2.5 SADC

protect that identity. According to Parkinson, Scott, and Redmond (2017), the management of atrocity historic sites is problematic due to the sites' numerous uses, of which tourism is only one, as well as the issue of the emotions elicited by such locations.

2.5 SADC

The Berlin Conference (also known as the Congo Conference or West Africa Conference) took place between 1884 and 1885 at the invitation of Portugal and was organised by German chancellor, Otto von Bismarck. Representatives from Austria, Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Norway, the Ottoman Empire, and the United States gathered. According to Gettleman (1993), the conference can be regarded as the formalisation of the colonial partitioning of Africa, and a beginning of immense settlers’ activities by these European powers. Europe captured practically the entire continent in less than half a century. From an understanding of how each of Africa’s countries was colonised by imperial European powers, particularly the United Kingdom, France, Portugal, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Belgium, it becomes clear that each country in Africa has a unique story about its colonisation.

To advance national political liberation in southern Africa, and to reduce dependence mainly on South Africa, the Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference (SADCC) was established in 1980. The SADCC was then transformed into the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in 1992, focusing on the integration of economic development.

The SADC member countries (Figure 2.1) are Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The built environment left by the colonial powers attests to its lingering impacts in shaping the present and the future trajectory of post-colonial cities in the SADC and Africa at large.