The modern state, imperial law, and decolonial possibilities

Assessing the effectiveness of law in protecting cultural heritage in Africa during and after colonialism

Bibliographic Data

ID4282756
AuthorsAdam Kyomuhendo (0009-0004-5249-0248, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume31
Issue4
Pages477-495
Publication date2024-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Cultural Property (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0940-7391 • E-ISSN: 1465-7317
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0940739125000141
OpenAlexW4409973420
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited16

This essay makes the case that law in most of Africa has, since colonial times, been used as a framework of domination and imperialism. This has always been through repugnancy/supremacy clauses, which were predicated on the highly problematic assumption that European ways of knowing were superior to the African ones. This essay also demonstrates that, sadly, these clauses are still on the statute books of many African countries and continue to haunt the protection through law of Africa's precious and unique tangible and intangible cultural heritage. The essay also shows that another way through whichthe development of African heritage was arrested through law was by criminalizing traditional Indigenous practices, which European imperial powers did not fully understand in terms of ontology. It is also argued that the same problems bedeviling the legal protection of African cultural heritage at the domestic level haunt this protection, even at the regional level(s). African regional courts continue to sadly apply alien notions of law to the exclusion of majority Africans. International law, being state-centric, has not been applied in the African context to revolutionarily protect African heritage. Where it has done so, it has been failed by the states or has been generally limited by its problematic colonial foundations. Finally, it is agued that African states need to de-elitesize, de-Westernize and decolonize the law if it is to effectively protect cultural heritage and property and make meaning to the ordinary African. This is urgent and imperative from a cultural, security and geopolitical vantagepoint

Colonialism · Context (archaeology · Cultural heritage · Cultural property · Customary international law · Indigenous · International law · Political science · Public international law · Sociology · State (computer science · Statute · Archaeological Research and Protection · History · International Law and Human Rights · Law · Law in Society and Culture

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