Zambia

The Creative Economic Potential of Cultural Heritage: explorations with teachers in Choma, Zambia

Project Introduction

The overarching aim of the project is to examine how cultural heritage can be a platform for young people to express their aspirations, future-facing values, and political and cultural capabilities. The project conducted with teachers, youths, elderly community members and museum staff, interrogated how teachers teach cultural heritage and how they equip students to take that into entrepreneurial activities post-school. It explored how intergenerational knowledge transfer of cultural heritage happens within Tonga communities of Maamba in Zambia. Central to this strand was the need to focus on how knowledge and skills are imparted to young people outside formal spaces associated with the classroom and lecture room. Given that young people's wants, choices and preferences are intertwined with their agency, and their preferences change over time, it was important for the project to unpack possible tensions between the transference of traditional cultural knowledge and young people’s aspirations of modernity. A key outcome of this study is to produce a set of educational resources which can be used by teachers and those interested in creative economies to support youth to turn their knowledge and skills of cultural heritage and arts into viable businesses for more sustainable livelihoods.

Project Methodology

A qualitative approach was used centering on the arts method of storytelling. It was a mixed method in the sense that storytelling was combined with a range of other arts-based methods such as music, dance and drama, which provided different ways for participants to express stories that convey local knowledge, values and beliefs around cultural heritage for sustainable livelihood and peace. Participatory arts-based methods were used as a method to facilitate the coproduction of knowledge and skills with the Tonga community, the Choma Museum staff and teachers. The method enabled the community to raise awareness on different issues, and to build dialogue between the youths, elderly community members, teachers and museum staff. This was achieved through the exploration of the community’s cultural heritage, using oral and performance traditions, providing an alternative way for communities to express themselves and communicate their lived experiences and realities participatory arts as defined by Bishop (2012). The approach was selected due to its potential in delivering a more horizontally democratic and inclusive research process.

Project Highlights

Updated information coming soon!

Educational Resources

More to come!

Impact

Various activities that were part of the project allowed the participants to reflect on their lives and their life journey working with cultural heritage. According to the participants, their participation in the project activities:

• Heightened their sense of agency and the importance of their cultural heritage.
• Helped them see the value in their efforts and work with cultural heritage which they took for granted.
• Instilled a sense of pride amongst the participants which was later expressed in exit interviews.Grew a great appreciation of cultural heritage and creative skills amongst the participants through interaction with art experts and teachers.
• Developed knowledge, information and artistic skills through informal discussions with youths understood as fostering peace through education.
• Participants appreciated the need to improve on intergenerational knowledge transfer of skills and knowledge about cultural heritage.

Research “outputs”

The fish represents where we come from as the Tonga people. We are a part of the great river Zambezi and it has been a source of our elders’ livelihood.

The pattern on the basket (work in progress) is a Tonga hut, which is the essence of our identity. The hut, commonly known as the Tonga hut is part of our cultural heritage. For your homestead to be qualified as Tonga homestead you need to have a hut. We were born in this hut, our parents were born in this hut and we hope it will not die with our generation.

The pattern on the basket is a 3, as the Tonga we are three people, we have Tonga Ila, Tonga Lenje and Tonga, that is why we say Bantu Botatwe. Saying one two three, plateau, plain and valley Tonga people. All of these groups represent one Tonga ethnic group. This has been infused in our artefacts to preserve our cultural heritage.