Patterns and shifts in cultural heritage in KwaZulu-Natal : selected case studies, 1977-1999.

Abstract

An analysis of why cultural heritage sites are created, preserved, and developed is what concerns the pages of this study. It identifies patterns and shifts in cultural heritage preservation in the period between 1977 and 1999 in KwaZulu-Natal, and analyses the motivations for the preservation of cultural heritage. Using specific case studies, I argue that in KwaZulu-Natal political necessities and ideas of economic development largely motivated cultural heritage preservation. I also examine the (dis)connection between academic historians and cultural heritage preservation. I indicate that their (dis)connection with cultural heritage preservation, especially its motivations, was a complex one. I argue that in complex ways some academic historians were drawn into the tendencies that were characteristic of cultural heritage presentations of history in KwaZulu-Natal during this period.