Heritage and Innovation in Africa

The fourth African World Heritage Regional Youth Forum (AWHRYF), under the theme ‘Harnessing Youth Creativity and Innovation for Safeguarding and Promotion of African World Heritage’, was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 28 April to 5 May.

This led up to the celebrations of African World Heritage Day which was on the last day, with the theme ‘Heritage and Innovation in Africa’.

During the week-long forum, various issues were touched on, such as: World heritage, media and innovation in Africa; evaluation of the implementations of the youth forum declarations (2016 to 2018); action plans involving the youth in conservation and promotion of African world heritage; and influence of the 2019 forum on social media using the hashtags #MyAfricanHeritage and #Innovate4Africa while also tagging @African_WH_Fund.

The director of the Unesco liaison office to the African Union and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa and Unesco representative to Ethiopia, Ana Elisa Santana Afonso, stated that: “African youth are not the future, they are the present building for the future”.

She further said that “heritage is love and love is the only way to bring Africa together”.

The head of programmes at the African World Heritage Fund Albino Jopela reminded participants of the 2019 Forum “to be tough on discussions of African World Heritage whilst remaining kind to each other”.

The deputy director general of Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage in Ethiopia Abebaw Ayelew explained how Ethiopia is the “cradle of mankind”, home to the formidable and conquering black-mane lion and that 5 May marked the 78th anniversary of Ethiopia’s victory against colonialism; Ethiopia being the only country in Africa that was never colonised.

Participants of the fourth collectively pledged the continued sustainable safeguarding and promotion of Africa’s World Heritage by innovatively implementing the (2016 to 2019) youth forum declarations.