Zimbabwe's national museums and monuments: Constructing culture and making money

Abstract

This article analyzes national monuments, museums, and Cultural Heritage Sites in Zimbabwe for their symbolic and economic value as politicized and contested landscapes. It argues that museums and national legacy sites are developed as public places that camouflage but also reveal social memory in the process of state identity formation. Developments at cultural and heritage sites include a dual mandate to assert a new African national identity and attract tourism. I argue that the visual, cultural, and political narratives used to (re)inscribe a traditional African past on the landscape evoke conflicting emotional and intellectual responses among varied audiences. Monument planning and restoration of museums and Cultural Heritage Sites must balance the needs of multiple constituencies to avoid conflicts that can arise if development plans do not align with tourist desires or respect a community's use of a space or understanding of the past. Therefore, the ability of heritage and cultural sites to serve as engines of development for the tourist economy is questionable, but as public platforms for the expression of indigenous histories and cultures, they provide significant social and cultural value to local groups.