiliation:
PhD, Laboratoire d'Archéologie IFAN-Université Cheikh, Anta Diop BP 206 Dakar, Senegal (thiawi@yahoo.com)
Gerry Wait*
Affiliation:
Triskelion Heritage, 190 Wadards, Witney, OxfordUK
*
(gerry.wait@outlook.com, corresponding author)
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Abstract

Gorée Island is Senegal's first site on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It is associated with the infamous Atlantic slave trade, and over the past few decades, Gorée has become a prime destination for global tourism, particularly for the African diaspora from the New World but also for many Europeans and African nationals. Today, Gorée is a forum where different stakeholders battle over the role, place, and significance of the island in the Atlantic slave trade and its enduring legacies in the present. While Gorée owes much of its reputation to its heritage, including architecture, archaeology, and monuments, recent controversies over site preservation and policy compliance raised questions about heritage presentation and consumption. This article analyzes stakeholders’ attitudes toward archaeology and heritage to gain insights on how they are presented and consumed by different stakeholders and eventually destroyed by them as well. The discussion shows ambiguous attitudes toward site presentation and preservation, which might be linked either to stakeholders’ subjectivities or hypocrisy or to poor and uncoordinated communication strategies by heritage professionals.

La Isla de Gorea es el primer sitio de Senegal en la Lista del Patrimonio Mundial de la UNESCO. Está asociada a la infame trata de esclavos a través del Atlántico y en las últimas décadas se ha convertido en un destino importante para el turismo global, especialmente para los descendientes de la diáspora africana en el Nuevo Mundo, pero también para muchos europeos y africanos. Hoy en día, Gorea es un foro en el cual diferentes partes interesadas luchan sobre el papel, el lugar y la importancia de la isla en la trata atlántica de esclavos y sus legados actuales. Si bien Gorea debe gran parte de su reputación a su patrimonio, que incluye la arquitectura, la arqueología y los monumentos, las recientes controversias sobre la preservación del sitio y el cumplimiento de las políticas plantearon cuestiones de presentación y consumo del patrimonio. Este artículo analiza las actitudes de los interesados hacia la arqueología y el patrimonio para obtener información sobre su presentación, consumo y eventual destrucción por diferentes partes interesadas. La discusión muestra actitudes ambiguas hacia la presentación y la preservación del sitio, que podrían estar vinculadas a las subjetividades o la hipocresía de las partes interesadas, o a pobres estrategias de comunicación y falta de coordinación por parte de profesionales del patrimonio.

Type
Articles
Information
Advances in Archaeological Practice , Volume 6 , Special Issue 3: Interpreting and Presenting Archaeology , August 2018 , pp. 238 - 247
Copyright
Copyright 2018 © Society for American Archaeology 

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