Public Seminar

Mapping Urban Heritages: The Case of Sekota, Ethiopia

Dr. Rumi Okazaki, an Associate Professor at the School of Architecture, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan gave a public seminar on "Mapping Urban Heritages: The Case of Sekota, Ethiopia" 5th November 2022 at Ethiopian Institute of Architecture (EiABC), Addis Ababa. Participants drawn from different occupations attended the seminar. Abstract of her talk is given below.

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ABSTRACT

This project aimed at mapping the historic sites and heritages in the town of Sekota with the objectives of tracing the history of the town and raising the awareness of about the heritages in the town. Old photos, maps, and literature related to the town were unfortunately scarce. The team therefore interviewed several key informants who are knowledgeable about and are hailed from Sekota town. We then identified district names, historical sites, churches, circular houses, public buildings, plazas, trees, and vistas. We finally created the basis of a heritage map that could be further developed into a heritage conservation plan and integrated with tourist information map. This project seeks to raise the awareness regarding historical and cultural heritages in and around Sekota. Through the help of local team members, fifty-one circular houses were identified. We find that Sekota is rich in historic sites. The ongoing urban development projects in the town however are posing a threat to its iconic heritage buildings. In light of the unprecedented rate of urbanization and socio-economic transformations across Ethiopia, the authors aim this project to become a demonstration of a small project that could be applied to other bigger towns and cities.

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The research was led by Shibaura Institute of Technology in collaboration with Ethiopian Institute of Architecture (EiABC) and Wag Development Association (WDA).