UNESCO, Heritage and Africa

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This book explores the politics of heritage. Beyondits use in the construction of identity or the politics ofrepresentation, labeling something 'heritage' is an intensely political actthat legitimises certain processes over others. As a 'policy document'the World Heritage Convention gives institutional authority todiscourses of 'heritage' and 'internationalism'. At the core of theworld heritage 'system' is a tension between the need to protect theworld'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, theeurocentricities its definitions, and a growing concern for its widercredibility, what cannot change is the sovereignty of 'State Parties'.Through labelling something 'world heritage' certain actions of thestate are legitimised and empowered by claims to its'outstanding universal value', which must be preserved for 'humanity'. Thusthe world heritage 'system' can be viewed as an 'anti-politicsmachine' (Ferguson1990) which reifies the role of statebureaucracy in Africa through de-politicised claims to 'universal value'.