From rock art in southern Africa to pyramids along the River Nile, humans have been leaving their mark across the continent for millennia, but the BBC highlights reports on how extreme weather events, the rise in sea levels and other challenges associated with the changing climate are threatening to destroy invaluable cultural landmarks.
BBC News writes:
Writing in the Azania journal, researchers from the UK, Kenya and the US say that “significant intervention” is needed to save these heritage sites.
As if to underline the warning, in recent weeks archaeologists in Sudan have been trying to stop floodwater from the River Nile from reaching the UN-designated World Heritage Site at al-Bajrawiya.
The river floods every year, but people working in the area have never seen the water spread so far.
The authors of the Azania report have identified a number of sites that they consider under threat.
Suakin, Sudan
Suakin, in north-eastern Sudan, was once an extremely important port on the Red Sea.
Its story began 3,000 years ago, when Egyptian pharaohs turned the strategically located port into a gateway for trade and exploration.
Suakin later became a hub for Muslim pilgrims on their way to Mecca and played a significant role in the Red Sea’s slave trade.
It also became part of the Ottoman Empire, though it lost its prominence as a port once Port Sudan was developed further north at the beginning of the 20th Century.
Much of Suakin is in decay but it still contains fine examples of houses and mosques, the UN’s cultural organisation, Unesco, says….
The Old Town in Lamu is the oldest and best-preserved Swahili settlement in East Africa, according to Unesco.
Unlike other towns and villages along the East African coast, many of which have been abandoned, Lamu has been continuously inhabited for more than 700 years.
It has also become a significant centre for the study of Islamic and Swahili cultures, the UN adds.
However, Lamu has been “severely impacted by shoreline retreat”, meaning it has lost the natural protection once offered by sand and vegetation.
This is partly about the change in sea levels but Prof Clarke also blames the construction of the huge Lamu port to the north of the Old Town, “which is destroying the mangrove forests that protect the island from flooding”.
“So a lot of what we would call natural heritage is a protection for cultural heritage. And as we destroy the natural heritage, we also leave cultural heritage sites exposed.”….
In a plausible scenario of moderate-to-high global carbon emissions, “significant parts of the African coastal zone will be inundated by 2100”, according to the study.
“By 2050, Guinea, The Gambia, Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Congo, Tunisia, Tanzania and the Comoros will all be at significant threat of coastal erosion and sea-level rise.”
Coastal forts and castles, Ghana
The coast of Ghana is dotted with fortified trading posts, founded between 1482 and 1786, that stretch 500km (310 miles) along the coast.
The castles and forts were built and occupied at different times by traders from Portugal, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Germany and the UK.
That infrastructure played a role in the gold trade and, later, in the rise and fall of the slave trade between Africa and the Americas.
But the forts are located in areas that are highly vulnerable to the impact of storm surges and the rise in the sea level…..
Some countries are better placed to deal with the impact of climate change on their cultural heritage.
Egypt, for example, sits on a low-lying region at “severe risk of flooding in the coming decades” yet is well-equipped to deal with some of the challenges.
There are places like the self-declared republic of Somaliland which has some ancient cave drawings but needs more help in protecting them.
Archaeologically, some of the “most unbelievably wonderful sites” exist there, Prof Clarke says.
Her research aims to shed light on those sites, which are little known to the rest of the world, and she fears “will disappear and no-one will know”.
