Mul - unesdoc - Unesco

The implications of integrity
Taking the category of cultural landscapes as a
typical example, it is a condition for enlistment on
the World Heritage List that there be sensible,
logical and identifiable boundaries in terms of
nature, people and management to ensure the
integrity of the cultural landscape as well as
ensuring that intensive development does not
take place in a way that impacts negatively on
the landscapes. How cari such integrity be
recognisable when there are no boundaries
traditionally demarcating the world of the Creator
from that of humanity and from that of nature? In
the area around the Great Zimbabwe World
Heritage site constant problems have arisen
when the boundaries of the World Heritage site
have been asserted and legally enforced against
a surrounding community who have always
known that “Duma harina muganhu” (the Duma
have no boundary). Therefore problems Will
always exist using the legalistic modes. The
solution lies in recognising that indigenous
communities are at heart ecosystem people,
integrally linked to the ecosystem they inhabit.
They are part of the integrity equation. It is they
who cari sanction utilitarian space and through
their systems of checks and balances are the
underwriters of that integrity. It is in this context
that their customs and beliefs need to be
encouraged and reinforced. Cases abound
where success stories hinge on this approach
e.g. the survival of sacred groves of Kaya
(Kenya), Oshun (Nigeria), Tali (Ghana).
Again, as in the issues of authenticity, one
cannot but accept the powerful influence of the
spiritual realm in issues of integrity: all else is
incidental. From thousands of years ago, as
evidenced by the Stone Age peoples through
their rock art, the world has been perceived as
one based on spiritual energies that cari create,
transform and override many physical
limitations. These energies reside in some form
of everything: fire, air, sounds, lightning, bees,
land. The art shows that the human and the
spiritual world are one. It also shows that the
world of things and people is equally one. This
was and continues to be in the second
millennium. Authenticity of the cultural landscape
cannot be distinguished from the integrity of the
same. The foregoing sections try to show that in
many cases in Africa and elsewhere, there are
societies who shun those demarcations.
D. Munjeri - The notions of integrity and authenticity: the emerging patterns in Africa
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