- 1 What place for the cultural and natural heritage of the Congo (DRC) on the UNESCO lists of tangible (...)
- 2 This partnership between the two countries is led by the Congolese national Commission for UNESCO a (...)
- 3 In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the tourism sector contributes to only 0,001 % of the nati (...)
1“What place for the cultural and natural heritage of the Congo (DRC) on the UNESCO lists of tangible and intangible world heritage ?”1, such is the question asked by a Belgo-Congolese2 collaboration program (2011) concerning the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and on which rests the present reflection, the objective of which is to develop methodological axes to comprehend the “heritage – tourism – development” triangulation in the “DRC” by identifying areas of research which can give rise to pilot experiments in the field and, in their trail, allowing to establish heritage and tourism policies in the service of local development. In fact, the reflection undertaken pays attention to the particular and paradoxical situation of “The Congo”, which holds an exceptional heritage, but which barely invests in the tourism sector3 because of institutional weaknesses, and which, for reasons linked to security and to its status of a country in the process of economic reconstruction and in the stage of peace consolidation, is de facto no longer an international tourism destination. Nevertheless, beyond the “easy” observation of the lagging behind from which suffers the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the latter could very well become a laboratory for the implementation of other approaches on heritage and tourism, less exclusively dedicated to foreign visitors and more in the service of the needs expressed by the local populations which live near heritage sites.
2The culture of a population appears to be an instrument of harmonious and integrated development recognizes Joseph Ibongo Gilungula, Director of the Institute of the National Museums of Congo (INMC), which underlines that the “DRC” is proceeding to the retrospective of its self-management after the implementation of new institutions and reflecting upon its future (Ibongo Gilungula, 2012). Through his words, the author underlines that the question of heritage within the Congolese state, which is in a phase of “renovation”, is relatively topical, and emphasizes the existing dynamics between culture and development. In fact, for the last twenty years, the stakes peculiar to the heritage (movable, immovable, tangible, intangible) of the “DRC” have been the object of several reflections and seem to bode well for a promising turning point. Undoubtedly, since the former travel guides of the time of the Belgian Congo, and those of Zaire, it is Antoine Lumenganeso Kiobe whom for the first time in 1995 published a work replacing the city of Kinshasa in a triple perspective, at once historical, heritage and tourism oriented (Lumenganeso Kiobe, 1995).
3In Europe, the research on architecture used in the “DRC” at the time of the Belgian Congo met a significant development through the work undertaken by Johan Lagae from Ghent University. Since the beginning of the 21st century, this research opened new perspectives for the reinterpretation of the Congolese territory both at the historical and heritage level (Lagae, 2001), even if beforehand Bruno de Meulder initiated numerous studies, but more oriented towards the questions of urban planning (Meulder, 1994 and 2000). On a more international scale, and following an interdisciplinary and comparative approach, the question of the colonial heritage was raised on the occasion of two Round Tables dedicated respectively to the French and European experiences (Pabois, Toulier, 2005 and 2006). Finally, taking a more thematic perspective, the specific case of the memory of Congolese industry and the industrial heritage which goes along with it was studied on the occasion of the work led at the University of Lubumbashi by Donatien Dibwe di Mwembu, who attempted to pick up, decipher and interpret the famous past of ancient Elisabethville. The city of copper thus became a relevant case study for industrial heritage in connection with urban identities ; a domain still insufficiently studied in the Congo (Dibwe di Mwembu, 2010).
- 4 In particular thanks to the Congolese support of the Urban planning office (BEAU) of Kinshasa and t (...)
- 5 The on-line inventory also took the shape of a hardcopy synthesis; see: Gemoets M, Lagae J., Toulie (...)
4Showing a more operational approach, the inventory of Kinshasa’s heritage by a Congolese4 and European5 mixed team and the work of the Faculty of Architecture La Cambre-Horta of the Free University of Brussels (Robert, 2010, 2013) tend to move away from a strictly speaking academic approach by engaging in a partnership with the Congolese institutions to better equip them concretely for managing the heritage of the territory. The map of Kinshasa’s heritage, published in 2012 (Lecocq, Robert, 2012), and the architectural guide of Kinshasa, published in 2013, demonstrate this approach (Lagae, Toulier, 2013).
5The question of tourism in the “DRC” remains a stake which suffers from a lack of serious and updated scientific studies of this sector. The latter remains relatively little reviewed by researchers and international studies, which, when they do exist, such as those of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), value mainly the ecological potential of the Congo. In the end, regarding tourism, and particularly cultural tourism, the vitality of the reflection originates more from comments left on various blogs which feed the Internet and which constitute an instructive mosaic of expertise on the practice of tourism in the Congo. It is in this rather bland and informal context that one must greet the recent edition by the collection “Le Petit Futé” of two travel guides highlighting the cultural wealth of the country (Wyvekens, 2012) and which demonstrate a bold approach from the private sector.
6To deal with the relations between heritage, tourism and development in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is therefore not an easy subject, because it suffers from a relative rarity and weakness of sources, particularly scientific. Consequently, it is mainly on the basis of ground expertise on the occasion of specific collaboration actions with the “DRC” that the present reflection was developed. This empiricism, which characterizes the followed approach, fed on several meetings with local actors and on ideas moved forward during numerous seminars on heritage and land-use planning introduced by the Free University of Brussels and various Congolese partners such as the Kinshasa Higher Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning (ISAU), the Society of Architects of Congo (BAG), the Institute of the National Museums of Congo (INMC) and the Congolese National Commission for UNESCO.
7From the point of view of international heritage strategies, the Belgo-Congolese initiative of both “UNESCO” commissions follows in the wake of a reflection introduced by UNESCO and ICOMOS since 1992, aiming at obtaining a better representativeness of the properties inscribed on the World Heritage List (ICOMOS, 1994). The displayed intent is to reach a more accurate balance between the western concept of “historical monument” and heritage principles peculiar to the cultures of humanity which have weaved through other relationships between the notions of heritage, transmission, tradition and present. Even if this situation is improving, sub-Saharan Africa remains under-represented on the World Heritage List (1972 Convention) in cultural terms.
8One must go back to the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the World Heritage Convention (1972-1992) to witness the production of a critical thought on this ambitious heritage project. Among the most forward-looking reflections of the time, featured the one put forward by the historian Léon Pressouyre, which is entitled “The World Heritage Convention, twenty years later”. In the wake of the Convention, the author pointed a number of political and scientific dysfunctions by raising, on one hand, the question of the universality of the criteria used, which could be exclusive of emblematic properties, and, on the other hand, by contemplating the need of putting into perspective the use of the concept of authenticity (Pressouyre, 1992, pp. 9-11). “The criterion of the authenticity of cultural property seems to have been defined early on in reference to a European concept, itself in constant evolution and extremely changeable depending on which countries put it into practice”, states the historian (Pressouyre, 1992, p. 11). This Eurocentrism of the criteria, somewhat patronizing towards vernacular architecture, entailed the refusal of the recognition of several properties and “manhandled” certain requests for inscription on the list, peculiarly when these heritage elements were built out of perishable materials requiring regular structural restoration, such as the traditional buildings of the Ashanti in Ghana built out of rammed earth, wood, bamboo and thatch. Sub-Saharan Africa suffered from these prejudices on the presumed doubtful authenticity of these building materials considered as “poor” by the West, which during the 1970-1980 was reluctant to conceive of an authenticity which puts know-how and technique on an equal footing with the authenticity of historical material.
9Moreover, coupled with these reflections at the foundation of a new consciousness relative to the representativeness of the World Heritage Convention, Léon Pressouyre also stressed the issue of anthropological landscapes. The latter were the pretext for an international meeting of experts6 (UNESCO, 1992) in 1992, in order to conceptually enrich the interface between “nature” and “culture” and to recognize the heritage value of the cultural connections (concrete actions of implementation and symbolic attachments) a society maintains with its environment. As underlined by the experts (Rössler and Saouma-Forero Galia, 2000), the typology of the associative cultural landscapes was certainly the most innovative category which allowed sub-Saharan Africa to ensure the recognition of the value of its hitherto ignored sacred woods.
10Another important field that captivated Léon Pressouyre’s attention was the inclusion in heritage of the twentieth century architecture and that of industrial constructions, which, at that time, were often excluded from the “UNESCO” list. The festivities of the twentieth anniversary stirred up many debates which still continue to this day, even if the idea that a heritage can be a reality, not inscribed in a distant temporality, but speaking of a not-so-distant past, tends to now be accepted in the cenacles of the organization, as shown by the inscriptions of the buildings of the Bauhaus or of the modernist housing estates of Berlin. Nevertheless, as regards sub-Saharan Africa, the extension of the concept of world heritage to include the architecture of the XXth century was not profitable for the continent. Even the recent work “Forgotten heritage of Africa” ignores the stakes specific to urban heritage (African cities could possess a “universal” heritage value as architectural and urban laboratories (Damant, 2013)), by remaining “subservient” to the concept of isolated monument (Favel & Belaval, 2011). Today, apart for cities which show a “long” history such as Djenné and Timbuktu (Mali), Lamu (Kenya), Zanzibar (Tanzania), Cidade Velha (Cape Verde), Saint-Louis (Senegal), etc., capitals and other large African urban centers are not mentioned on the major UNESCO “catalog”. One must however note the audacious presence on the indicative list of the modernist perimeter of Asmara (Eritrea) and the effective inscription of Grand-Bassam (Ivory Coast), thus bravely recognizing the value of an urban architecture of the end of the XIXth century and of the beginning of the XXth century on African soil.
- 7 We shall underline that Africa had “real” cities well before the arrival of the European colonizati (...)
11Nevertheless, a little more than a century after their foundation and approximately fifty years after their independence, the cities of sub-Saharan Africa, in the modern sense of the term7, deserve an interdisciplinary reflection concerning heritage on the scale of the continent on the questions of urbanism and colonial architecture (Lagae, 2006 and 2010), of the inheritance of modernism, in particular tropical modernism (Eloundou, 2005), or of the value to grant to urban designs and to the architectural post-independence production. Valuing in such a way the urban heritage would indubitably help towards a better representativeness of Africa on the UNESCO World Heritage List and could participate to the development dynamics implemented on the continent.
- 8 It is however important to note that in 1997 three sites were submitted to the indicative list: the (...)
12It is within this perspective that falls the partnership between both “UNESCO” commissions on the “DRC” heritage. A gigantic country (close to 3,5 times the surface of France and approximately 80 times that of Belgium), the Democratic Republic of the Congo is not culturally represented on the UNESCO World Heritage List (1972), even though this country possesses a remarkable cultural heritage. In fact, the only sites on the list are natural sites, which are in passing exceptional, such as the national parks of Virunga, Kahuzi-Biega, Garamba, Salonga and the okapi fauna reserve8.
13The same observation can be made regarding intangible heritage. To date, this list does not encompass any intangible cultural token from the Congo, while the country’s living cultural expressions have a distinctive identity and are strongly diversified. This situation can be explained by the fact that the Congo only recently ratified this Convention unlike close countries such as Burundi, Gabon, Uganda, the Central African Republic, or Zambia.
This under-representativeness of the Congo’s heritage at the highest valuing level of heritage (tangible and intangible) is of course unjustified and leads to an imbalance with regard to other African countries.
14Thus, from the national Congolese point of view, the initiative of both commissions was designed, on one hand, as an action to strengthen the Congo’s capacities towards efficient land-use planning (in accordance with the ideal of sustainable development) in narrow interaction with the defense and the promotion of local cultural identities, and on the other hand as an measure as part of “Education for All” by the thinking which it leads to regarding the teaching of the Congo’s cultural history and the promotion of “living arts”. From this point of view, the project is not unconnected with the policy of the five axes of action set up by the Congolese authorities (infrastructure, health and education, water and electricity, housing, employment).
15With regard to the situation of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the question of heritage in association with the question of tourism, with a view towards development, takes on a quite singular value, even a little provocative, when it is underlined that the country is not a touristic destination, and that it is in the grip of structural development problems and of humanitarian dramas due to the war which takes place essentially in the East. In the Congo, the large cities, in the modern sense of the term, date mainly from the XXth century. They have been the scene of an “exponential” demography and grew very quickly, taking the form of a considerable urban sprawl. Within such horizontal cities, the density of population is weak with regard to the surface which is occupied. This slack town planning renders mobility issues problematic, and increases facility costs. These factors do not make urban development management easier, and sometimes give a somewhat chaotic aspect to large towns.
16Yet the tourism potential of the Congo is genuine, being both remarkable and diversified. Confronted with this difficult situation, the large country of Central Africa must nevertheless update its policy and develop an appropriate tourism strategy with regard to this context, by favoring areas such as the Lower-Congo, the province of Kinshasa and the Katanga which have an easier access and are at the same time secure. In this perspective, the gap which the Congo needs to catch up on compared to other countries of the continent (Senegal, Ghana, Gabon, etc.) can be seen as an opportunity, because it should allow to rethink the “fundamentals” peculiar to these stakes, in order to avoid the traps of a type of tourism which would not be very respectful of its cultural and environmental context. Undoubtedly, by putting forward its driving role in terms of development, the equation which connects heritage and tourism often translates a slightly naive and simplistic approach to the question.
17Development stakes require that one thinks beforehand about the interface between the concepts of development, progress, growth and modernity. These four utopias are often amalgamated together and entail within developing countries well-meaning actions, that are however not necessarily easily adapted to the final beneficiaries of the cooperation projects.
18Before being associated with heritage within the framework of a tourism project, the notion of development should not be exempt from a critical approach. It thereby seems desirable that the concept of development, in its association with the notion of heritage, links up with stakes which go beyond the strictly economic approach of the notion of growth enthroned by its economic indicators (GDP, etc.), because development is inseparable from a qualitative dimension. The relation between heritage and development should be explored with as starting point the reflections expressed by philosopher Martha Nussbaum, who recalls that “there from now on exists a new theoretical paradigm in the world of development policy”, in opposition to the “classic” approach by gross domestic product (GDP) and which is known as the “human development approach” or also referred to as the “capability approach” (Nussbaum, 2012, p. 10). Thereby, within the framework of the Congo, the “heritage – development” tandem could usefully be the object of research in order to connect it to the concept of capability and generate in their trail field experimental projects, keeping in mind that in the “DRC” this “heritage – development” tandem cannot be considered separately from a context of underdevelopment inside which tourism, sometimes considered as the panacea, can become a clear ally for local populations, but could also constitute an aggravating factor of social inequalities.
19Considered next to the notion of progress, the term development seems more “neutral”. The word especially prevailed in the XIXth century and at the beginning of the XXth century. Its cultural connotation is stronger when it refers to social and moral progress. In the historical context of colonial Africa, this notion led to many misdemeanors, particularly during the evangelization campaigns of animist societies. The “heritage – tourism – development” association today of course aspires to a concerted transformation of society in close relation to the expectations voiced by the affected local communities, and respectful of the context of intervention, in particular the cultural context.
20If the term modernity is familiar to architects, who sometimes associate it somewhat simplistically to the modern movement, one must of course be reminded that modernity is not only stylistic, but that it is, since the Age of Enlightenment, more widely societal through a reasoned and critical approach of the world. The “heritage – tourism – development” equation is of course not simply a matter of exporting to developing countries a modernist ideal, more or less copied on that of the western block and which has since moreover been questioned by the philosophers of the Frankfurt School. Nevertheless, as a concept stemming from the Age of Enlightenment, the idea of heritage favors, through the process of questionings induced by its creation, a critical second reading of history and the evolution of territories. In the case of the Congo (DRC), a century after the appearance of large cities (Bukavu, Kinshasa, Kisangani, Lubumbashi, etc.) and fifty years after the independence (1960), the alliance between heritage and modernity could be an excuse for a large reflection on the colonial inheritance and the recent postcolonial past by thinking about their possible heritage value ; a recognition which could be used as part of a tourism strategy.
- 9 This definition is the one proposed by the syllabus “Architecture, Heritage and Development” of the (...)
21Thereby, within the framework of the present reflection, it has been suggested to consider that to develop is to recognize, preserve and pass on the heritage values of a context, in order to assume ownership and perpetuate it, but it also means transforming it to adapt it by renewing it, in order to allow the emergence of a responsible modernity based on the potentialities of the territory (environmental, historical, economic, social, cultural, …) and with the involvement of those whom it affects. Methodologically, the idea is to consider that development must be understood in a wider and more complex sense than the usual economic and technical stakes9.
22Analyzing the “heritage – tourism – development” trilogy also demands to think about the question of the relation between heritage and its different forms of use. At first sight, the question to be considered can seem ambiguous. In fact, the stakes of the “heritage – development” tandem can bring up a paradox, because to talk about development where heritage is concerned often means reviving a potential of diversified forms of use which the process of heritage-creation had initially reduced to cognitive and contemplative values. By respecting the latter one tends to favor a tourism added value which levels territories and which sometimes entails their museumification. As ICOMOS puts it, “heritage is often confined to the role of “passive conservatoire”” (ICOMOS, 2011). The question of the forms of heritage use appears of course much more open and diversified than the “traditional” approach which aims to welcome international tourism on protected cultural sites, which are thus sometimes socially separated from their neighboring cultural and economic context. Most of the time, the outcome of heritage thinking and the destination of the heritage seem to be its “ranking”. Yet, etymologically speaking, to “classify” means to “sort out”, to “put aside” : a vocabulary which attests to the desire of breaking off the heritage territory from the rest of society.
- 10 This recommendation R. (98) 4 on integrated preservation proposes to develop an interdisciplinary p (...)
23Therefore, if we defend the idea that heritage corresponds to a cultural reality offering a potential of diversified forms of use in the service of all components of society and its territory, the question which remains is, on one hand, the role which heritage can play, in a wide tourism framework, in terms of territorial development and, on the other hand, the method to follow in order to implement this objective, keeping in mind that the Democratic Republic of the Congo remains unfortunately an underdeveloped country. In this case, the question of the relations between heritage and development demands to rethink the value to be granted to the interventions of territorial transformation, urban planning and architectural reconversion, sometimes too quickly depreciated by the “classical” heritage theory (Charter of Venice, etc.) under the pretext that they weaken the authenticity of heritage values when compared to the concept of restoration. According to this other approach, the famous Charter of Venice loses its status as text of reference and demands to be enriched by more recent bodies of thought on heritage and at the same time relating to vaster and more complex territories. From this point of view, and by basing oneself on the thinking of the main field actors met such as the National Archives, the Institute of the National Museums of Congo (INMC), the Society of Architects of Congo (BAG), the Kinshasa Higher Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning (ISAU) and the Competence Center in Planning and Urban Management (CCPGU) of Lubumbashi, it seems appropriate to strengthen and to update the Congo’s heritage legislation by texts advocating a wide approach on heritage. The Congolese legislation could, for example, base itself on ideas and approaches such as those of Recommendation N° R (98) 4 from the Council of Europe relative to measures which might favor an integrated preservation of historic areas (1998)10, and such as those of the Faro Convention (2005) which requires to place people and human values at the center of a widened and interdisciplinary concept of heritage in its tangible and intangible dimensions. These texts should of course be re-adapted, taking into account the context of Central Africa and cities where territorial consciousness remains marked by formerly racial but nowadays often social segregations, generated by a colonial town planning established on binary oppositions (Goerg, 2006, p. 25) such as “blacks-whites”, “natives-civilized”, etc.
- 11 Besides those of Jacob Sabakinu Kivilu, we can quote the initiatives and works of Antoine Lumengane (...)
24Even though, as noted by the Congolese authors, there is no efficient policy capable of assuring the protection, the preservation and the value-creation of infrastructures which are considered to be part of heritage, the Sovereign National Conference (1991-1992) and the Kinshasa city development plan (1997) (Sabakinu Kivilu, 2013, p. 36) nevertheless emitted general recommendations on these stakes and one must underline that Congolese intellectuals11 have become aware of the heritage issue, such as Antoine Lumenganeso Kiobe who, just after the traumatizing period of plunder at the beginning of the nineties, already advocated the value-creation of Kinshasa’s heritage by notably proposing the installation of a heritage signage system in the city (Lumenganeso Kiobe, 1995, p. 5).
25Broadening the interface between the notions of heritage and use, by encouraging other practices than the mere museum-like territorial value-creation that offers a change of scene to satisfy an international form of tourism which is more a consumer of “folk” rather than of “living” authenticity, represents one of the multidisciplinary areas of research which it would be interesting to undertake, in the form of university cooperation, in the context of the “DRC”. Starting from models of interface between heritage and use, pilot experiments could be led in the field, especially as in the wake of this research, heritage policies could be introduced that are more closely directed to serve all social sectors of society. For a country like the Congo, this claimed plurality of heritage use for all should be one of the foundations of the “heritage – tourism – development” equation.
26In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the “heritage – tourism – development” equation requires a specific evaluation because the country remains subject to a difficult economic situation of underdevelopment and because tourism, in spite of very major local cultural and natural wealth, is still in its infancy. It is undoubtedly a paradoxical situation, but one that holds an enormous potential.
27If it can seem economically pleasant for certain investors to hope for the arrival of international tourism, by taking advantage of a few holiday resorts which one could imagine on the Congo’s small oceanic coastline or on the banks of Central Africa’s great river, it is however necessary to point out that this hypothesis concerns the long term and that other more immediate priorities should be studied and implemented as forms of investment for local populations.
28When visiting the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the traveler who watches, shows interest, admires and photographs the urban and rural territory, is very quickly confronted with the reaction of the local population which often seems stunned that a foreigner can find interest for their natural, landscaped, urban or architectural environment. This attitude of surprise translates a very understandable basic consciousness of the territory as a daily “endured” space, the population enduring the dilapidated state of its construction, the deficiency of means of transportation and the difficulty to find a job. The dominant perception is that local urban communities underestimate what recognition and management of the territory from the angle of heritage could bring them, in particular within the colonial built contexts.
29Faced with this assessment, heritage can be an ally in terms of being a lever for development insofar as the acts of favoring the emergence of a heritage principle, launching a strategy of heritage-creation, and valuing the acknowledged heritage, are actions which question the territory, encourage a new form of objectification, allowing its evaluation and in fine making the citizen aware of his and her responsibilities. Such an initiative is obviously complex and slow to implement. It should undoubtedly be global and founded on the awareness-raising of a whole series of actors and persons in charge. But no matter what, it should never miss out on the opportunity to teach the value of the national territory and its history at primary and secondary levels of education. Even at university level, the training of Congolese architects and town planners leaves a lot to be desired, according to their teachers, as regards the study of historical and contemporary architecture in the Congo in rural and urban areas.
- 12 For example, the awareness program of the ICCROM, called “Adopt a monument”. According to: http://w (...)
- 13 For example, in Burkina Faso, the museums of the rural towns of Kaya and Gaoua have a “maquis” wher (...)
30In this perspective, by resting on the still informal reflections put forward by the scientific committees of the two UNESCO commissions and by taking into consideration various experiments of heritage appropriation12, it can be said that within a logic of territorial development, the first form of tourism to favor in the Congo is a tourism of closeness. The idea is not to be content with the sole concept of community tourism which is mainly aimed at involving local populations in tourism offers for “foreign” visitors (traditional dance sessions, guidance of the tourists in particular places), but to first of all set up a “neighborhood tourism” with the aim to ensure that heritage properties, through their value-creation (without sacrificing their proper preservation), can be considered as service providers, in other words that they may offer advantages to local populations which will thereby find interest in visiting and frequenting them thanks to the long-lasting connection which can be established between local communities and their cultural and natural environment. In a conventional “heritage – tourism” relation, a foreign tourist normally visits a heritage property only once, or at long intervals. On the other hand, the concept of “neighborhood tourism” seeks to generate almost daily relations between a piece of heritage and the inhabitants and other close users. As well as the enjoyment of cultural values (historical and aesthetic) which heritage offers, the latter can also become through its reconversion and the facilities which adjoin it a place hosting functions of a social and economic nature which are longed-for by its local residents. Without affecting its authenticity, the programming of a heritage property can offer to the neighborhood the opportunity to go to a café (the African “maquis”), to listen to music (live entertainment bars), to enjoy a cybercafé, a free WiFi zone, a community radio station, a multi-purpose hall, or varied associations which would have installed their offices there13, etc. The kind of activities which enable neighbors to frequent the heritage in a repeated, daily manner, and favor the emergence of a bond between the latter and the population. This “neighborhood” tourism can also be based on school excursions and be encouraged thanks to visit and appropriation programs initiated upstream by municipalities and the ministries of culture and of tourism, in order to assist the inhabitants and other users in the historical and cultural understanding of their own territory, because heritage is a tremendous tool of investigation and territorial reinterpretation. In fact, as Jacques Fumunzanza Muketa regrets when he strongly questions “how to acquire this city-dweller culture, of respect for common heritage, without education, without teaching ?” (Fumunzanza Muketa, 2008, p. 11), and as Jacob Sabakinu Kivilu underlines when he regrets that the population does not know either the history of its districts, or the origin and the meaning of the names of their avenues and streets, or of commemorative sites (Sabakinu Kivilu, 2013, p. 37), it seems today essential to rethink the strategies of heritage appropriation, especially where the urban territory is concerned. Starting from the present to identify the various forms under which the past appears allows to introduce questionings and to build a real-life rather than dictated historical education of the territory (Pomian, 2013, p. 85). And if the latter obtains a heritage status on the foundations of a heritage policy, designed from the start to be in the service of all the population’s social groups and particularly the youth, the Congo should be able to avoid a heritage-creation which would freeze territories thanks to a value-creation of the latter in agreement with the inhabitants’ practices.
31This policy could be named “alter-heritagization”, the objective of which is not the traditional “classification” of heritage, nor its “monumentalization” and its horde of restrictive rules linked to the respect of authenticity. “Alter-heritagization” could be defined as a heritage strategy which would not be imposed from the “top” towards the “bottom” by international cenacles and centered on the sacrosanct respect of authenticity, but which would be co-developed amongst the concerned populations by activating district committees, professional associations, schools, customary powers and the competent national institutions, in order to set up a heritage policy which would be integrated to the local problems of underdevelopment, whether these are environmental, economic or social, and the final goal of which is more a “”better-living” with heritage” than a “”better-contemplating” heritage”.
32As an example, the awareness on the heritage value, at the national and even international scale, of the metallic architecture from the end of the XIXth century and the beginning of the XXth century, sometimes adorned with ornamental Art Nouveau elements, in cities such as Boma, Matadi and Mbanza-Ngungu, should, if it matures in the Congolese context, be closely associated with the professional requalification of ironworking jobs by training towards the restoration of these structures within a heritage approach, in order to open perspectives with respect to employment. Heritagization and ad hoc vocational training in schools which lead to jobs in the building industry should go hand in hand. It is encouraging to note that today, in the Lower-Congo province, several institutions and actors show an interest for these buildings, such as the municipality of Boma which is willing to tackle the task of saving the former Governor’s Palace and transforming it into a museum, or equally, the Congo university at Mbanza-Ngungu which is aware of the value of its Courthouse and of other similar buildings constructed in the city. Moreover, certain businesses, such as the sugar company of Kwilu-Ngongo, also take into account the architectural value of their installations. These actors could be the motor of of experimental projects and the universities could, in advance, develop research on the perception of the value of these buildings and on their appropriation by the population.
33A second example is provided by the modernist constructions of the former “native” estates (according to the term used in the colonial period) built in the Congo during the fifties. These garden estates, which are very interesting from the point of view of the expansion of the modern movement in Africa and, among others, of tropical modernism (Eloundou, 2005), figure nevertheless today among the most disadvantaged urban areas of the former districts built in the colonial period. For an architecture lover this situation can seem at first paradoxical, because he will perceive immediately the gap between the heritage potential of certain buildings and the difficult economic and social situation of the local context ; the first having no impact on the second. Nevertheless, even if it can seem surprising for many inhabitants and persons in charge of the municipality, a discourse which would value these depreciated districts from the heritage angle could help towards the territorial requalification of the area, be it only in terms of consciousness.
34Within these overpopulated modernist estates where inhabitants are experts of resourcefulness, the “heritage – development-tourism” trilogy can only be developed gradually and through actions undertaken most closely with the inhabitants. Firstly, by suggesting to municipalities, district leaders, traditional village chiefs, professional associations and other headmasters, to think about the value of their urban context. This is a task which could be undertaken by the ministries of culture and of tourism with the support of cooperation programs. Then, by training, for example, local guides who come from the concerned districts, and why not in close association with the school teachers of these estates in order to engrave the process as closely as possible into the young inhabitants. Architecture schools, university departments of human sciences, and ministries of education and vocational training could be at the basis of such actions. Programs for the edition, publication and distribution of brochures in local languages, decorated with an iconography insisting on the positive aspects of the territory (history, values and urban management), could be undertaken, where required, in the form of educational projects. Educational programs of the type “my school adopts a monument”, proposed by the Foundation Pegasus, exist in Europe and could be developed in the Congo. In South Africa, within yet more difficult contexts such as is the case in Soweto, which moreover does not benefit from the same value in terms of architectural heritage, initiatives of discovery of the township have already been organized. They might constitute sources of inspiration for the development of tourism in Congolese estates. Moreover, to inform and raise awareness on the heritage value of a site is an initiative with which can easily be melded citizen campaigns of awareness raising on the good management of the public space by local communities (citizen councils, councils on waste, maintenance, public health, etc.). Once again, the question of the reception of the modern movement in Africa is a field of study which should be the object, upstream from the previously evoked concrete actions, of specific research programs led by universities to orientate downstream the management models and the strategies of appropriation.
35The question of heritage is inherent to the relation between transmitter and receiver which is central to the “tourism-development” tandem : the heritage “from whom” and “for whom” ? Today in the Congo, the answer to this question remains blurry. Next to the stakes of a neighborhood tourism developed above, figure those of an international tourism. The logic of a Congolese heritage put in the service of a foreign visitor is an initiative which would require inviting the local communities to think about their capacity to share their territorial experience with others (the foreigner, the tourist, the architecture lover, etc.), and thus to think about how to communicate certain aspects of their identity. To raise the question of heritage and tourism in a country which is isolated from the tourist flows such as the Congo should help the latter “to open up” its heritage in order to render it easier to grasp by outsiders. “To open up” could mean creating a symbolic heritage iconography, because in the comparison with the heritage of other countries, even within Africa, the monumental heritage of the Congo is barely represented, without image, almost invisible. In fact, hardly any recent books mention the Congo’s heritage. One can find no postcards of monuments and it is almost impossible to photograph the Congolese territory.
- 14 The term “movement” refers here to the reflections of geographer Jean Gottmann (Gottmann, 1952).
36And conversely, the question of heritage “from whom ?” and “for whom ?” also requires that the inhabitants think about their capacity to integrate the views and discourses from outsiders on their own life context. To act on heritage by actions of objectification of the territory (renovation, reconversion, requalification, transformation), can help to develop links between “local” and “global/globalized”. Especially in a development perspective, heritage is a dynamic concept, in movement14, which stirs up transfers of meaning, which confronts us with the circulation of ideas from “local” to “global”, from North to South and also from South to South. It is in this sense that heritage facilitates transshipments of meaning and that it participates in territorial development, because it enriches it with new meanings.
37The previously evoked example of the inheritance left by the modern movement in Africa could be at the heart of these stakes. But to this day, research and reflections on the possible pooling of values relating to architectural modernity between the Congo and other countries of Africa (Dakar, Asmara, etc.), of the South (Brasilia, etc.) and of the rest of the world (Vienna, Brussels, etc.), are scarce. It is those kinds of dynamics which could be at the basis of an international network constituting an experience sharing platform on territorial development.
38During the the exchanges between the Congolese Commission for UNESCO and the French-speaking and German-speaking Belgian Commission for UNESCO, certain spokespersons considered that the priority is to propose to UNESCO to take into account the Congo’s cultural relations which will lead, through their heritage-creation, to a territorial impact in favor of a better daily lot for the populations. It is a strongly territorialized heritage which should be proposed by working on large heritage scales, not those of a single building, or of a local monument, but those of the historical hearts of cities such as Kinshasa, of the industrial and urban fabric of mining cities such as Lubumbashi, of planned modernist estates, such as those organized by the Office of African Cities, and finally, those of cultural landscapes such as certain parts of the Congo river valley or of the Lower-Congo region.
- 15 For example, in June 2013, the Park Hôtel of Lubumbashi alludes to its building in terms of histori (...)
39In spite of its difficult economic situation which weakens the education of human sciences in comparison with agronomy or business management, the Democratic Republic of the Congo counts several institutions and actors who think and work on the notion of history, memory and heritage. Ministries, universities, institutes of architecture, professional associations of architects, archive centers and museums, all organize conferences and seminars and participate in publications on these subjects. These actors play each in their own way a significant role in the establishment of an updated reflection on heritage in the Congo. Recently, even the private sector sometimes develops a heritage-like rhetoric, for example when a hotel publishes an advertisement in the press and praises the heritage value of its infrastructures15. Nevertheless, the isolation of the country and the economic situation tend to curb all these initiatives, which are often dependent of the goodwill of international cooperation programs.
40In this perspective, four areas of research and reflection on strategies of intervention can be identified.
The first one concerns the updating of trainings, particularly by developing an interdisciplinary and operational approach. The main priority is to train efficient field actors who will be capable of preparing the territory from the angle of heritage, of understanding it, of inventorying it, of protecting it legally, of preserving it, of restoring it, of rehabilitating it, and ultimately, of ensuring its value-creation within a framework focused on tourism and awareness raising. If the training must of course be camped in a theoretical basis, it must above all be practical and thought through in order to forge links between historical knowledge and the immediate practical stakes. It would be especially interesting to raise awareness amongst local tour operators on the potentials of heritage, to train young guides who are practiced in providing information about their city, and to equip the territory with a heritage signage system for the use of inhabitants.
Also, it would be necessary to create training for jobs in the field of heritage renovation by working with vocational training centers. The improvement of the training of heritage practitioners seems very urgent, in order to fight as quickly as possible against heritage erosion which seems to be accelerating in the Congo, particularly in big cities following the slight recovery of real estate activities. It thus seems necessary to better train politicians, administrations, town planners, and architects in the understanding and use of what exists in terms of requalification, rehabilitation and construction reconversion, by emphasizing the added value which heritage offers in terms of development, modelled on the practices of other big cities of the world.
41The second axis of research and reflection relates to the question of updating the inventories of the Congo’s national heritage according to the international evolution of concepts of heritage. Some suggestions can be put forward by proposing, for example, to work on modern heritage based on the reflection by DOCOMOMO, and on cultural landscapes by referring to the reflection of UNESCO. Considering industrial heritage starting from the “Dublin Principles” proposed by the TICCIH, and cultural routes based on the charter proposed by ICOMOS, represent other hypotheses. But cave art, by refocusing on the ideas emitted by ICOMOS, and intangible heritage, linked with the UNESCO Convention, constitute other avenues of thought. Finally, sacred woods should maybe be the object of a specific theoretical approach which does not yet exist ! Updating knowledge is an essential prerequisite, as well as the publication and the distribution of newly acquired data, particularly on-line. From this point of view, the recent inventory of Kinshasa’s heritage is an achievement which should be emphasized16.
42The third area of research and reflection concerns the update of a legal framework which would allow the establishment of an effective and pragmatic heritage policy. To copy a European law and implement it directly in the Congo does not appear as the way forward. In practice, the mechanisms of giving bonuses for restoration works, which are often at the center of the concept of classification, do not seem realistic. And the lack of administrative staff would at first not allow to ensure an ideal follow-up of the files and other heritage projects underway. Nevertheless, it would probably be sensible to design and implement a law on intangible heritage that would join the vaster legislative frame which globally characterizes land use management. One would thus have at one’s disposal a legislative tool in tune with the Ministry of Town Planning and avoid contradictions between the major works in land use management and the protection of intangible heritage. Such legislative structures exist in Belgium since the regionalization of the State, and facilitate the implementation of a single view, a concerted approach on heritage and town planning.
43The fourth axis of research suggests to think about strategies of intervention and, downstream, about the implementation of experimental projects on the Congolese territory by choosing actions that can play the role of heritage laboratory, from which should be confronted exchanges of experience and the dissemination of good practices. Heritage categories related to relatively vast territorial scales could be chosen, in order to design projects in narrow association with the inhabitants and the users of the concerned zones. Small city centers such as those of the Lower-Congo localities (Boma, Matadi and Mbanza-Ngungu) could be used as models before getting down to working on megalopolises such as Kinshasa. Easily accessible by road from the capital, they can already receive international tourism without too many difficulties, and the fact that they are urban and densely populated makes it necessary to work hand in hand with local communities. In a more rural context, the zones of cave art and of archaeological caves could be selected, such as those near Mbanza-Ngungu.
44On a vaster scale, certain regions of the Lower-Congo could be identified, in accordance with the approach proposed by UNESCO, as a living and evolving cultural landscape. This concept offers the advantage of being very interdisciplinary and of connecting heritage categories of several typologies, such as:
-
Geography (the geomorphological platform of the river Congo valley, the river landscapes, etc.),
-
Ecology (the mangrove ecosystem at Moanda, the botanical garden of Kisantu, etc.),
-
Archaeology (several cave art sites which are still rarely studied, the remains of the former kingdom of Kongo, etc.),
-
History and colonial memory (the so-called caravan route, the first Portuguese contacts, the first capitals of the Congo, etc.),
-
Town planning (still coherent historic urban centers, etc.),
-
Architecture (remarkable architecture with metallic framework, etc.),
-
Etc.
45Examining such a territory, assessing it, and to then setting up a strategic plan of actions in favor of a better equation between heritage, tourism and development, is of course not an easy initiative. Nevertheless, such an approach holds a genuine added value in experimental, didactic and illustrative terms. This objective of achieving a strategic plan requires a multidisciplinary working method, which should be effective in bringing all actors and persons in charge to the concerted implementation of a global and efficient approach. For a pilot project of this scope, the actors to be mobilized are of course numerous and complementary. Scientific partners (universities, institutes, museums, etc.) and their researchers evidently make it possible to define a rigorous working method. Ministries (town planning, culture, tourism, education, etc.) play a crucial role of general supervision. Municipalities and their administrations can guarantee an operational territorial anchoring of the project. Professional associations (such as the Society of Architects of Congo, the associations connected to the hotel sector, etc.) can bring operational know-how which is very useful for the implementation of the project on the field. Finally, the population, through its customary representatives, its neighborhood delegates and its associations of young people, brings to the project an essential involvement in the form of a sharp knowledge of the territory as a daily experience, thereby expressing its needs, its difficulties and its expectations.
46The present body of thought was introduced on the occasion of the Belgo-Congolese collaboration program, mentioned above, and entitled “What place for the cultural and natural heritage of the Congo (DRC) on the UNESCO lists of tangible and intangible world heritage ?”. In the wake of this program, one can only hope that this impressive country of Central Africa, which is underestimated from the point of view of its cultural, particularly immovable, heritage, may, thanks to the value-creation of the latter, but also to the movable and intangible heritage, gradually re-establish a better social and economic situation by optimizing, in accordance with these realities and priorities, the “heritage – tourism – development” equation. Will the Democratic Republic of the Congo achieve a better development thanks to its cultural wealth ? Will the country be able to draw benefits from the implementation of an economy of culture ? It is not an impossible challenge ! But, above and beyond simply receiving foreign tourists, it will be necessary to strengthen the understanding and the appropriation of the territory by the Congolese population : precisely because heritage gives the territory a temporal dimension and enables communities to become more aware of their identity. Thus, if intelligently activated, cultural heritage will favor amongst inhabitants and users a better knowhow relating to how they inhabit their living environment.
School of the Bandalungwa estate (Kinshasa), which was built in the fifties by the Office of African Cities.
Along with other public facilities of the area, this group of school buildings makes up a vast modernist ensemble which raises the question of the recognition as heritage of the modern movement in sub-Saharan Africa. The heritage potential of these estates, which suffer from difficulties in terms of development, is not exploited (state of 2012).
Yves Robert
Lubumbashi, capital of copper
Lubumbashi is a city of the Katanga province which holds an industrial heritage making up a remarkable cultural mining landscape.The chimney, as well as the slag heap, are recognized by the population as part of the identity of the city. Lubumbashi thus benefits from a gradual reflection on the interaction between tourism and heritage. The concept of cultural industrial landscape could federate a heritage strategy (state of 2006).
Yves Robert
Statue of Patrice Emery Lumumba (1925-1961)
Statue of Patrice Emery Lumumba (1925-1961) in front of the tower of the National Heroes’ Monument (Limete Tour) in Kinshasa : a cultural site where the inhabitants of Kinshasa reclaim and reflect on their history.It certainly can be defined as a “lever zone” favoring the establishment of a heritage culture which can help in the implementation of a more global strategy as regards heritage conservation (state of 2012).
Yves Robert
Detail of the plan of the Matete modernist estate in Kinshasa, which was built by the Office of African Cities in the 1950s.
What future is there for the legacy of modernity in the Congo ? On the field, the situation of these estates would benefit from a reinterpretation of the urban planning principles which presided over their design. Will the tourism value-creation integrated to these modern estates be an ally of Kinshasa’s urban development ?
Brussels, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Archives, “Office of African Cities” Collection, image file Xavier Lejeune de Schiervel.
Boma was the second capital of the Congo (1886-1929).
The city is set up on the banks of the Congo river and close to its mouth. Together with its environment it makes up a remarkable cultural landscape. Numerous still coherent urban complexes are a testimony to the early years of colonization. An urban project which would integrate the architectural heritage would certainly favor the future of the city. The authorities could draw on what has been done in Saint-Louis of Senegal (state of 2009).
Yves Robert
The current Courthouse of Mbanza-Ngungu (Lower-Congo province).
The building, which probably dates from the beginning of the XXth century, is an exceptional “bungalow” type architecture with very beautiful Art nouveau ironwork. Acknowledged through a valuing heritage consciousness, such buildings should be closely associated with the professional requalification of ironworking jobs by training towards the restoration of these structures : new perspectives in respect to employment (state of 2012).
Photography Guy Pilate/ULB.
Banks of the Congo river in Boma (Lower-Congo province).
The Congo river valley in the Lower-Congo province forms an exceptional cultural landscape which, thanks to its geophysical river setting, its biodiversity, its archaeological past, the evidence of the Kongo culture, the caravan route which crosses it, and the urban landscapes of the beginning of colonization, could correspond to the definition of the living and evolving cultural landscape proposed by UNESCO. But such an interdisciplinary reflection is yet to be undertaken and some people think that it could include the whole of the Congo river (situation of 2009).
Yves Robert
Funeral heritage of the Lower-Congo.
The region possesses numerous cemeteries which are remarkable due to their funeral kiosks (sculptures which are called “ntadi” or “fumani”). They testify to still existing memory practices in the form of small erected monuments. Such expressions can represent an active support for the implementation of a heritage and tourist policy in the region through the integrated value-creation of this rural heritage (state of 2012).
Yves Robert