Science Communication and Research Dissemination put into practice: Hwange, Zimbabwe

Our host, Plan Nyabezi from the University of Zimbabwe in Harare, screened an introductary documentary that emanated from her project. She uses this same documentary regularly, showing it to school classes, in villages surrounding the sites, and with different stakeholders (e.g. national park rangers, tourism offices). Like this, both her work about the research objects and their cultural implications become known more widely.

The multi-layered documentary film does not only explain, what archeology is and does, but also how much life today can be affected by archeological research findings. Who may enter the sites, and for which purpose? Whom do the sites belong to? - the people living close by? the national parks? Who ist responsible for protection and maintenance of the sites, if the ministry for National Museums and Monuments has dissolved its protected status?

Those and many more questions are core to the discussions Plan and her team lead in the different stakeholder groups. Screening the movie was a well-made and exciting entry point for the following speeches, discussions and excursions of the workshop.

The Matabeleland archeological sites have great cultural relevance even today. This became appearant when the group was only allowed access to the Shangano site after attending a ritual led by some elders from the nearby village. Even for Bumbusi, which has had prohibitions to enter for reasons of being situated on national park property since 1930, there is a still existing ritual culture which is still known to the eldest. In former times people came here for rain-asking ceremonies, long after the site had been abandoned as a dwelling place.

Apart from platforms and stonewalls Bumbusi also stages rock engravings of animal paws. The nearby Nambya people trace back their ancestors to the founders of the stonewall dwellings which gives them a proud precolonial identity.

Further information from other websites:

World Monuments Fund - Wikipedia

Lively discussions between committee members of the future Hwange Nambya museum show how difficult it is to come to terms with the outcome of academic research when having to put it into practice. What is the heart of Nambya identity, and can disseminating knowledge about the stone walls help to consolidate it? Isn't language alone carrying all culture and cultural knowledge? Are monuments and material cultural remains from the past more important than present-day activities of Nambya speakers? Should displaying long-past everyday objects form the core of the museum's objectives, or should it rather be celebrating Nambya culture with traditional dishes and dances? Are we allowed to erect a "pure" Nambya museum at all, when Hwange has been a mining town for decades and hosts so many more Shona and English speaking people than native Nambya? How could and should own traditions be continued today, when they only refer to the (lost) past?

Fellows and coordination team were honoured to take part in deep debates around these pressing issues. Some were able to offer advice and examples from their respective working fields. May the museum committees be blessed with a wonderful, vivid and meaningful museum, once they finished their quest, and may a vibrant community support it and fill the vicinities with activities, ideas and people.