Challenge of Preserving  Yemens Cultural Heritage! [Archives:2001/06/Culture]

Mohammed Hatem Al-Qadhi
Yemen Times
The question of preserving the cultural heritage of Yemen has invited the interest of all people interested in culture and preservation of history. Yemen is bestowed with a unique culture that could be a very good source of income if it was taken care of properly. Developing public awareness towards the preservation of cultural heritage is of great priority.
The Urban Cultural Heritage Strategy and Management Program(UCHSM) organized a 3-day seminar some time back to kick off its 5-year activities financed by the Government of the Netherlands with $1.7 million. The program addressed policies that would help Yemen revitalize all its historic cities and how cultural heritage can co-exist with the development of the cities and their adaptation to the requirements of modern life.
Around 16 research papers were presented during the events of the seminar and owing to their significant contribution to tackle the question of cultural heritage in Yemen, we will give a summary of the important papers.
Dr. Abdul Raqib Taher Abdullah focussed in his paper on the importance of a documentation and information system which according to him represents the main components of urban cultural heritage. He said that there is no comprehensive documentation system in terms of mechanisms, system, programs, plans, and strategies that could maintain, preserve and protect Yemens cultural heritage. Then, he elaborated what has to be done at the beginning of a documentation and information system.
Dr. Ahmad Ghaleb Al-Shrajabi highlighted the question of cultural heritage conservation planning. He said that this cannot be taken to imply some kind of ban on new development but it basically means recognizing elements of the environment. For him the problem of cultural heritage is that it has not been integrated to the urban planning process, strategies, policies and implementation. The total planning process at both national and local levels has not followed an effective planning framework. Master plans for large cities have theoretically focused everything on the physical aspects, and very little or nothing on the social and economic aspects. He believed that urban conservation or revitalization were unknown concepts and that therefore, they are neglected from urban planning studies. Then, he resolved problems and issues related to cultural heritage like understanding historical events and related developments all over the country, understanding climatic zones and regional varieties of architecture typologies, history and cultural significance, lack of inventories of cities, areas, sites and monuments, lack of knowledge about decay and inappropriate tools for the conservation of buildings and monuments, not sharing recorded information adequately among institutions involved in surveying cultural heritage assets, inappropriate management of updating records of actions undertaken and lack of feedback. Beside these problems, he also says that there are no laws, regulations or guidance to assist surveying in designated conservation areas as well as a lack of local community awareness to initiate control over historic areas.
Dr. Aref Al-Sabahi said that the institutions concerned with urban cultural heritage remain modest and limited to the repair of some houses in the old cities and organizing meetings and seminars. He adds that the loss of control over the various transitions Yemen has been going through has negatively affected urban and cultural heritage and that there is an lack of public awareness and education about preserving cultural heritage, as people assume that this heritage is symbol of ignorance and injustice experienced by Yemeni people in the past and so they scoff at it. He also says that the efforts made by the state were concentrated during the first stages of its development program on new neighborhoods situated on the outskirts of old cities thus ignoring the improvement of the living conditions of the people inside the old cities. This has resulted in an accelerated exodus of rich or middle class people to the new neighborhoods causing noticeable deterioration within the old quarters. Then, he suggested some solution like the presence of a unified organizational hierarchy with the institutions concerned with cultural heritage objectives which would increase production and promote their role. He says that many of those working in these cultural institutions are not familiar with many of the objectives, regulations and bylaws dealing with their workplace. This has a negative impact on the type and quantity of work they produce. The loss of the mechanism and the methodology that increases the performance of personnel working in organizations concerned with cultural heritage is the reason for further retrogression in their active roles. He also says that organizational conflicts within one institution, or even within other related cultural institutions, are a predominant phenomenon of conduct amongst working staff. He concluded that the adoptation of a consolidating and capacity building strategy for concerned institutions dealing with cultural heritage becomes an important one and a crucial step that cannot be ignored if we take into consideration that the Yemeni workforce, if trained and qualified well, will become one of the most important economic resources in the country.
Mr. Ali Oshaish said that there was no national policy, strategy and planning framework for the preservation of old cities in Yemen until 1979. He seemed to agree with his colleagues that the absence of laws and regulations, public awareness, technical capacities and financial resources is the main obstacles to preserving cultural heritage in Yemen besides other problems. Then, he talked about the mechanisms of keeping old cities alive and active and the problems of Sanaa old city, Zabid and Shibam.
Mr. Fathi Abdul-Fattah Azzam pointed out the legal aspect of the problem. He says that committees and NGOs have been set up to assist government agencies in the preservation of national cultural heritage. However, the concern of the government agencies came out as an isolated effort- each agency acting according to its standpoint and outlook without common perception. Thus, the legislations were numerous, responsibilities conflicting and the institutions contentious with each other. Then, he sought in his paper to illucidate the inconsistencies in the existing laws and regulations and said that what is required for the preservation of cultural heritage is to pass a law that identifies specifically what cultural heritage is.
Miss Suhair Atef said that the Yemeni people are not fully aware of the concept of value and significance of heritage which is the most important aspect of conservation policy and planning. She also focussed on the lack of awareness both at the educational and community levels, as well as the socio-economic status of the historic city inhabitants which seems to be the main cause of deterioration and the lack of economic capacity to ensure maintenance and preservation of existing building and infrastructure. She also talked about the role of women and NGOs in this regard.
Thus, we can conclude that these research papers have hit the nail on the head in terms of identifying the pitfalls of preserving cultural heritage in Yemen. However, what is more important right now is that the recommendations of these papers should see the light of day and be put into practice. This is the real challenge of cultural heritage preservation.

——
[archive-e:06-v:2001-y:2001-d:2001-02-05-p:./2001/iss06/culture.htm]