Revisiting Heritage Authenticity and Integrity of Cultural Sites in Africa: With the Example of Mukurwe Wa Nyagathanga Cultural Site in Kenya

Africa has a great wealth of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, which has historically been valued, protected and celebrated under communities’ traditional custodianship system. Colonialism, however, brought into the continent the Western concept in which heritage authenticity is pegged on expert-judged antiquity, monumentality and aesthetics. Perpetuation of the Western concept in postcolonial Africa leads to continued disregard and exclusion of communities’ cultural heritages. At the international level, the privileging of the Western concept in determining a heritage’s Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) has led to under-representation of Africa in the World Heritage list. Using the case study of Mukurwe wa Nyagathanga cultural site in Kenya, this study illustrates the “authenticity dynamics” that have culminated in the under representation Africa’s diverse heritages on the World Heritage List. The chapter emphasises the need for the conceptualisation of a heritage authenticity framework that accommodates the dynamic cultural, political and socioeconomic processes within which communities in Africa continually contextualise their heritage.