Prepared by Ernestine Tomla Lukong (Cameroun participant)

The fifth week was a continuation of the management planning process which had been introduced in week 4. Case studies were given to further illustrate the presentations from the previous week. The first case study given was that of the Fort Jesus management plan. Fort Jesus had served as a teaching tool for the management planning exercise in the 2001 course. The draft result from the 2001 course has been consolidated by the NMK and presented to UNESCO as part of a nomination dossier for consideration for inscription on the World Heritage List.

The Fort Jesus management plan was presented by Tinga Kalume, a former participant from the 2005 course. Tinga is a staff of the National Museums of Kenya. He is presently the curator of the Mama Ngina archaeological site. As an introduction to the general area in which the management plan would be carried out, there were 2 presentations from the Lamu district planning officer – Alfred Eshitera - and the Lamu Museum curator – Mbarak Abdulkadir, whose office oversees the Lamu World Heritage site.
Most of the rest of the week was spent gathering data, on the study site – Pate Island, from the library of the National Museum of Kenya.
As part of the preparation for the field work on Pate Island, there was a presentation on the history of Pate, as part of the backdrop for the work ahead. The presentation was made by Ahmed Sheikh Nabhany, of the Research Institute for Swahili Studies in East Africa (RISSEA).
Participants also had the opportunity to interact with directors and representatives of international heritage institutions (ICCROM, UNESCO-WHC, AWHF) who were attending a meeting, hosted by CHDA, on the future possibilities beyond 2009 when the Africa 2009 programme is scheduled

The 11th regional course moved from Mombasa to Pate Island on the 14th of August 2009 and will be there for weeks 6, 7 and 8 of the course, living on the study site and internalizing the issues in order to come up with a management plan that is realistic in outlook. The drastic change from urban Mombasa to rustic, rural Pate was an initial challenge for this group from different settings in Africa but they have all since settled down to the challenges of the work ahead of them.