The National Monuments of
Eswatini, in
Southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number o ...
, are proclaimed in accordance with the National Trust Commission Act, 1972.
The same act saw the establishment of the
Swaziland National Trust Commission
The Swaziland National Trust Commission (SNTC) is the custodian of Eswatini's cultural and natural heritage. It is governed by The National Trust Commission Act of 1972. It is a parastatal of the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs.
Natu ...
.
The Commission, a
parastatal
A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the government ...
of the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs, is charged with the protection and promotion of the country's cultural heritage.
As of May 2012, three National Monuments have been proclaimed with a number of candidate sites for future proclamation under examination.
Swaziland ratified the
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
World Heritage Convention
The World Heritage Convention, formally the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, is an international treaty signed on 23 November 1972, which created the World Heritage Sites, with the primary goals of ...
in 2006; the
Ngwenya Mine
The Ngwenya Mine is located on Bomvu Ridge, northwest of Mbabane and near the northwestern border of Eswatini (Swaziland). This mine is considered to be the world's oldest. The haematite ore deposit was used in the Middle Stone Age to extract ...
s have been submitted for inscription and are currently on the
Tentative List.
List of National Monuments
Three National Monuments have been proclaimed under the current system:
List of potential National Monuments
A further twenty-nine sites have been identified as potential National Monuments:
See also
*
History of Swaziland
Artifacts indicating human activity dating back to the early Stone Age have been found in the Kingdom of Eswatini. The earliest known inhabitants of the region were Khoisan hunter-gatherers. Later, the population became predominantly Nguni d ...
*
List of heritage registers
This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In many i ...
*
UNESCO General History of Africa
References
{{Reflist
National Monuments
Heritage registers in Eswatini
Eswatini