- Cultural heritage planning and preservation in Yoruba Cities Case study of Ile Ife, Nigeria   715 kb by    Ayangbile, Oluwabukola & Abiodun, O. | bukiayangbile@yahoo.com    Short Outline This paper examines how heritage places and spaces are protected and managed to enhance historical artifacts in Ile Ife, the ‘Cradle of Humankind’. It suggests traditional historical planning tools as a re- vitalization planning strategy to preserve, manage and protect the sacred groves, monuments, traditional and religious landmarks that already exists. Abstract Cultural landscapes preservation is increasingly gaining attention among planners.“There is also a growing demand for planners to play a vital role in preserving built environment heritages and historically valuable urban areas, and protecting them from insensitive conversion or invasion by incompatible uses” (UN-Habitat, 2009:202-203). This paper examines how heritage places and spaces are protected and managed to enhance historical artifacts in Ile Ife, the ‘Cradle of Humankind’. ''Ile-Ife'' (The Land of Expansion) is regarded as the cradle of all of humanity especially by the indigenous people. Ile Ife is a traditional town with two universities and a teaching hospital. The distinct planning form in Ife is the concentric model. Heritage landmarks need to be protected because they constitute valuable assets (cultural and environmental capital) within the community. The paper suggests traditional historical planning tools as a re-vitalization planning strategy to preserve, manage and protect what already exists (the sacred groves, monuments, worship centres -traditional and religious landmarks) given the rapid urbanization in Ile-Ife. Festivals celebrated in Ile-Ife include the “Olojo” festival (Olojo meaning Owner of the day) usually celebrated by the indigenes in honor of the revolutionary deity “Ogun- the god of Iron” and the 401 deities that resides in the ancient city of Ife; the “Edi” festival celebrated once every year for a period of seven days, a period to discipline thieves, and the “Ifa Agbonmiregun” festival done to unite Ifa followership and also to integrate the community on peace. Ile- Ife comprises of four distinct historical nodes namely; the traditional inner core with the Oba’s (King’s) palace, the Enuwa square, Ifa temple and the Ife city museum. The inner city ensures that the cultural relevance (and overall significance) of Ile-Ife is sustained; the Obafemi Awolowo University (formerly, University of Ife) campus, constitutes a magnet for much of the town’s labour force; the Mayfair-Sabo- Lagere commercial corridor; and the Sacred grove or natural virgin forests that epitomize the tradition of the Ife indigenes. Cultural heritage landscape are gradually been wiped off by urbanization. Forest reserves and farmlands which support the sustainability of a place and food security within its borders are being encroached upon. The core is gradually losing its priced heritage in spite of the conscious effort of the people and the traditional leaders to retain some cultural values of the area. Re-vitalizing and restoration of the housing stock and historical artifacts in the city core will promote tourism and opportunity for global economic competitiveness of the city. Urban decay has left inner cities in Nigeria to decline and the originally reserved agricultural lands are paying dearly for an unacceptable encroachment. Conservation of landmarks, forests and landscape, will help curb encroachment of agricultural lands and enhance environmental sustainability. Secondary data was collected from existing literature and primary data collected from the planning authority and informal interviews with custodians of history, leaders and individuals within the community. It is worthy of note that rather than leaving these areas to degrade or be wiped off and forgotten due to gentrification effect, a number of benefits springs from the improvement and conservation of these regions such as income generation from tourism and celebration of ethnically symbolic ceremonies which attracts trade, developments and also investors. “Historic preservation or conservation seeks to enhance, preserve and retain the symbols of the past” (Olufemi, 2001:390). Protecting the cultural identity and heritage of Ile Ife then helps to preserve a sense of history for future generations, enrich new developments, promote community identity, preserve historic landmarks and guide planning activities such as zoning, development control and conservation policies. Keywords Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2013: Frontiers of Planning - Evolving and declining models of city planning practice   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper