Cultural Heritage Research Journal

THE WAY UP IS DOWN: THE FINAL EPISODE!!! BY HILDA ANDOH

It has never been an easy journey through the land of dilemma, trying to figure out a focus area for my thesis work. Before arriving at the topic am currently working on, I had several sleepless nights, cried, felt lost in my new field of studies and thought it was a wrong decision I made coming to have a Master’s degree with no ambition. But until I shut the doors of discouraging voices and miserable thoughts, I came to the realization that I needed to know who I was, what I wanted to do, my purpose of being in this 2 years master’s program and the overall decision was to know what my passion was. For me to strive confidently and comfortably towards my goal in my research work, I needed to have a driving force which would push me out of my comfort zone amidst all the challenges and difficulties I would encounter during this academic journey of mine. This driving force is my passion because I believe with my interest and academic zeal working together, I would be able to attain my goals. This self-discovery I made has helped me have a focus area in my thesis work, hadn’t not been that it would have been much tougher for me.  

Now to the point of my thesis topic, someone might ask what at all am I working on? Yes, I am zealously working on an idea which will be feasible and very beneficial to non- popular sites with locals living around in Ghana. What do I mean by non- popular site? From my point of view, non-popular in this context is referring to sites which are not really recognized and mostly not visited because of its low publicity and the noninvolvement of the locals in the preservation of the site. This I think could be a factor which am yet to find out. Even though my idea is still in the processing machine my focus point in my thesis work is to make emphasis on the role locals of a community need to identify, understand and actively participate in the preservation, management and the promotion of heritage sites in Ghana. There are several heritage sites in Ghana, but we mostly hear about the few which are popular. But I always ask myself this question, why are the popular ones given much more concentration rather than the non-popular ones, most of the sites? Is it because of their location, poor developmental project or what? Well am yet to find out.

I intend to have a comparative study between four different heritage sites in Ghana where locals are situated thus The Mole National Park which is in the northwest of Ghana, Lake Bosomtwe in the Ashanti region, Gwollu and Nareligu defense wall are situated in the northern part of Ghana. With this idea in mind, I turn to find out if the locals living within these four heritage sites have specific roles they actively execute in the preservation of the site. If they do, how do they go about it, are they given the needed supervision and assistance in executing their roles? If they don’t, what is preventing them and lacking from the local’s point of view?  Are there restrictive rules from managers of the site which makes these locals not feel a part in the preservation? Well, these are some few questions I have been pondering about ever since I came up with my new proposed topic on how locals can actively participate in site preservation through the roles they have.

Coming to think of it, heritage sites cannot be in its proper state without the involvement of these locals. Because I believe if these locals are made to own these sites as their own and feel a part of it, they would really make conscious efforts of keeping the sites alive. Anyways, this is my opinion from a realization I made. I intend to conduct an in-depth interview with local representatives of these site, locals of the community and any other person who would be willing and available to answer my question. A participatory research approach is another medium through which I will use during my data collection in the respective sites. These two are not going to be the only way I will use in my data collection. Since my idea is still in the processing machine, there can be new ideas which can be added, and others taken off. It’s a work in progress even though the focus area is clear to my understanding for the time been. Also, two of the sites I will be working on are on the tentative list of UNESCOs thus: Mole National Park and Lake Bosomtwe, the other two are also not recognized. With this, I see it as a very good opportunity to advocate to popularize Gwollu and Nareligu Defense walls as tourist attraction site. I therefore, envision to have a documentary on my research of the sites with more emphasis on the two non- popular sites, Gwollu and Nareligu Defense walls to help promote the sites with the involvement of the locals at these sites to the populace of Ghana. This doesn’t also mean I will neglect the other two sites, they will also be on the documentary. Even if this idea of advocating for these sites in the whole of Ghana seems too unachievable, with this I intend to start from smaller towns and gradually extend my tentacles to other part of the regions. Why this documentary? This is because I don’t want to be a researcher without results. My questions, findings, and results should practically reflect at these sites and beyond. This at the end will tell the credibility of my research.

This is a general idea for my research work. Until, I finally submit my final research work, decisions are still going to be made, diverse ideas will crop up from the suggestions of my professors, colleagues and courses I sign up for. This I believe will guide me have a very credible thesis work at the end of my 2years academic journey in Cultural Heritage Studies, at the Central European University (CEU).  This is because the way up is down!!!