Digital Technology and a Community Framework for Heritage Rock Art Tourism,Makgabeng Plateau,South Africa

Using digital technologies in the process of collecting and documenting oral heritage allows previously marginalised voices to feed into heritage and historical narratives for rock art heritage tourism. Literary heritage narratives have tended to dominate the dissemination of information on African heritage, whereas African cosmologies and oral traditions are the intangible values of place that attract visitors to heritage sites. In the Makgabeng, oral heritage narrated through stories, songs, dances and poetry and collected using digital technologies will help preserve African values threatened by the onslaught of Western ones, especially through written European languages and social media. The Makgabeng Community Rock Art Project re-values the role of elders in sustainability of heritage tourism initiatives and the integration of a community structure as a sustainable “ready-made” framework to heritage management in Africa.