The status of cultural heritage and archeological sites in Tilenga project area, Buliisa town council, Buliisa district.

Abstract

Human activities have a considerable threat to cultural heritage and archaeological sites in Uganda, however, despite the existence of mitigation measures there is lack of comprehensive research on the actual status of cultural heritage and archaeological sites within the Tilenga project area. This study therefor sought to archive the 3 objectives: (1) To map the cultural heritage and archaeological sites in the Tilenga project area, Buliisa town council sub county, Buliisa District (2) To determine the challenges facing the management of cultural heritage and archaeological sites in the Tilenga project area. (3) To determine the perceptions on the sustainability of the safeguards provided by the Tilenga project. Physically visiting and observing the cultural heritage and archaeological sites in the Tilenga project area which helped identify the types of sites present, their condition with their location using GPS coordinate system. A total of 55 household were sampled for the study to obtain the challenges facing the management of cultural heritage and archaeological site. Key informant interviews were also conducted targeting local elders and focal person within Tilenga project area, to give insight on the perceptions of sustainability of the safe guards provide by Tilenga project. The results show most sites are located in Buliisa town council. Respondents identified different challenges faced in the management of cultural heritage and archaeological sites as; Death of custodians being the major challenge reported (29%) followed by displacement of sites (28%) and contamination of water was the least challenge reported (4%). Intervention by Tilenga project in effective safeguarding of the cultural and archaeological sites, the results show that fixed traffic routes (single track policy) was the safeguard that was most mentioned (94.5%). However, the cultural practitioner concluded that; “Yes various safeguards like relocation of sacred sites (graves, shrines, trees), cultural heritage new plan, chance find procedure, fixed traffic routes, flagging vulnerable sites, cultural heritage awareness training, but what I can say they not effective enough to a cultural practioner because most of these safeguards are not going through the right traditional procedures endangering the sites”. It is recommended that there is need to do more intensive follow up on the various safeguards and to engage more locals on the effective implementation of safeguards within the Tilenga project area, Buliisa Town council, Buliisa District.