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Tanzania set to increase the number of World Heritage Sites
2007-12-26 09:36:22
By Christopher Magola
Bagamoyo, the oldest town in Tanzania was recently designated as the country`s eighth World Heritage Site. The town`s history has been influenced by Arab and Indian traders, the German colonial government and Christian missionaries.
Although Bagamoyo is no longer the busy port city that it once was, Tanzania`s Department of Antiquities under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism is working to revitalize the town and maintain the dozens of ruins in and around Bagamoyo.
They include he Kaole Ruins, located about five kilometres south of Bagamoyo.The ruins have two mosques and several tombs, one mosque isthe remnant of the oldest mosque in East Africa, dating between third and fourth centuries.
The ruins are believed to be established around 13th century, indicating early contact that Bagamoyo had with Islamic world. The tombs were built from coral stones.
Kaole, formerly known as Pumbuji, was the first settlement of the Arabs from Persia in 13th Century (1270). The place was excavated in 1958 by Neville Chittick from England with Samahani M. Kejeri now a Professor.
American Ambassador to Tanzania, Mark Green, recently handed over 10,900 US dollars (about 12.8m/- as the first instalment of a total of 20,900 US dollars towards the restoration of Kaole Ruins near Bagamoyo.
Green handed the cheque to Dr. Donatius Kamamba, Director of the Department of Antiquities and Acting Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism at a ceremony also attended by Anthony Tibaijuka, Anquities Conservator.
The Ambassador`s Fund for Cultural Preservation project is two-fold: restoration and upkeep of the two mosques located at the site and an update and reprinting of A Guide to the Ruins of Kaole.
A statement issued by the US Embassy said that the Ambassador`s Fund for Cultural Preservation is the only program in the US Government that provides direct small grant support to heritage preservation in developing countries.
According to the statement, previous Ambassador`s Fund for Cultural Preservation projects in Tanzania between 2002 and 2006 included:
Restoration of Pemba\'s Shumba and Micheweni Mosques that contain Unique features combining Swahili and Persian architecture dating from the 17th to 18th centuries, to preserve through digitization 19th century records documenting the lives of slaves who passed through the Swahili Coast and information about the measures taken to abolish slavery.
The Government through the Ministries of Education and Culture and Natural Resources and Tourism, has launched an ambitious drive to promote historical sites as part of a strategy to have more World Heritage Sites in the country.
Before Bagamoyo was designated a World Heritage Site recently, Tanzania was home to seven World Heritage Sites namely, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Serengeti and Kilimanjaro National Parks, the Selous Game Reserve, the historical sites of Kilwa Kisiwani and Ruins of Songo Mnara, Zanzibar Stone Town and Kondoa Rock Art Sites.
To achieve the objective the comprehensive drive aims to research, Protect and rehabilitate historical sites and conserve national heritage of antiquities in accordance with the 1997 Cultural Policy and 1964 Antiquities Act amended in 1979.
This has led to preparation of an Antiquities National Policy, a guideline on protection, research and conservation of antiquities in the country.
The Antiquities Division of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism is in the process of finalising the National Antiquities Policy in an effort to protect historical and cultural monuments in Tanzania.
The Director of the Antiquities, Donatius Kamamba says the draft of the policy has already been forwarded to the cabinet, adding that if it passes through the required stages successfully, it would enable the directorate to amend the Antiquities Act.
He was presenting a paper on the `Role of Policy and Law in Overseeing Sustainable Utilisation of the Antiquities sub-sector` at a three-day workshop on Protection and Preservation of the Cultural Heritage of Pangani.
He told the workshop that the amendment of the law would take into account participation and involvement of the society in the preservation and sustainable utilization of the cultural heritage for the benefit of the nation and its people.
The Antiquities chief pointed out that the current law, which has operated for over 40 years, has succeeded in identifying historical and cultural heritage, preserving it, overseeing research and providing regulations, orders and various notices that have facilitated sustainable preservation.
``The Law must be commended for that and be honoured accordingly,`` he told the workshop, organised by a Pangani-based NGO, Uzima kwa Sanaa (UZIKWASA)in collaboration with the Antiquities Division.
He added, however, that it has several weaknesses that would not only stunt development and sustainable use of the heritage, but also would cause loss of some of the heritage.
He mentioned the weaknesses as including non-inclusion of directives and guidelines provided by International Conventions on preservation of historical and cultural heritage.
``Implementation of the directives and guidelines of the international conventions has therefore become difficult because the law has not adopted them,`` Kamamba said.
Meanwhile the Government has also decided to privatize historical sites in the country to local investors only.
The move has been taken as one way to ease stalled conservation and rehabilitation of the sites due to lack of funds by the Government.
The first to be affected by the decision through the Directorate of Antiquities and National Archives in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism is a building of slave trade in Bagamoyo, Coast Region handed over to a local investor to develop it for tourism activities.
Former Acting Director of Antiquities and Chief Conservator of National Archives Eliwasa Maro said the move to hand over the slave trade building and its surroundings will help the government reduce the burden of rehabilitation and other activities now to be shouldered by the new investor.
According to the new investor Mr. Hillary Biduga actual rehabilitation cost of the seventeenth century building is expected to be more than 700m/-, adding that the objective is to ensure that the government`s offer for conservation of antiquities and archives benefits future generations.
He was supported by residents who said Archaeological site of Kunduchi with historical ruins including a mosque and graves dating back to the slave trade era in East Africa should be preserved as a cultural heritage.
A sustainable conservation programme for old historical town of Bagamoyo included rehabilitation of some attractions along the central corridor of slave trade route from Ujiji on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in Kigoma Region to Bagamoyo in Coast Region.
Rehabilitated Caravan Serai Building in Bagamoyo is part of Kaole Memorial and Information Centre under a Swedish funded project for rehabilitation of central route for slave, trophies and elephant tusks included in the list of World Heritage Sites
Rehabilitation of historical sites in Tanzania coincides with a the decision by the German Government through its Technical Cooperation Agency, GTZ, to fund conservation of German Colonial Administration Records in Tanzania.
The German colonial administration records between 1891 and 1916 are a vital element for Tanzania`s record of history which led in 1977 to the United Nations Cultural Organization-UNESCO-to add the records to its Memory of the World Registry.
The records comprise documents of the central administration, of district courts, district offices and non-public papers all consisting of approximately 700,000 sheets of paper belonging to 8600 files contained in 700 boxes to be transferred to microfilm or computer files for easy consultation.
German-Tanzanian cooperation to restore and classify the files goes back to the early years of independence(1966). The 110 billion shilling project will restore a precious instrument for historical research in many aspects of Tanzania`s history.
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