Gazes on heritagity. The tourism construction of a rock art site in the Kimberley region (South Africa): genesis, issues and limits of a community-based approach to management and reflections on the socio-political issues of archaeology
Résumé
This research, which follows three months of fieldwork, is articulated on the basis of an observation -
the Wildebeest Kuil rock art site (Northern Cape, South Africa) is rarely visited - and on the question:
what contemporary issues revolve around the site? The construction of an interpretive centre on the
edge of Wildebeest Kuil in 2001 was undertaken to provide economic and cultural support to two San
communities displaced and resettled at the same time near the site. Supported by new South African
heritage management rules in 1999 and with a view to integrating the Xun and Khwe communities into
the management of the rock art site, the Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Centre is an example of
community-based tourism of archaeological heritage. However, the lack of tourism has not led to the
establishment of sustainability at Wildebeest Kuil. The author analyses at length the multiple causes
of this marginality despite the good tourist numbers and the interest in cultural heritage in the
destination where the site is located (Kimberley). Throughout the dissertation, the community-based
approach is questioned either directly, by analysing in depth the failure of this mode of management
at Wildebeest Kuil, or by proposing to shift the focus to the contemporary issues of the communities
on the site and to the cultural and political perspectives benefiting from the development of tourism at
the site. Therefore, this research proposes to observe the complexities surrounding the development
of tourism by proposing a progressive conceptualisation and generalisation of the example of
Wildebeest Kuil in the management of archaeological sites in South Africa. On the basis of a study of
various expectations on the site and mainly from qualitative data, this work proposes in fine to
underline the fundamentally social issues of archaeology in South Africa by using and adapting a
methodology inherited from critical heritage studies