(MOBILE, ALABAMA, March 2, 2022) — In 2022, the World Monuments Fund looked for nominations with clear potential to respond to the global challenges of climate change and its impact on the heritage places they value, imbalanced tourism, and the need to amplify underrepresented voices and cultural narratives.
The Africatown Watch nomination and proposed plan of action uses novel community engagement and planning methods centered around realistic development solutions to produce an African-centric view that tells that Africatown story from the descendant community.
Renee Kemp-Rotan, urban designer, master planner, and Professional Competition Advisor for The Africatown International Design Idea Competition, successfully wrote the competitive global nomination to the WMF Watch on Africatown’s behalf. Rotan was commissioned by Mobile-based M.O.V.E. Gulf Coast CDC to leverage the spectacular 2019 Clotilda slave ship discovery by developing the Competition. It is an African-based community design and development program for 16 venues on 4 sites that together will constitute what is called The Africatown Cultural Mile.
Kemp-Rotan learned of the World Monuments Watch through the recommendation of historian Priscilla Hancock Cooper, Executive Director of the Alabama African American Civil Rights Heritage Sites Consortium. Cooper had successfully nominated 16 civil rights sites in Alabama that were awarded protective technical assistance provided by the 2020 Watch.
WMF engages with community driven-involvement to advocate for the increased protections of endangered sites. The Africatown Historic District nomination implements a descendant-led model of stewardship to save this distinct settlement, the only 19th -century settlement built by emancipated Africans in America after the Civil War.
This Africatown Competition design challenge began in 2018 as a means to synthesize existing and future community plans into a strategic, unified vision for Africatown’s redevelopment, based on the Clotilda Africans’ history. While global attention focused on the sunken slave ship, the Competition’s mantra is “ If We Can Save The Ship, We Can Save The Town.”
The World Monuments Watch, or “the Watch,” is a two-year program that seeks to discover, spotlight, and take action on behalf of heritage places facing challenges or presenting outstanding opportunities of direct relevance to our global society.
Every two-year cycle of the Watch includes 25 heritage places from around the world, selected for their cultural significance, the cause for action in light of internationally pressing issues, and the potential for World Monuments Fund to make a meaningful difference.
Through the Watch, WMF collaborates with local partners to design and implement targeted conservation programs—including advocacy, planning, education, and physical interventions in the historic built environment.
The Africatown nomination insisted that all Africatown community stakeholders be guided by The Rubric, “Engaging Descendant Communities on the Interpretation of American Slavery for Museum and Interpretive Sites.”
This Rubric, commissioned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation African American Heritage Action Fund, will guide the WMF and Africatown community to clearly ensure that the descendant community interprets, preserves and profits from heritage tourism that surrounds their story, especially the Clotilda.
With this 2022 WMF Watch listing, Africatown has secured local, national, and international support for the descendants to tell their story, in their own words. Africatown has now secured local, national and now international support for this Competition. Local organizational supporters include the Clotilda Descendants Association, Africatown-CHESS, and the Africatown Heritage Preservation Foundation. Competition sponsors include: the American Institute of Architects, the National Organization of Minority Architects, the Ratcliff Charitable Foundation, the Michael C. & Patsy B. Dow Charitable Fund, Visit Mobile, the 400 Years of African-American History Commission, and the City of Prichard.
THE WMF fosters community-driven planning priorities and insists on a viable civic design and civic engagement plan over the next two years of their developmental support for this historic Africatown community.
“Saving irreplaceable cultural heritage has never been more important,” said Bénédicte de Montlaur, President and CEO of WMF. “The daunting global challenges facing heritage in the twenty-first century require innovative, sustainable, and replicable solutions. By supporting communities in preserving the places they treasure most, we can strengthen social bonds and foster a greater understanding that our futures as global citizens are inextricably linked.”
Representing 24 countries and nearly 12,000 years of history, the 2022 Watch encompasses a broad range of examples of how global challenges manifest and intersect at heritage sites, providing opportunities to improve the lives of communities as they adapt for the future.
WMF received more than 225 nominations from individuals and community-based organizations across the globe, but chose only 25.
The full list of 2022 Watch sites is available online here, https://www.wmf.org/2022watch, with the Africatown page here, https://www.wmf.org/project/africatown.
Elaboration on the 2022 Watch’s themes are below:
- Climate change: As global warming continues to intensify, innovative methods and traditional knowledge are necessary to mitigate its impact on heritage places.
- Underrepresentation: Inequities in heritage result in oversight and neglect of many significant places. Greater efforts should be made to amplify narratives that tell a more textured, just, and complete story of humanity.
- Imbalanced Tourism: Both overtourism and lack of visitation endanger heritage places and often sideline or disrupt local communities. Sustainable tourism strategies are needed to recalibrate these impacts and ensure just outcome for local residents.
- Crisis Recovery: Armed conflict, natural disaster, and other types of destruction can cause irreparable damage to heritage places and communities. Community-led preservation efforts can participate in building resilience and regenerating the social fabric in places affected by crisis.
Updated March 6, 2022