Africa is undergoing a massive campaign of spatial and infrastructural development, with rail and road networks, pipelines, forest and agricultural clearances, industrial areas and urban expansions.As they upturn the topsoil, these building works endanger numerous archaeological sites and remains which constitute together a vast and irreplaceable body of evidence for understanding Africa's history. 

Post date
03 April 2007
Last modified
06 February 2017
How then to ensure that the future of Africa is not built at the expense of its past? That the ongoing social and economic expansion of the continent also promotes its cultural, scientific and identity values? How to reconcile archaeological studies with infrastructural works, within a logic of sustainable development? 
These questions were at the centre of the international conference organised in Nouakchott, Mauritania, between the 1rst and 3rd February 2007, by the Institut mauritanien de recherches scientifiques (Nouakchott) and the Institut national de recherches archéologiques preventives (Paris), with the participation of over 30 archaeologists from Africa and Europe, as well as representatives of UNESCO and of major developers. 
Following this conference, the participants launched the 'Call of Nouakchott' for the development of preventive archaeology in Africa. 

This common declaration aims to realise the following concrete measures: 
  • implement all international conventions, recommendations and documents concerning the protection and promotion of the archaeological heritage, 
  • integrate within national legislations the need to undertake archaeological impact assessments prior to all major development works, 
  • create a technical and financial partnership between the developers, funders and the various bodies in charge of archaeological research and heritage management, 
  • apply this partnership to the entire archaeological process, from surveys, inventories and excavations to laboratories and expert studies, publications, conservation, and public outreach, 
  • recognise the crucial importance of dedicated scientific and technical training in preventive archaeology, its contribution to capacity building and professional structures in archaeology.
Introduction
Contact(s) :

Inrap
Vincent Charpentier
01 40 08 80 16
vincent.charpentier [at] inrap.fr

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