Entre o património francês e o Património Mundial da UNESCO: digressão pelo fim do império em Tipasa, Rabat e Grand-Bassam

Abstract

This article considers the decolonial and neocolonial dynamics of the UNESCO World Heritage designation by exploring three sites in former French-controlled Africa: Tipasa, Algeria (inscribed on UNESCO’s list in 1982); Rabat, Morocco (2012); and Grand-Bassam, Côte d’Ivoire (2012). Through an examination of these three sites, this article argues that UNESCO has served as both a platform for rewriting colonial narratives as well as a tool for whitewashing the global histories of European imperialism. While Tipasa’s addition to UNESCO’s list marked a radical rupture with the site’s French colonial past, the sites at Rabat and Grand-Bassam highlight Franco-African cultural synergies, papering over long histories of colonial racism and violence in these spaces. This inherent tension between the two different approaches reflects a more general ambivalence about postcolonial tourism’s transformative potential. This article is part of the special theme section on International Organizations in the Era of Decolonization, guest-edited by José Pedro Monteiro.

Keywords

• decolonization
• tourism
• heritage
• Tipasa
• Grand-Bassam
• Rabat