**Funding**

*Heritage*

driven emancipation.

within the larger community [66, 67].

run away from their masters, considered themselves superior to the other ex-slaves who refused to run away from their masters but instead had waited for European

To reinforce their authority over the liberated plantation slaves and the Mijikenda, the watoro turned the kinyago into an oracle that was controlled by a powerful cult known as mzinda and which was governed by strict regulations. Any person who transgressed the oracle was heavily penalised. Such punishment amongst others, was said to include the miraculous death of the offender. The watoro therefore, considered themselves as the authentic custodian of the Nyasa heritage and did several other things to ensure the preservation and sustainability of that heritage. To maintain the secrecy of the kinyago tradition, the performers used coded language and composed kinyago songs in the Nyasa language. Masquerades were also made at secret sites in nearby forests while the kinyago was performed at uwanja, an arena that was guarded by a protective charm (fingo) that guarded against the evil spirits. These steps enabled the watoro to safeguard the understanding of the meanings of the kinyago by the Mijikenda unless the watoro taught them. The outcome was the presentation of the kinyago as a mysterious and honored ceremony that only a fortunate few, in this case the watoro kinyago elders, had the key to its appreciation Therefore, the significance of the kinyago ritual is sealed within the watoro community while to other people, it is an inconsequential ritual. In a cunning way, however, the watoro (subalterns) used the significance of the kinyago to build ties with the Mijikenda community and therefore gain status

That significance or insignificance is a construct and depends on the sociopolitical environment and demands of the time is also demonstrated by the village of Shimoni on the Kenyan south coast where though the usage of a cave as a slave pen is contested by the various village communities, these communities are however, marketing the cave to tourists as a slave cave. The presentation of the cave by the Shimoni communities as a significant element of Kenya's slave heritage is done despite the fact that Kenya's national government has not recognised any slave heritage in the country. Thus, the local community, the subalterns, have recognised the significance in the development of slave narrative in Kenya while the government has not done so. The inhabitants (subalterns) of Shimoni have used their own value typologies that are directly opposite to that of the national paradigm (Authorised Heritage Discourse) to construct the Shimoni cave as a significant element of slave heritage in Kenya; this is directly challenging the hegemonic / dominant national paradigm which considers the cave and indeed slavery as an insignificant element in the national narrative [3].

This paper has briefly looked at the way significance/insignificance has been constructed. Using various examples from different parts of Africa, it has been shown that significance is a construct that depends on the dictates of the time that includes the socio-political environment within which a community operates. The paper argues that consequently the use of the significance criteria in selecting sites for listing in the World Heritage List may be misplaced because the question that needs asking is whose criteria is it that is used in determining the significance of the site- is that of the professionals/UNESCO or is that of the local community? As Dickerson [24] asks, "how localised can this 'us' be and yet still allow us to make sense of notions like expertise, knowledge, professionalism, and public institutions? because "to claim any 'us' is to speak for, on behalf of, a community – it is thus an exercise of power. What sorts of ethico-political responsibilities towards

**14**

**4. Conclusion**

No funding was provided for this research.

#### **Disclosure statement**

I have potential conflict of interest

#### **Notes on contributor**

**Herman Kiriama** trained in Archaeology and Heritage Management at the University of Cambridge, UK and Deakin University, Australia. He has held a number of academic and professional posts. Currently he is Associate Professor of Heritage Studies at Kisii University, Kenya. Kiriama has written extensively on archaeology and heritage issues. He is the co-editor of the *Journal of African Cultural Heritage Studies* published by the White Rose Press, UK.

**Edith Onkoba** is an independent Researcher with a Master's degree in Project Planning and Management with a bias on heritage and sustainable development projects.

### **Author details**

Herman Ogoti Kiriama1 \* and Edith Nyangara Onkoba<sup>2</sup>

1 Heritage Studies, Kisii University, Kisii, Kenya

2 Heritage, Research Consultants, Mombasa, Kenya

\*Address all correspondence to: kiriamah@yahoo.com

© 2020 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
