**8. Indigenous Architectural Heritage Sites and Features in Sub-Saharan Africa**

Sub-Saharan African is replete with assortment of architectural heritage sites, features and the driving forces of their socio-cultural essence. Whether they are categorised as tangible or intangible, cultural, natural or mixed and in some instances rural or urban, their design, development and continuous evolution over time is anchored on the socio-cultural process. In Africa, particularly the Sub-Saharan areas, the architectural heritage within their indigenous settlement has been and continuous to remain the community social process. It has also been affirmed that for their sustenance, their social process, must of necessity be maintained through the process of sanctuarisation, sacralisation, consecration and development of conventions in each community [37, 38]. The lone contemporary conservation process of preservation, restoration, repairs, maintenance and treatment, adaptation and reconstruction cannot protect the indigenous African heritage across generations [39–41]. The ineffectiveness is due to the fact that African indigenous heritage is not a mechanical process; it is first a communal, emotional and spiritual essence then a technical procedure with involvement of the indigenous bearers. It is worthy to note that once the inert and lethargic socio-cultural force of the heritage is lost, its dynamic vigour for existence cannot be sustain amongst African societies. Subsequently such heritage features are gradually left or abandoned to deteriorate, decay, become destroyed and often lost to future generation. The integrated nature of indigenous architectural heritage sites and features are as further graphically illustrated in **Table 5** for better aesthetic appreciation.


*(In)tangible Heritages: A Critical Review for an Alternative Heritage Discourse (ALHD)… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99601*


*It is worthy to note that most of the highlighted listed landscapes in Sub-Saharan Africa are typically integrated together covering, cultural, natural and mixed features and in some instances the intangible cultural rituals, festival and artforms keeps the site relevant in the past and in some instances even currently. This further reinforced the nature of heritage sites, their features and cultural festivities as an expression of the Alternative Heritage Discourse (ALHD) perspective being conversed in this chapter made up of tangible and intangible features typical of African heritage dimensions.*

**Table 5.** *Selected world heritage sites of cultural landscapes in Sub-Saharan Africa.*
