TEHIC-Handbook_of_best_practices

148 TEHIC Towards a European Heritage Interpretation Curriculum 7.3.1. Discovering Lisbon’s African Heritage bridges the cultural activity to leisure. The tour also passes through various boroughs of Lisbon, allowing participants to experience various locations and environments. 5. Innovative, research and creative elements used The tours are based on research by several academics and literature authors like José Machado Pais, António Chainho, Adalberto Alves, José Ramos Tinhorão, among others. More recently, Isabel Castro Henriques has strongly contributed with research related to 15 th -21 st century history . Among creative elements used in the visits, we identified the use of the history of key individuals as illustrations of the lives of the African Diaspora that differ from their sole description as slaves. These visits also dia - logue with the current presence of the African Diaspora: during the tour, the guide travels across locations that have been adopted by specific communities, and areas where Afri - can people can be found performing trading activities (open-air markets, restaurants). Why this activity should be considered a Heritage Interpretation Good Practice? It presents an alternative account of African history in the Portuguese territory. The activity invites to review the shared awareness of the history of Lisbon and Portugal, and the role that the African Diaspora played in that history. As it contrasts with more common narratives, it can very much contribute to a dialectic of history, both as a process that assembles events around a speech as well as a mechanism of establishing political and social identities, creating, and reinforcing a sense of loyalty and kinship between current populations and individuals and communities of the past. Batoto Yetu Portugal The group sharing a meal after the tour in a Cape Verdean restaurant. © José Lino, Batoto Yetu.