ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that to a large extent the presentation of Shimoni cave has been guided by the international tourism trope of attracting people to places of shame and pain. It also shows the community of Shimoni opening up the cave through their own initiative. The subaltern of Shimoni have reacted against the Kenyan hegemonic order or the Authorized Heritage Discourse that for a long time refused to acknowledge in explicit terms the existence of slavery and the slave trade, and its ramifications such as squatterhood. The chapter sets the background to the opening of the Shimoni cave as a tourist attraction by the local community. The first heritage management law to be passed in Kenya was the Ancient Monuments Preservation Ordinance of 1927 which was passed in order to protect coastal sites and monuments, particularly the ruined towns which at this time were believed to have been built by Arab traders.
