the richtersveld cultural and botanical landscape - SAHRA

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Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape World Heritage Site Nomination 81 • Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape, Mongolia • Pirin National Park, Bulgaria • Valle de Mai Nature Reserve, Seychelles • Arabian Oryx Sanctuary, Oman • Banc d’Arguin National Park – Mauritania • Cape Floral Kingdom, South Africa Five of the above sites can be compared to the Richtersveld in regards to cultural heritage of pastoral communities and cultural landscapes. The Laponian Area of Sweden, the Hortobagy National Park of Hungary, Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley of Andorra, Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape of Mongolia, and the Pyrenees – Mont Perdu Area of France and Spain are described as cultural landscapes with traditional societies living in such a way that is rarely found in modern times. They are described as remnants of what was once a widespread and common lifestyle. The people of both the Richtersveld and the Laponian Area and Orkhon Valley undoubtedly live hard lives under extreme climatic conditions in great wilderness areas of profound beauty and ruggedness. They exist because of their remoteness and the will of their people to carry on traditional ways of life. All aforementioned sites also demonstrate a traditional way of life enduring despite of enormous social change elsewhere in their respective countries. The Nama people, however, represent one of the oldest groups of people on earth. As descendants of the KhoiKhoi, they are of Africa’s oldest people, whose culture spans back to well before the Bantu expansion from West and Central Africa. Southern Africa has been the home of the Nama and their KhoiKhoi ancestors since the earliest periods of humanity. Their “click-sounding” language is purely indigenous to Africa, and together with the languages of the San people and a few scattered hunter-gatherer tribes such as the Hadza, Sandawe and Pygmy people of East and Central Africa, is not only endangered but a true symbol of their ancient, ancestral link to the continent. It is this ancient characteristic of the Nama which truly sets it apart from many other groups of people and pastoral communities. Even the Masai pastoralists of East Africa, which are considered to be a symbol of
Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape World Heritage Site Nomination 82 traditional African pastoralism, are very young in their history in Tanzania and Kenya in comparison to the Nama. Several of the cultural sites mentioned above have been also described in regards to the value of their traditional architecture, such as the summer settlements of the Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley. The Richtersveld could be compared to numerous other sites in regards to the cultural significance of the |haru oms. However, in differing from other simple mud or traditional stone huts or structures, the |haru oms is an intricate type of building made by no other group except the Nama. The portable rush-mat covered domed hut is constructed in phases over several months in a complicated and communally involved process, and is listed by World Monuments Watch, alongside World Heritage Sites in Bam and Luxor, as one of the one hundred most endangered monuments. Traditional cultures often transcend current political boundaries, as demonstrated by the sites in Hungary, Sweden, France and Spain. The Nama of the Richtersveld are no exception. Prior to the 1884 Berlin Conference, colonialism and subsequent Apartheid, the land of the Namas spanned the border between Namibia and South Africa with the Orange River (!Gariep in the language of the Nama) serving as a cultural epicentre. Despite a history of measures to sterilize cultural identity and the historic prevention of Nama people from crossing the border, transfrontier links remain in tact and are again strengthening. The transfrontier character of the Nama people provides an accurate representation of the many traditional areas across the continent disrupted by colonially designed political boundaries. What else emerges from the comparative analysis is that four of the five sites are located in Europe. The Namas are African, representing well a continent where nomadic pastoralism and transhumance are deeply rooted in a multitude of cultures. And while pastoralism is practiced throughout the continent, nowhere are the pressures between traditional pastoral livelihood and modern society more evident than in the Richtersveld of South Africa, a country riding a fine line between two ways of life: the traditional and the modern. In this regard, the Richtersveld is outstanding in its testimony to a way of life largely extinct in most places and in its endurance to exist and thrive. In comparison between the Richtersveld and the
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the richtersveld cultural and botanical landscape - SAHRA

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