The Dilemma of the Presence of Great Zimbabwe Hotel within the Great Zimbabwe Monuments Cultural Landscape.

Abstract

The paper investigates how the introduction of the Great Zimbabwe Hotel (GZH) within the Great Zimbabwe Monuments (GZM) cultural landscape, create tensions within the area in postcolonial period. In particular it focuses on the tensions between the Great Zimbabwe Hotel and its neighbours namely the Great Zimbabwe Monuments and the local community surrounding the GZM cultural landscape. The Great Zimbabwe Hotel is one of the developments which was added to the Great Zimbabwe cultural landscape by the colonialists and is contributing to some challenges being currently faced within the landscape. This paper explores the evolution of tensions between the Great Zimbabwe Hotel and its neighbours, patterns and trends of the tension and the impact of the tensions on heritage conservation. In investigating this issue, National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe (NMMZ) Act; semi-structured interviews and Focus Group Discussions (FGD) were employed in order to understand the impact of the hotel on the cultural landscape. The paper seeks to understand how the hotel’s presence within the landscape creates conflicts in that area. The study proposes that the hotel’s presence in the cultural landscape compromises relations that locals have with their environment.