The World Heritage Committee has this month inscribed 26 new cultural and natural properties to Unesco's World Heritage List, including five in Africa and one in French Polynesia.
The final list was announced at the end of a session by the Committee hosted by India last week.
Among the five new African sites, two are in South Africa, one in Burkina Faso, one in Ethiopia and one in Kenya – choices in line with Unesco Director-General, Audrey Azoulay's promise to prioritise African heritage.
The 26 new inscriptions on the list are made up of 20 cultural properties, five natural properties and one mixed site.
These properties will now benefit from the highest level of heritage protection in the world.
Their managers will now have access to new opportunities for technical and financial assistance from Unesco.
As part of a push to safeguard African sites and developing island nations in Asia, India announced a contribution of $1 million (€917,000) to Unesco's World Heritage Centre, to provide training programmes and support.
Honouring Mandela's South African struggle
"The inscription by Unesco of 14 sites linked to the history of the late South African President Nelson Mandela is "a significant recognition of the struggle for human rights, freedom and reconciliation in South Africa," local authorities said.
"By erasing the legacy of apartheid, this move aims to preserve the historical heritage of this iconic nation and pass on its inspiring message to future generations."
Azoulay stressed the importance of this symbolic inscription which recalls Nelson Mandela’s courage and determination in his quest for justice and equality.
The sites honoured, such as the Union Buildings in Pretoria and the town of Sharpeville, bear witness to defining moments in South African history, marked by struggles and sacrifices for freedom.
They include for instance the village of Mqhekezweni, crucial in Mandela’s training but often neglected.
The move also encourages South African authorities to redouble their efforts to preserve and promote their own heritage, thus ensuring the sustainability of the values of freedom and tolerance embodied by Mandela.
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Royal Court of Tiebele in Burkina Faso
The Burkinabe royal property is an earthen architectural complex, established in the 16th century, that bears testimony to the social organisation and cultural values of the Kasena people in Burkina Faso.
Enclosed by a protective compound wall, the Royal Court consists of a set of buildings arranged in distinct concessions separated by walls and passageways leading to ceremonial and gathering places outside the compound.
Built by the men of the Royal Court, the huts were adorned with decorations of symbolic significance by the women, who are considered the sole guardians of this knowledge and still ensure this tradition is kept alive.
Ethiopia’s High Plateaux region
Located in the Upper Awash Valley in Ethiopia, these archaeological and paleontological sites represent a cluster of prehistoric sites that preserve records – including footprints – that testify to the area’s occupation by the 'hominin' groups from two million years ago.
They are situated about 2,000 to 2,200 metres above sea level, and yielded homo erectus, homo heidelbergensis and archaic homo sapiens fossils.
The cultural sequence includes four consecutive phases of the Oldowan, Acheulean, Middle Stone Age and Late Stone Age techno-complexes.
Fragments of palaeo-landscapes, preserved buried under volcanic and sedimentary deposits with fossil fauna and flora, allow reconstruction of the high-mountain ecosystem of the Ethiopian Highlands during the Pleistocene.
They show the adaptation of hominin groups to the challenges and climatic conditions of high altitudes at the time.
Gedi ruins in Kenya
The historic ruins of Gedi is a 13th to 17th-century Muslim Swahili settlement on Kenya's coast, near Malindi, an already prestigious designation and now Kenya's eighth World Heritage Site, underscoring its outstanding universal value.
It was constructed with rock and coral, and carefully arranged, including water wells, advanced sanitation and drainage systems.
The city's buildings included a palace, mosques, mansions and houses, tombs and grounds for burial.
Known as the 'Swahili City in the Forest', Gedi seems to have been a city of importance with a significant presence, with evidence of extensive trading activities. It remains unknown which goods the citizens were trading with and who were the customers.
This Muslim city grew prosperous and flourished until the 16th century, then an exodus occurred for reasons unknown, and Gedi was finally abandoned in the early 17th century.
The city remained lost to the forest until 1894 when a British resident of Zanzibar investigated the site.
In 1927, the ruins were then declared a National Monument of Kenya.
Kenya also announced its desire to host an international conference in Nairobi, in May 2025, to enable an in-depth reflection on the concept of authenticity in African heritage, and to increase African sites’ representation on the World Heritage List.
Good news for Senegal
This session of the Committee also saw the removal of the Niokolo Koba National Park in Senegal from the List of World Heritage in Danger.
This is thanks to the joint efforts to reduce threats to the site, made by the Senegalese authorities in collaboration with local communities, and with the support of Unesco.
The Te Henua Enata-Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia
The Pacific islands, known as the Marquesas, have also been added to Unesco's World Heritage list.
"Through its selection of the Marquesas Islands, the World Heritage Committee recognises the exceptional universal value of this archipelago, where we find evidence of a civilisation intimately linked to its unique geological and marine environment," the spokesperson for the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs said.
"Its inclusion on the list sends a message of support for preserving the Pacific’s terrestrial and marine biodiversity and for recognising the richness and diverse cultures of our overseas territories."
France added it was to reaffirm its "commitment to Unesco’s mission of preserving our world’s heritage and to the 1972 World Heritage Convention".
