Tapping potential, preserving value: Rwanda’s cultural heritage tourism challenges

What chal­lenges face those who would tap Rwanda’s cul­tur­al her­it­age for tour­ism and devel­op­ment while pre­serving it for com­munity iden­tity now and in the future? 

Tour oper­at­or Greg Bak­un­zi shares his thoughts in a “Good Tour­ism” Insight.

[Thanks to “GT” Insight Part­ner the World Tour­ism Asso­ci­ation for Cul­ture and Her­it­age (WTACH) for invit­ing Greg. 

You too can write a “GT” Insight.]

Rwandan com­munit­ies have become increas­ingly eager to find ways to attract tour­ists and cap­ture the dol­lars they bring. 

As the tour­ism industry boomed (pre-COV­ID), my organ­isa­tion, the Red Rocks Inter­cul­tur­al Cen­ter, ini­ti­ated tour­ism pro­jects that we hope will help com­munit­ies tap the cul­tur­al her­it­age poten­tial of Rwanda while pre­serving its full value. 

Among our many areas of sus­tain­able devel­op­ment interest — envir­on­ment, agri­cul­ture, edu­ca­tion, skills devel­op­ment, and oth­ers — we help to empower com­munit­ies with the tools to put them on the map as lead­ers in cul­tur­al her­it­age tourism. 

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We were inspired to involve cul­tur­al tour­ism in our pro­grams since we know it cre­ates jobs and new busi­ness oppor­tun­it­ies and strengthens the loc­al eco­nomy. Import­antly, such pro­grams also help to pro­tect cul­tur­al her­it­age and to improve the qual­ity of life of res­id­ents and the exper­i­ences of visitors. 

Link­ing tour­ism with her­it­age and cul­ture bene­fits the loc­al eco­nomy. We believe that cul­tur­al her­it­age tour­ism is not just some­thing to pre­serve for future gen­er­a­tions, but is in fact an asset that can be lever­aged to bring real eco­nom­ic benefits.

While incor­por­at­ing cul­tur­al her­it­age into our pro­grams, some of the chal­lenges we face include:

• Poor plan­ning mechanisms;
• Inad­equate devel­op­ment controls;
• Lack of defined lim­its to the trans­form­a­tion of his­tor­ic­al sites;
• Little pop­u­lar participation;
• Unpro­duct­ive pre­ser­va­tion policies;
• Lack of fund­ing; and
• The influ­ence of West­ern cul­tures and habits, includ­ing Chris­tian­ity, com­merce, civil­isa­tion, change, devel­op­ment, loot­ing, anti­quar­i­ans, among others.

To over­come the chal­lenges, we are gradu­ally mov­ing away from simply mak­ing an invent­ory of her­it­age resources to devel­op­ing an integ­rated and inter­linked approach to her­it­age management. 

We want cul­tur­al her­it­age to become part of the urb­an iden­tity now and in the future. We think it is wise to place the issues of her­it­age con­ser­va­tion with­in the over­all pro­cess of urb­an devel­op­ment, as well as to inter­link it with oth­er issues such as eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment (includ­ing tour­ism), revital­isa­tion, and loc­al governance. 

In respond­ing to pres­sures for the future, includ­ing people’s nat­ur­al desire for eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment and mod­ern­isa­tion, it is vital to not only pro­tect cul­tur­al tour­ism resources but also pro­mote com­munity devel­op­ment that accom­mod­ates culture. 

At Red Rocks we have cre­ated aware­ness-rais­ing and out­reach pro­grams to facil­it­ate access to cul­tur­al her­it­age and social cap­it­al dur­ing pop­u­lar holidays. 

The estab­lish­ment of Umuga­nura (har­vest cel­eb­ra­tions), for example, has not only con­trib­uted to the rebirth of nation­al pride in sus­tain­able agri­cul­tur­al prac­tices but also now serves to show­case “homegrown” solu­tions for sus­tain­able socio-cul­tur­al devel­op­ment. These can be adop­ted and adap­ted for loc­al circumstances. 

These ini­ti­at­ives still need to be scaled up to bene­fit a much wider audi­ence, but they have already sig­ni­fic­antly con­trib­uted to region­al integ­ra­tion, sus­tain­able devel­op­ment, and even the pro­mo­tion of peace through, for example, the pro­duc­tion and dis­sem­in­a­tion of cul­tur­al and artist­ic performances.

With stake­hold­ers who value both the social and eco­nom­ic roles of cul­tur­al her­it­age, we are invest­ig­at­ing pos­sib­il­it­ies for more eth­ic­al, engaged mod­els of her­it­age man­age­ment that can also deliv­er on agen­das of development.

In col­lab­or­a­tion with our part­ner, the Rwanda Her­it­age Academy, we are seek­ing to bridge this gap through tech­no­crat­ic improve­ment; enhan­cing our com­munity lead­ers’ under­stand­ing of “own­er­ship”, and draw­ing on high­er state-level dis­courses around self-reli­ance and homegrown solutions.

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Tan­gible or built cul­tur­al her­it­age is import­ant too. 

The care for our his­tor­ic­al memori­al sites in Rwanda reveals the degree of civil­isa­tion and mor­al­ity in our country. 

Pre­serving and pro­tect­ing our cul­tur­al her­it­age sites across the coun­try is in the state’s best interests as well the interests of the com­munit­ies that live nearby. 

The memor­ies sur­round­ing these her­it­age sites are of para­mount sig­ni­fic­ance to a cul­tur­al memory that gives Rwandans a sense of belong­ing and helps to restore nor­mal­ity and progress. 

Mater­i­al cul­tur­al her­it­age is a sym­bol­ic neces­sity that gives mean­ing to our lives by con­nect­ing the past to the present and future.

We believe that the power to change things for the bet­ter comes from within. 

So it is up to us at Red Rocks, along­side our part­ners, to offer our pro­tec­tion to cul­tur­al her­it­age sites, objects, and prac­tices across our country. 

Fea­tured image (top of post): Image by lynnx10 (CC0) via Pixabay.

About the author

Greg Bak­un­zi worked as a tour organ­iser and guide in Rwanda for vari­ous inter­na­tion­al tour oper­at­ors for many years before start­ing Ama­horo Tours in 2002. In 2013, Mr Bak­un­zi foun­ded the Red Rocks Rwanda eco tours com­pany and social enter­prise to “bring under-served com­munit­ies into the tour­ism sup­ply chain and sup­port com­munity devel­op­ment pro­jects that help people help them­selves”. Greg later foun­ded the not-for-profit Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ive for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment as a home for all the non-com­mer­cial activ­it­ies that Red Rocks Rwanda star­ted, and to “integ­rate tour­ism, con­ser­va­tion and sus­tain­able com­munity development”.

Thanks to “GT” Insight Part­ner the World Tour­ism Asso­ci­ation for Cul­ture and Her­it­age (WTACH) for invit­ing Greg to write a “GT” Insight.