Decolonisation of Africa through cultural heritage

When the African Union declared 2021 the Year of Arts, Culture and Heritage, many of us celebrated in the belief that, finally, culture and heritage had been given the liberating opportunity of driving political, economic, social, environmental and technological events on the continent.

After all, we mused knowingly, Africa is so linguistically and culturally diverse that it would not require much intellectual muscle to harvest from our people’s immense resources. Looking back, however, one feels that more could have been done by institutions and governments in 2021 to anchor arts, culture and heritage in development in view of the continental consensus. 

Granted, Covid-19 did make things difficult as we had to abide by the health protocols put forward by governments to fight the pandemic. But the opportunity offered by the year to create more jobs for the youth through investing in cultural and creative industries and leveraging on technology to innovate with a cultural lens was not utilised effectively across Africa. Neither did the continent create platforms for telling stories about Africa’s history of struggle through slavery, colonialism and neocolonialism. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has shown most poignantly that the colonial practices of the past are still present, albeit in different forms. We witnessed vividly the hoarding of Covid-19 vaccines by Europe and the USA and denying Africa access to life saving technological products.

The hoarding mindset is informed by the culture of individualism and racism in Europe and the US, buttressed by Western inward looking philosophies. The decolonisation of the mind will need to take place rather urgently in the West and Africa to build more inclusive societies.

Encouragingly, the long awaited Kenya National Culture Policy and the Music Policy were endorsed by the Cabinet. The draft regulations to implement the indigenous knowledge and cultural expressions legislation were also developed and there was significant capacity development around intellectual property and copyright, undertaken through partnerships with civil society and think tanks.

The Film Policy was finalised and a pathway for the growth of the industry was charted. The Department of Culture and Heritage explored a range of funding opportunities to finance creativity with the support of the Kenya Bankers Associations. But still more needs to be done. Kenyans are waiting for the ratification of international conventions on culture and heritage and the passage of key legislation and regulations to promote the cultural and creative industries as part of the national development agenda.

Culture and heritage

Practitioners in the creative sector are desirous of a framework within national and county governments to boost the culture and heritage budgets, build the infrastructure for the sector to thrive, and invest in a vibrant teaching and learning curricula that anchor culture and heritage at all levels. They are asking for more focused commitment by stakeholders in culture and heritage to work through indigenous knowledge systems and communities, for inclusive access to heritage.

Considering that 2022 is the AU Year of Nutrition and Food Security, there is yet another opportunity to work with the creative sector in shifting nutritional habits and moving away from junk food to healthier indigenous servings, especially because of our learning about the Covid-19 pandemic and non-communicable diseases.

Further, there is now a window to incorporate societal values that enhance egalitarianism and equality, embedded in our cultures through the Ubuntu philosophy. With Covid-19, we have witnessed the glaring social and economic inequalities and gender based violence which ought to be addressed urgently through the arts.

While there are many factors that have contributed to the neglect of arts, culture and heritage as drivers of social and economic transformation, it is important to pay attention to engrained narratives and attitudes about African cultures and heritage perpetuated over time since Africa’s encounter with colonialism.

At independence, leaders who took the reins of power did not find value in investing in culture and heritage. Stories about the heroes of liberation, African spirituality, celebration of culture as life, and spaces historical significance were neglected. This neglect must stop. The anchoring of arts, culture, and heritage in socio-economic transformation is impossible without a deliberate invocation of decolonisation as an organising principle. 

Culture in its various formations, including as cultural heritage, is key to the process of decolonization. Here we use cultural heritage in its broadest meaning to include tangible heritage - movable, immobile and underwater - and intangible heritage such as languages, festivals and celebrations.

In the decolonization agenda, we would need to ask the question: How are African countries utilizing the stories and artefacts that passed on across generations such as languages, architecture, archives, arts and crafts, music and film, customs, traditions and festivals to build national consciousness and sense of identity, give people confidence in their history and value system and inspire them? How is our creativity present on the streets, highways, airwaves and in the educational system? 

Cultural heritage

In his writings since the late 1970s, Kenya’s foremost writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o has called upon Africans on the continent and in the diaspora to recognise the critical role that languages play as carriers of histories and worldview.

The aim of colonialism, he reminds us, was to take over the process of wealth production and its distribution and to control the entire spectrum of the language as experienced in real life. In my view, the invocation of African languages in the decolonization thrust is strategic. They are core to indigenous knowledge systems. Ngugi is drawing us to the multiplicity of functions that language plays in our lives. 

It is through language that we communicate, interact, and create and transmit knowledge. Therefore, we use our languages to understand the nature, tastes, and nuances in African culinary arts. Equally, we activate language to start appreciating the wisdom of our ancestors, their philosophy of life, and our traditional institutions used in community resolution of disputes. Our languages are integral to our being and the resolution of the challenges the continent faces including climate change and food insecurity. 

Another cultural heritage issue that the Kenya government ought to address rather urgently relates to restitution of Africa’s heritage currently held in Europe and the United States. Aspiration 5 of Africa Agenda 2063, which is related to cultural identity, common heritage, values and ethics, provides a continental framework for a discourse on restitution and a shared vision of culture and belonging.

Whether in the pan-African movement or in the struggle for independence against colonialism, the topic has popped up incessantly. It will not go way and is currently growing into a continental movement for Europe and the USA to do what is morally right: Return that which was taken from Africa through slavery and colonialism. Africa has a right to its cultural heritage so that it can learn and tell its stories, its way. 

The call for restitution is not idle. At each point of the onslaught on the continent by Europeans, the demand for justice was articulated by communities as they fought back. On many occasions, communities let go of its people, natural and cultural resources because they were overwhelmed by superior weapons. At other times, cultural products were given away as ‘gifts’ to colonial administrators and researchers, albeit in an unbalanced relation of power.

On their part, colonial powers created narratives about the collections, built their museums, tourism industry and university libraries and cultural centres through products harvested from the colonies. As a consequence, Africa was starved of its cultural heritage and history and continues to suffer from a skewed narrative about it’s past.

These matters and many more will be subjected to rigorous debate at a Decolonization and Cultural Heritage Symposium organised by Twaweza Communications in partnership with the British Council over the next few days. 

Kimani Njogu is a linguist and cultural scholar based in Nairobi. [email protected]