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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Whose Heritage? The Case of the Matabo National Park
Author:Ranger, Terence O.ISNI
Year:1989
Periodical:Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:15
Issue:2
Period:January
Pages:217-249
Language:English
Geographic term:Zimbabwe
Subjects:nationalism
Ndebele (Zimbabwe)
national parks and reserves
Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
Politics and Government
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/2636801
Abstract:Despite the fact that the Matopo Hills and its National Park in the south of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) are accessible via a wide tar road and have been occupied for 40,000 years, the area is still thought of as 'wild' and is seen as a unique and fragile ecosystem which needs to be protected. These ambivalences are the result of the interaction of two fundamentally irreconcilable myths of the special significance of the hills: the white myth and the black. This article describes white definitions of the heritage of the Matopos (the sacred significance of the hills as the burial place of Rhodes; the romantic idea of preserving a specimen of 'the old Africa'; the scientific idea of preventing soil erosion and silting; and, the conservationist idea of preserving species of fauna and flora) and black definitions of the heritage of the Matopos (the special heritage of the pre-Ndebele inhabitants of the area, the Banyubi; the significance of the hills as the burial place of Mzilikazi and thus the focal point of Ndebele cultural nationalism; the fact that Rhodes had promised the Ndebele undisturbed occupation of the land; and the significance of the Park in the wider development of nationalism in Matabeleland and in the guerrilla war of the 1960s). Notes, ref.
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