These are the sort of questions which inspired us, as members of the Leiden Chapter of Una Europa’s Self-Steering Committee on Cultural Heritage, to work towards interdisciplinary approaches to rethink academic research on heritage from a global perspective. Together with Leiden colleagues Sybille Lammes (LUCAS), Monique van den Dries (Archeology), Jan Kolen (Archeology), Wessel Kornegoor (LUCAS), Lea Kodeih (BB), and previously Anna Loh (LUCAS), we are navigating institutional barriers, manoeuvring cultural differences and negotiate (at times conflicting) multi-disciplinary perspectives.

“We’ll have to engage communities, and other stakeholders (...) to move away from an authorised heritage discourse”, Keletso Setlhabi (University of Botswana) stated in her contribution to the hybrid Partnering Heritage event, which was held at the Windybrow Arts Centre last November. The event, which drew about 40 participants representing universities from Southern Africa and Europe, identified the need to decentre dominant discourses on heritage. Decentring then refers to acknowledging interpretations of what constitutes heritage in the ‘minority world’. More so, it identifies the need to create room for heritage of the everyday, which is typically omitted by museums, heritage institutions and the like.

Heritage as an Objectification of Culture

What constitutes heritage to some, can be of little relevance for others. Heritage, for anthropologists like Pierre Nora and Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, has long been perceived as subject to processes of heritagisation, heritage-making, which are shaped by the political, economic, religious and broader societal contexts in which these take place. Valuing the past, its assessment, and subsequently carrying objects, practices and values forward towards the future or not, translates in an objectification of culture. As such, studying heritage creates a lens, a focus, which can reveal social inequalities, hierarchies and hegemonies, as well as the ways in which these are challenged and resisted.

Heritage @Una Europa

Heritage is a prominent theme for Una Europa, an alliance of 11 European research universities, of which Leiden University has become a member in 2023. Considering the extensive global networks which Leiden academics maintain, it was an obvious choice for the Leiden chapter of the Self Steering Committee on Cultural Heritage (SSC-CH) to reach beyond Europe. Seeking strength among European partners is relevant but can only succeed if it acknowledges and challenges assumptions in how Europe continues to be constituted and ‘provincialised,’ as Dipesh Chakrabarty has put it, through the global relationships in which it is suspended. This inspired a group, consisting of scholars from Leiden, Leuven and Zurich, to propose an ‘Action’ to the SSC CH, focusing on exploring heritage-oriented research among Una Europa’s global partners. The support we gratefully received from Una has been instrumental in organising activities in Leiden, Johannesburg, and Mexico City, with more events on the horizon.

Traversing the City of Gold

Johannesburg, a city of approximately six million, with a history of less than 100 years, encompasses a great variety of heritages. These range from the ‘voortrekkers’ in their ox drawn carriages, the gold rush of the early 20th century, the horrors of Apartheid, to the sacrifices made for its abandonment. Prior to setting foot in South Africa, we were met with constant forewarnings and anecdotes of the harsh violence that supposedly lives on the streets of Johannesburg. Even the simple mistake of absentmindedly having our phones in our hand in the middle of the street (and therefore making us easy targets for muggers) became markers of our foreigner status.
Foregrounding such connections between the prosperities and injustices of its pasts with the unruliness of its present, the city provided a worthy backdrop for the sharing of contemporary heritage-oriented research conducted by graduate students of southern Africa (ASnA Annual Conference), as well as on a global plane (WAU - World Anthropological Union conference). With topics in the workshops and panels we organized ranging from skateboarding culture in South Africa, to heritage centres in Botswana, and Japanese herbal gardens, encompassing disciplines as varied as Medical Anthropology, Linguistics, Law and Environmental Sciences, it was evident how a focus on heritage can reveal new and surprising insights that are of great societal relevance today.

At the WAU conference, we also organised a roundtable, moderated by Rebecca Sauer (University of Zurich). Jesmael Mataga (University of Cape Town) stated there: “One thing I picked up is that working professionally, as an academic, or as someone interested in heritage, particularly in African contexts, is a place of discomfort and refusal. The universalised notions of heritage (...), the way we were taught in university—unfortunately, we still teach that way—emphasise differences and binaries. But when you go into the field or community, you’re reminded that these universally accepted categorisations sometimes don’t work.” The roundtable thus problematised universalizing notions of heritage, the reproduction of simplistic binary classifications, and the de facto responsibility anthropologists have to take “a seat at the table” rather than being passive bystanders when it comes to processes of heritage making.

Creating a global Una heritage community

Immersing ourselves in these conversations revealed how colonial-era practices continue to influence heritage management today. Interacting with local scholars and heritage practitioners prompted reflection on how our own academic frameworks, shaped by these histories, impact the way heritage is understood and preserved. The events we organised provided us with valuable inputs on how academic partnerships can be structured in ways that support the decolonisation of heritage practices, not to overshadow local knowledge, but to amplify voices and initiatives that often remain unheard.

The Partnering Heritage event referred to early on in this blog created an occasion for the participants to draw up a common agenda for research and cooperation. This agenda became consolidated in the ‘Windybrow Manifesto', which has also been shared in Spanish. The manifesto, first drawn up with our partners from southern Africa, has subsequently been shared and endorsed at a follow-up workshop which we have organised last February in Mexico City. We have also created a group on LinkedIn to keep the momentum created in South Africa alive. New members have joined for succeeding events, including the Open Mic which we organised at Leiden in February as well. Please join our LinkedIn group if you would like to be part of this emerging global Una heritage community!