Kenyan Universities Encouraged to Offer Underwater Archaeology Courses
Holds significant potential for cultural tourism and foreign exchange.
By Dorothy Yegon
Dr Caesar Bita, the Head of Coastal Archaeology at National Museums of Kenya, has called on local universities to introduce underwater archaeology courses to train specialist capable of exploring Kenya vast underwater cultural heritage along the Indian Ocean.
The venture, he says, holds significant potential for cultural tourism and foreign exchange.
"Despite having trained a few young archaeologists in the field, the current numbers of specialists are insufficient," Dr Bita said.
He however urged institutions of higher learning such as Kenyatta University(KU) and University of Nairobi(UoN) already offer related programmes in History,Geography,Antropology,Marine Science and Land archeology to incorporate Underwater archeology into Curricula.
"This would make the discipline more accessible and affordable for Kenyan students as studying abroad in the field can be prohibitively expensive" he said.
Dr Bita expressed optimism that training more local experts would improve research and contribute to the preservation of Kenyas underwater archaeological sites.
He also appealed to the government to support this initiative by sponsoring students to pursue studies in underwater archaeology, "which will help to safeguard and explore Country's underwater Cultural heritage."
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