Memory and Cultural Landscape at the Khami World Heritage Site, Zimbabwe : An Un-inherited Past

This book focuses on a forgotten place—the Khami World Heritage site in Zimbabwe. It examines how professionally ascribed values and conservation priorities affect the cultural landscape when there is a disjuncture between local community and national interests, and explores the epistemic violence that often accompanied colonial heritage management and archaeology in southern Africa. The central premise is that the history of the modern Zimbabwe nation, in terms of what is officially remembered and celebrated, inevitably determines how that past is managed. It is about how places are experienced and remembered through narratives and how the loss of this heritage memory may mark the un-inheriting of place. Memory and Cultural Landscape at the Khami World Heritage Site, Zimbabwe is informed by the author's experience of living near and working at Great Zimbabwe and Khami as an archaeologist, and uses archives and traditional narratives to build a biography for this lost cultural landscape. Whereas Great Zimbabwe is a resource for the state's contentious narrative of unity, and a tool for cultural activism among communities whose cultural rights are denied through the nationalisation and globalisation heritage, at Khami, which has lost its historical gravity, there is only silence. Researchers and students of cultural heritage will find this book a much-needed case study on heritage, identity, community and landscape from an African perspective. Cover Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of contents Figures Maps Acronyms Preface Acknowledgements Chronology 1 Khami: An un-inherited past Introduction 2 Placing Khami The Zimbabwe culture Mapungubwe (AD 1040–1270) Great Zimbabwe (AD 1200–1550) Khami (AD 1450–1693) Description of Khami The Hill Complex Cross Ruin North Ruin Vlei Ruin Passage Ruin Monolith Ruin Precipice Ruin 3 Locating.Khami: Culture, politics and global setting Introduction We are one: the cultural framework Legal and policy framework and the creation of a national heritage National cultural policy and heritage Conclusion Note 4 Nationalising the past, internationalising the present Theorising nation, heritage and identities in Zimbabwe Culture, heritage and national memory in Zimbabwe Condensing the landscape: archaeology and sacred landscapes Global heritage? 5 Un-inheriting Khami: The conservation process Introduction Understanding dry stone walling The architecture of Khami Conservation history of Khami The Khami World Heritage Site Management Plan, 1999–2004 Implementation of the plan Conclusion 6 Un-inheriting Khami: The socio-cultural process Introduction: Socio-cultural distancing of.Khami Creating the Ndebele and the loss of Khami from collective memory The death of a cultural landscape and the production of Khami as a ‘National Monument’ The oral narratives and the residues of sacredness Legislation and the distancing effect at Khami From ‘landscape of ancestors’ to monument: development and the landscape at.Khami Management culture within the NMMZ and the alienation of Khami Funding conservation at Khami Site interpretation as alienation at Khami Conclusion 7 Cultural negotiation and creation of a shared narrative at Mapungubwe Introduction The Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape The social life of Mapungubwe in post-apartheid South.Africa Recent threat in the Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape Conclusions: heritage in multi-cultural societies: cultural negotiation and creation of a shared narrative 8 Khami: The lost landscape Memory, identities and the un-inheriting of Khami Bibliography Websites Conventions and Legislations Newspaper and Magazine Articles Reports Correspondences Index "This book focuses on a forgotten place--the Khami World Heritage site in Zimbabwe. It examines how professionally-ascribed values and conservation priorities affect the cultural landscape when there is a disjuncture between local community and national interests. It also explores the epistemic violence that often accompanied colonial heritage management and archaeology in southern Africa. The central premise is that the history of the modern Zimbabwe nation, in terms of what is officially remembered and celebrated, inevitably determines how that past is managed. The book is about how places are experienced and remembered through narratives and how the loss of this heritage memory may mark the un-inheriting of place. It is informed by the author's experience of living near, and later, working at Great Zimbabwe and Khami as an archaeologist. Great Zimbabwe is a resource for the state's contentious narrative of unity, and a tool for cultural activism among communities whose cultural rights are denied through the nationalisation and globalisation heritage. At Khami, there is only silence as it has lost its historical gravity. To understand how Khami has been un-inherited, I use archives and traditional narratives to build a biography for Khami which I then use to build the lost cultural landscape at Khami"-- Provided by publisher This book focuses on a forgotten place - the Khami World Heritage site in Zimbabwe. Informed by the author's experience of living and working in Khami, it is about how places are experienced and remembered through narratives and how a loss of heritage memory may mark the un-inheriting of place.