Impact Assessment of Cultural Heritage Sites in Ile-Ife.

  • Author: Benjamin Adisa Ogunfolakan, Awogbade Moses & Hassan Olanrewaju
  • Topic: Heritage studies
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Related Congress: 13th Congress, Dakar

Since the visit of Leo Frobenius, a German anthropologist to Ife between 1910 and 1911, the cultural heritage of Ife has been exposed to the outside world leading to Ile-Ife and indeed the Yoruba cultural heritage becoming the favorite of lover of the African art and culture. This has also led to the exposure of the material culture to series of attack, from abandonment to vandalisation and stealing. The spiritual efficacy of the Yoruba culture has been totally removed while its work of art is now priceless objects awaiting Since the visit of Leo Frobenius, a German anthropologist to Ife between 1910 and 1911, the cultural heritage of Ife has been exposed to the outside world leading to Ile-Ife and indeed the Yoruba cultural heritage becoming the favorite of lover of the African art and culture. This has also led to the exposure of the material culture to series of attack, from abandonment to vandalisation and stealing. The spiritual efficacy of the Yoruba culture has been totally removed while its work of art is now priceless objects awaiting the western client that, in the first instance, introduced the religion that relegated the African traditional believe to the background. From the foreign religion faiths that condemn the African religious heritage, to socio-economic problem and urbanization, a critical appraisal of the impact of these factors on Ife sacred landscape is desirable. This paper therefore focuses on the level of conservation of sacred landscape in Ile-Ife, Southwest Nigeria and examines these problems and offer a solution in view of a recent survey carried out in the ancient city.


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