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Destruction of heritage sites alarms National Commission
on Culture's chair
Accra, Sept. 8, Ghanadot/GNA - Professor George Hagan,
Chairman of the National Commission on Culture, on Monday
observed that the pressure of economic need and greed,
coupled with Africa's quest to discover and exploit natural
resources for development had destroyed many heritage and
sacred sites.
"These destructive trends challenge us to determine whether
African heritage sites have any contemporary relevance and
whether we can preserve and make sustainable use of them,"
he said.
Prof. Hagan made the remarks at the opening of the Ninth
Africa Conference on the Intangible Aspects of Sacred
Heritage Sites being hosted by the Ghana Museums and
Monuments Board (GMMB) with financial support of the
government of Sweden.
He called on African governments to device strategies to
collect, collate, analyse, understand and evaluate the
intangible heritage as a source of indigenous knowledge.
Intangible heritage includes events, beliefs, myth, legend
and practices of a community.
Prof. Hagan noted that Ghana had a great variety of sacred
heritage sites, "between 2,000 and 4,000 as given by various
specialists".
"To uncover and appreciate some elements of the intangible
heritage behind sacred sites, permit me to suggest a
tentative classification - physical and nature bodies,
nature sanctuaries, places of sacred rituals, early human
habitations and ancient religious grooves.
“You may find this classification applicable to other
African countries.”
Prof. Hagan noted that population growth and human
settlement, hunting, mining, climate change and growth of
foreign religion as against traditional beliefs were some of
the key challenges affecting the survival of heritage sites.
He said the Commission had drawn up a strategy to begin to
map the sacred sites, collect and collate the indigenous
intangible heritage associated with them.
"This knowledge would enable us to evolve strategies for
protecting the sites, regulating their use and thus deriving
great scientific, economic and socio-cultural benefits from
them.”
Mr. Edmund Addo-Yobo, Head of Administration, GMMB, said
heritage sites formed the basis of forging a corrective
consensus on managing the environment and demonstrating the
ability to regulate the physical landscape.
He noted that the conference was to afford participants the
capacity to identify sacred sites and management
conservation of intangible values of heritage sites.
GNA
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