Heritage tourism in a city of legends

Abstract

Since the end of apartheid, much has been made of the Eastern Cape as the home of the founding fathers of African nationalism and of the great intellectual traditions stemming from the early mission stations, which produced the constitutional traditions of the ANC. The province has embraced this history and called itself the home of legends, and yet it is still the prehistoric coelacanth fish which remains an abiding pre-occupation at the East London Museum that prevails in the city's memorialisation of its own past. In 2019, as part of an ongoing collaboration, the Buffalo City Metropolitan Development Agency (BCMDA) asked the HSRC to help re-evaluate its museums and heritage infrastructure to boost tourism.