Swahili hiStoric urban landScapeS Report on the Historic Urban Landscape Workshops and Field Activities on the Swahili Coast in East Africa 2011-2012 NIO M O UN IM D R T IA A L • P • W L O A I R D L D N H O E M R I E TA IN G O E • PATRIM United Nations World Educational, Scientific and Heritage Cultural Organization Convention SWAHILI HISTORIC URBAN LANDSCAPES Cover Photo: The waterfront of Lamu Old Town © R. van Oers/WHITRAP Supervision, editing and coordination: Ron van Oers and Sachiko Haraguchi, UNESCO World Heritage Centre Photos and images presented in the texts are the copyrights of the authors unless otherwise indicated. Published in 2013 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) 7 place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP France © UNESCO 2013 All rights reserved Disclaimer The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The authors are responsible for the choice and the presentation of the facts contained in this book and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization. Composed and printed in the workshops of UNESCO CLT-2013/WS/17 TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD by Kishore Rao, Director of the World Heritage Centre 4 FOREWORD by Nic Vandermarliere, Representative of the Government of Flanders to France and to UNESCO 5 SWAHILI HISTORIC URBAN LANDSCAPES – APPLYING HUL IN EAST AFRICA by Ron van Oers (PhD), UNESCO Coordinator for Implementation of the 2011 Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) 6 SELECTED PAPERS Historic Urban Landscapes of the Swahili Coast: New Frameworks for Conservation by Joseph Heathcott (PhD), Associate Professor and Chair of Urban Studies at The New School (United States of America) 20 Lessons from the Island of Mozambique on Limits of Acceptable Change by Ana Pereira Roders (PhD), Assistant Professor, Department of the Built Environment, Eindhoven University of Technology (The Netherlands) 40 Using Heritage Impact Assessment as Tool in the Historic Urban Landscape Approach: The Case of the Mambo Msiige in Zanzibar’s Stone Town by Karel Anthonie Bakker (PhD), Professor, Department of Architecture, University of Pretoria (South Africa) 50 SWAHILI PILOT CITIES FOR HUL APPLICATION Stone Town of Zanzibar, United Republic of Tanzania 64 Island of Mozambique, Mozambique 78 Lamu Old Town, Kenya 96 CONCLUSIONS AND WAY FORWARD 106 ANNEXES 1. UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (10 November 2011) 114 2. Zanzibar Recommendations on the Application of the Concept of the Historic Urban Landscape in the African Context (3 December 2009) 123 3 FOREWORD by Kishore RAO Director, UNESCO World Heritage Centre On 10 November 2011 UNESCO’s General Conference adopted the Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape, six years after the General Assembly of States Parties to the World Heritage Convention adopted Resolution 15GA/7 (in October 2005) that called for the elaboration of a new international standard-setting instrument that would be based on the recognition and guidance of investment in and development of historic cities, while at the same time honouring the inherited values embedded in their spatial and social structures. Prior to the adoption of the new Recommendation, the World Heritage Centre organized, with financial support of the Flemish Government, three training workshops on the concept and application of the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) approach for local authorities in three World Heritage-designated cities on the Swahili Coast in East Africa, being the Island of Mozambique, Lamu in Kenya, and Stone Town, Zanzibar, in Tanzania. With capacity building and research as main components of this project, cooperation was established with international and local universities and educational institutes on the Swahili Coast in the implementation of identified follow-up activities. The design, implementation, and outcomes of these Flemish-funded activities on HUL in East Africa are the subject material of this UNESCO Report. The implementation of the 2011 Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape and its associated HUL approach will be coordinated by UNESCO World Heritage Centre, since the challenges regarding the conservation, management and development of living historic cities was identified and recognized by the World Heritage Committee. The new Recommendation, however, is not exclusive to World Heritage cities, but is applicable to all cities of cultural-historic significance and heritage value. At the adoption of the new Recommendation UNESCO’s General Conference requested to be kept informed of the countries and cities that have been working with this new instrument, its usefulness and the first results. This General Conference report is due for October 2017, with regular updates before that to its Executive Board. The World Heritage Centre is deeply grateful to the Government of Flanders for their generous financial support, which enabled the three East African countries to become the first to officially utilize UNESCO’s latest standard-setting instrument on heritage conservation and to embark on long-term strategies to integrate heritage conservation processes with the overall socio-economic development of their World Heritage- designated cities. Many similar initiatives are currently underway in the different regions of the world, most of which will be documented and reported on by UNESCO, in order to develop a pool of critical cases and best practices to draw lessons from. I sincerely hope this Report will be an inspiration and guidance to professionals, institutions and local governments to engage in the important process of the implementation of UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape. 4 FOREWORD by Nic Vandermarliere Representative of the Government of Flanders to France and to UNESCO A city consists of far more than its buildings and its heritage. It is dynamic, evolving over time, continuously undergoing cultural and natural influences. It moves to the rhythm of its inhabitants. While these elements contribute to the richness of cities, they also pose certain challenges to urban conservation; challenges that UNESCO chose to address by the development of the Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape. The Government of Flanders supported this approach from the very beginning. Indeed, many of the Flemish World Heritage sites are located in an urban environment and face the same challenges. But a Recommendation should not remain theoretic, it should be put to the test and applied on the field, providing a toolkit for communities and local authorities. It should encourage international cooperation, the exchange of practices and the building of capacities. This is why, even before the formal adoption of this new approach, the Government of Flanders engaged in a dialogue with UNESCO in order to finance a project under its Funds-in-Trust to support and develop the World Heritage Cities Programme. It focused on three World Heritage sites along the Swahili Coast: the Island of Mozambique in Mozambique, Stone Town of Zanzibar in the United Republic of Tanzania and Lamu Old Town in Kenya. This collaboration followed a project that was financed through the Funds-in-Trust in 2008, geared towards the improvement of the state of conservation of the Island of Mozambique. Central to our cooperation with UNESCO, is the capacity building aspect; not only in this project but also in other activities that are financed by the Government of Flanders, both in the field of Heritage as well as in the field of Science. This is especially prominent in the work that has been done on the Swahili Coast. Through the organization of preparatory workshops and fieldwork, involving all stakeholders, UNESCO contributed to a comprehensive mapping of the urban environment, taking into account natural, cultural but also intangible attributes. We are confident that these experiences in the Island of Mozambique, Stone Town of Zanzibar and Lamu Old Town will be further translated in solid management structures for conservation and can be beneficial to other urban heritage sites around the world. The two-day international colloquium on World Heritage Cities in the 21st Century, organized by the City of Bruges and the Flanders Heritage Agency in May 2012, gave us an opportunity to share these practices with an international public. We feel proud that we were able to contribute to this success and we are thankful to UNESCO, the World Heritage Center and its Director, Kishore Rao, and to the coordinator of the World Heritage Cities Programme, Ron van Oers. Last, but definitely not least, we are extremely grateful to the universities that contributed to this project, to the local authorities and conservation staff and especially to the site managers. Without their continued support and enthusiasm, these results would not have been possible. 5 SWAHILI HISTORIC URBAN LANDSCAPES APPLYING HUL IN EAST AFRICA Ron van Oers (PhD), UNESCO Coordinator for Implementation of the 2011 Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO EAST AFRICA’S SWAHILI COAST At present between 300,000 and half a million people inhabit the settlements along the East African coast that were founded and built centuries ago by their ancestors and which are collectively known by the neighbouring tribes as Swahili. Since the first millennium the Swahili have occupied the nearly 3,000 km long coastline of eastern Africa, a territory which at its greatest extent in the sixteenth century ranged from Mogadishu in Somalia to the south of Mozambique. As one of several mercantile societies located around the rim of the Indian Ocean, they mastered long-distance seafaring with the use of the monsoon wind system to conduct trade across the ocean. For over 1,000 years the Swahili constructed and maintained a literate society, based on Islam, and a commercial empire founded on intercontinental trade and plantation agriculture.