UNESCO, Heritage and Africa

This book explores the politics of heritage. Beyond its use in the construction of identity or the politics of representation, labeling something 'heritage' is an intensely political act that legitimises certain processes over others. As a 'policy document' the World Heritage Convention gives institutional authority to discourses of 'heritage' and 'internationalism'. At the core of the world heritage 'system' is a tension between the need to protect the world's heritage, and the sovereignty of 'State Parties'. While there have been many recent changes to the world heritage 'system' - provoked by the imbalances of the World Heritage List, the eurocentricities its definitions, and a growing concern for its wider credibility, what cannot change is the sovereignty of 'State Parties'. Through labelling something 'world heritage' certain actions of the state are legitimised and empowered by claims to its 'outstanding universal value', which must be preserved for 'humanity'. Thus the world heritage 'system' can be viewed as an 'anti-politics machine' (Ferguson1990) which reifies the role of state bureaucracy in Africa through de-politicised claims to 'universal value'.