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 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | Whose Heritage? The Case of the Matabo National Park |
| Author: | Ranger, Terence O. |
| 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. |
