Museum Gedi World Museum Site

The Historic Town and Archaeological Site of Gedi is located in the town of Gedi on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. It occupies an area of ​​20.81 Ha of the Arabuko-Sokoke National Park located northeast of the Forest Reserve of the same name in Kilifi. He inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List at the 46th General Assembly held in New Delhi.

Gedi is extremely rich in architectural remains in the image of a historic city. Archaeological research carried out since the 1940s by Dr. James Kirkman and his team has made it possible to identify the archaeological potential of this site and to identify the historical contours of the different compartments and structures of the latter. The site consists of two enclosure walls, two large mosques, small mosques, residential houses, a palace, tombs, wells, streetscapes, pits or dumps, guard houses, and species of century-old trees forming a perfect natural symbiosis with it.

One of the five African sites recognized as meeting the criteria of universal exception at the 46th General Assembly of UNESCO held in New Delhi is The Historic Town and Archaeological Site of Gedi in Kenya. It is thus the 5th cultural site in Kenya inscribed on the World Heritage list, joining the 3 other natural sites with universal characteristics.

But before being a world-renowned heritage site, it followed national and regional recognition processes with multidisciplinary studies of nearly a century. Indeed, the city of Gedi, also called Gede, was once, mainly between the 12th and 17th centuries, a transoceanic port and commercial city better designated in West Africa. It was a land of occupation of the Swahili, since at least the 10th century, the most widespread socio-cultural group in West Africa. Located in Azania, its strategic position quickly facilitated interactions with other communities such as European, Indian, Chinese, Arab and indigenous African communities from the hinterland. In search of substantial goods on this coastal shore, they traded and exported in particular gold, ivory, ebony, mangrove wood, copper, copal, myrrh, incense, rock crystal and slaves. The city of Gedi gradually became a cosmopolitan city with the erection of religious buildings (Ibadi mosques and tombs, etc.), the use of external commercial objects entered the daily lives of the inhabitants (cowries, Chinese porcelain, coins of Chinese origin, Islamic enameled ceramics, sgraffito with Iraqi glaze, beads made of spun or cast glass). But the city was gradually abandoned for reasons of change in commercial priority and in particular of a natural nature. Thus abandoned, the site of Gedi well not having been considered in the acts and documents of written travels, the memories of an ancient occupation remain in the stories, songs and dances. The material evidence still very visible and gigantic on the site bears glorious witness to this ancient city of the Swahili coast which curious and learned societies have been flocking to since the last century.

The first act of recognition of the importance of this historical site and cultural testimony was recorded towards the end of the 19th century with the visit of John Kirk then Resident Consul of the British in 1884. This visit would have created a renewed interest in research among the English and affirmation of historical and cultural belonging among the local populations and aroused action in public policies. Between 1920 and 1948, the site underwent a series of public protection actions thus granting it all its importance in the history of the country, a British colony at the time.

In 1927, it was classified as a Historical Monument in The official gazette of the colony and protectorate of Kenya, followed by its declaration as a Protected Monument in 1929. In 1948, Gede was declared Gedi National Park with Mr. J.S. Kirkman, an archaeologist specializing in Islamic antiquity, at its head, after the discovery of its rich archaeological potential during investigations carried out since the early 1940s. Several actions have been implemented, particularly concerning the policies for managing the cultural and natural heritage of the Republic of Kenya, the creation of The National Museums of Kenya (2006), the main body for the management of Museums, monuments and sites, and membership in regional and global organizations or institutions, including UNESCO and its partner bodies ICOMOS, IUCN and ICCROM. The initiative to register sites on the prestigious UNESCO World List, which began in 2012, came to fruition this year after many years of work by experts, specialists, heritage professionals and authorities from Kenya, the African continent and the world for the critical and constitutive perspective brought to this issue.