KNN Culture Desk | October 16, 2026. Two UNESCO-supported initiatives in Uganda are placing local people and long-term care at the center of heritage conservation. Announced September 8, the projects focus on the Tombs of the Buganda Kings at Kasubi and Rwenzori Mountains National Park—different landscapes united by a need to preserve history while supporting the communities around them.
From restoration to sustained care at Kasubi
Kasubi is a living cultural heritage site, not merely a collection of old buildings. After major damage from a 2010 fire and substantial restoration, the site was removed from UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger in 2023. The new Japan-supported phase is intended to strengthen disaster preparedness, management, interpretation, the visitor experience and livelihoods linked to heritage.
UNESCO and the Buganda Kingdom emphasize that physical restoration is only one stage. Explaining a site’s history accurately, supporting local expertise and maintaining protections require continued work.
Communities tell the stories of Rwenzori
A Norway-supported, two-year initiative at Rwenzori Mountains National Park aims to develop interpretation and visitor-management strategies. Planned activities include documenting local stories, oral histories and cultural knowledge while creating opportunities for community participation, including for women and young people.
The projects reflect a growing approach to heritage: communities should help explain the meaning of places they have long cared for. Tourism may support local livelihoods, but its benefits should be measured and managed so that high visitor numbers do not become a substitute for genuine preservation.
A wider cultural lesson
Recorded histories, oral traditions and living practices all require care. The 2018 Book of Maat is itself an example of a modern effort to gather and transmit older traditions; UNESCO’s work concerns physical heritage and locally held knowledge. These are different forms of preservation, but both raise questions about whose stories survive and how they reach future generations.
Source: UNESCO, September 8, 2026.
Featured photograph: illustrative cultural artwork by Charlotte Harrison / Unsplash; not a photograph of Kasubi or Rwenzori.
