Keitumetse: Cultural heritage keeper
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Friday June 11, 2021 17:01
To many this is an area less interesting, which takes too much of one’s time due to its complexity and lacking resources. For Dr Susan Keitumetse, UNESCO Chair holder (African Heritage Studies and Sustainable Development) and a research scholar (Cultural Heritage and Tourism) at the University of Botswana (UB), it is a passion, devotion, calling and life.
Like many other fields, this is an area predominantly followed by males as a vocation. However, Dr Keitumetse is one of the brave few females who continue to represent women brilliantly in this area.
Dr Keitumetse has been engaged with cultural heritage matters for the span of her entire studies at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom and her professional career at the University of Botswana (UB).
Prior to establishing the UNESCO Chair at the UB, she has been working as an expert consultant for the agency’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) section.
She has a multidisciplinary training; having gradated with a BA (Archaeology and Environmental Science); Post Graduate Diploma in Education (History and Geography) - both from the University of Botswana. She later on (2002-2005) won two scholarships for her studies at the University of Cambridge, UK where she did a MPhil (Archaeological heritage and Museums); and a PhD (Archaeological Heritage and Sustainable Development). Post her PhD, she won a Rockefeller fellowship for the Smithsonian Institution (Centre for Folklife and Folklore), Washington DC, USA where she worked on theorising cultural heritage.
Although Keitumetse has been involved in various research projects, her current research work is on projects that show the relevance of cultural heritage in enhancing environmental conservation and community livelihoods in African landscapes.
According to her, the projects entail identifying cultural indicators of protected nature spaces and overlaying them as a way to enhance environmental conservation and infuse local community interaction with protected wilderness and wildlife spaces.
Keiutmetse is not just a researcher of note. She is also the author of a book volume titled “African cultural heritage conservation and management: Theory and Practice from Southern Africa” (2016) published by Springer. She is also a lead editor of a published book volume titled: Sustainability in Developing countries: Case studies from Botswana’s journey towards Sustainable Development (2020). In addition to the two internationally published books, Keitumetse has published extensively in international journals and books.
In an interview with Mmegi, Keitumetse said she has done research on linking the subject of cultural heritage conservation with government and international policy in Botswana and the southern African region.
“Hence archaeological heritage management and sustainable development and formulation of the UNESCO Chair program. I have been working with UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage section as an expert consultant since 2007 and this network made it possible for me to facilitate awareness raising on the UNESCO’s 2003 Convention on safeguarding intangible cultural heritage,” she said.
Her involvement, she said, led to Botswana actively ratifying the Convention in 2010 and benefiting from the convention’s activities. Having previously served as a Board member of Botswana Tourism Organization, she has influenced meaningful consideration of cultural heritage in their operations.
Meanwhile, Keitumetse said research has become an integral component of economic growth and development for countries. She said if success in this area could be achieved, there has to be political buy-in on what research can do for the social, economic, political, environmental and educational sectors.
“For that to happen it is up to us as researchers to sensitize key stakeholders in these sectors. The establishment of the UNESCO Chair on (African Heritage Studies and Sustainable Development) in Botswana is just one of the ways through which this sensitisation can take place. Once awareness has been raised, it can be easier for Governments and other sectors to find the need to invest in research,” she said.
She explained that for research to be recognised as worth funding, it has to impact on real-life issues, not just be an academic process. She explained that the UNESCO Chair on Heritage aims to touch on real-life issues of society and policy, hence making the work that emanates from this academic program to be of relevance to real life issues.
While she said the human personnel is available to do research, resources, in terms of funding are one of the main challenges.