Gambian Historic Sites
submitted for World Heritage listing

Gambian Historic Sites submitted for World Heritage listing

by Baba Ceesay

The Gambia has met the deadline for submission of its World Heritage nomination for James Island and related sites for consideration for inscription in the World Heritage List in 2003. This is the culmination of a long, winding process which began in 1994.

At the time, The Gambia submitted nominations for two properties, the enigmatic Stone Circles and James Island, one of the earliest European settlements in the sub-region. Both nominations were deferred pending comparative studies with similar sites, as well as what is now appreciated to be the lack of a 'management plan' for the conservation of the sites.

The World Heritage Convention was adopted by UNESCO in 1972 with the primary mission of identifying cultural and natural heritage of outstanding universal value throughout the world, and ensuring its protection through international cooperation. A key benefit of ratification of the Convention, particularly for developing countries, is access to the World Heritage Fund to finance technical assistance and training projects. In addition, only State Parties to the Convention have the opportunity to see sites inscribed on the World Heritage List.

The Gambia ratified the Convention in 1987, but is yet to have a site inscribed in the World Heritage List.

Following the 1994 debacle therefore, the World Heritage Centre within the context of the Global Strategy for rectifying the imbalance in the World Heritage List identified CRATerreEAG of Grenoble, France, to work with The Gambia on the nominated sites. The task was basically to re-examine the situation and make proposals for a better approach to this interesting case.

The case of James Island in particular was considered a challenge in that the Forts and Castles of Ghana as well as Goree Island in Senegal had already been inscribed in the World Heritage List, making it more difficult to prove uniqueness and outstanding universal value. Hence the recommendation by ICOMOS (The International Council on Monuments and Sites) in their 1994 mission, now adopted, that James Island should not be viewed or presented in isolation, but rather in combination with the series of sites in the Albreda-Juffureh Complex, including Fort.

Together these sites illustrate all the main periods and facets of the Afro-European encounter along the River Gambia, a continuum that stretched from pre-slavery times to the independence period. These sites are significant for their relation with the slave trade and its abolition, the beginning of the colonial era in Africa, and the Second World War and beyond. In fact, in Fort Bullen, Barra, and the Six-Gun Battery at State House in Banjul, The Gambia has the only structures that were ever built (after the Abolition Act of 1807) to deter the slave trade as distinct from perpetuating European trading interests, which all the other Forts in the sub-region represent.

CRATerre's first mission to The Gambia took place in May
1996 and recommendations were made for increasing the technical capacity of the Museums and Monuments Division(MMD) of the NCAC which is responsible for conserving the country's material heritage; stabilization of the conditions of the structures; and increasing the tourism as well as income-generation potentials of the sites.

The outcome was a comprehensive multi-faceted proposal for a training programme that will address most of the concerns. Another mission followed in July 1997 to identify the details of the programme including training participants, works to be executed, budget breakdown and most importantly to prepare a document to facilitate the accessing of complimentary funds for the project.

The in-situ training programme took place between 4-17 December 1997 after well-planned background work on acquiring and delivering materials and equipment on siteJames Island. 54 participants, including MMD staff and local artisans and technicians received both theoretical and practical knowledge in the conservation of stone masonry vulnerable to deterioration by wave action and salinity, plant growth and human agents. The result of the exercise is most visible in the before and after photographs of the island, but were more farreaching in that capacity was developed to replicate similar work at other sites in the country.

Almost a year after this work was realized, another opportunity to do additional work on the initial recommendations of CRATerre came in a funding grant from American Express, through the World Monuments Watch Program, USA. Apart from additional conservation work on all the relevant sites, a series of postcards and a very marketable glossy brochure were produced with CRATerre from these additional funds. The idea is to use the resources generated from the sale of the postcards and brochure for the maintenance of the sites.

With the birth of Africa 2009 and CRATerre's instructive experience in The Gambia, the conservation of James Island and Related Sites was adopted as a project situe and the task was extended to assistance in the preparation of the World Heritage Nomination dossier including the Management Plan for the sites. Preparatory Assistance funding was obtained from the World Heritage Fund to facilitate this task.

This was another invaluable experience for staff of the MMD, particularly the Prinicipal Cultural Officer who benefited from the first Africa 2009 Course on the Conservation of Immovable Cultural Heritage in Africa held in Mombasa in 1999. In preparing the nomination file assistance came not only from CRATerre, but ICCROM as well, the main partner of Africa 2009.

Most useful in this exercise was the participatory approach of working with the community to evolve the management plan. Several stakeholder meetings were convened, allowing the communities to air their views on the management of the sites as well as creating a sense of ownership of the plan on their part. Today the communities are as much aware of the con-servation concerns about these site as the staff of the MMD. As a result initiatives beyond the provisions of the management plan are being taken by the communities in the interest of safeguarding these invaluable properties.
The relationship with Africa 2009 continues to grow motivating us to focus on hitherto neglected aspects of the cultural heritage such as sacred sites in traditional custodianship, managed with traditional conservation know-how. One such site, Katchically has been the subject of an article in Africa 2009's latest publication on Traditional Conservation practices in Africa.

We take this opportunity to thank CRATerre and all the Africa 2009 Partners, including NORAD,SIDA,UNESCO,ICCROM and African Cultural Heritage Institutions, for their invaluable support in the conservation of the cultural in The Gambia. We continue to pledge our support and co-operation for this magnanimous programme made available to us by the international community with the backing of the World Heritage Centre at UNESCO as part of the effort to rectify the imbalance in the World Heritage List.

Nacero Media & Publishing, part of the GamWeb Group Ltd

e-mail simon@nacero.com
www.nacero.com

by by Baba Ceesay - August 2005

Back to Top

###

Source: http://gta.gm