Chiefs Jostle for Great Zimbabwe

Monument known as the Great Wall of Zimbabwe built during the Mutapa Empire. A dispute between three traditional leaders has erupted over ownership of the historic treasure., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Chiefs jostle for Great Zimbabwe

Saturday, 11 August 2012 13:29
Tendai Chara
Zimbabwe Sunday Mail

Had this been the 12th century, Nyatsimba Mutota, the fiery leader of the Mutapa Empire, would be having sleepless nights.

Mutota would have summoned his warriors and ordered them to go into battle.

His declaration of a war would be because the Great Zimbabwe monuments, believed to have been the royal residence of the once mighty Mutapa dynasty, is under threat and is at the centre of a bitter feud involving four tra­ditional leaders living in areas surround­ing the ruins.

The monument, located some 25 kilome­tres outside Masvingo town, is where the name Zimbabwe is derived.

Chiefs Murinye, Mugabe, Charumbira and headman Nemamwa are feuding over the con­trol and ownership of the ruins.

The ruins at Great Zimbabwe are some of the oldest and largest structures located in Southern Africa and were declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1986.

Its most imposing structure, referred to as the Great Enclosure, has walls as high as 11 metres extending approximately 250m, making it the largest ancient structure south of the Sahara.

Great Zimbabwe acted as a royal palace for the Mutapa monarch, whose prominent fea­tures are its walls, some of which might have been over five metres high and were built with­out mortar.

Although the site which was eventually abandoned by the Mutapa monarch and left to fall into ruin is under the custody of the National Museums and Monuments of Zim­babwe, the traditional leaders are all claiming that the ruins fall within their boundaries and want to control the goings-on there.

But what precipitated this feud and why are all the traditional leaders so determined to have the ruins in their domain.?

In an effort to unravel the truth behind the traditional leaders’ row, The Sunday Mail In-Depth not only made the 325km journey to the monument but even went as far as Chikwepa Village, some 70km west of the ruins, where one of the feuding chiefs, Murinye, lives.

From interviews it became clear that the dispute was not about the traditional leaders wanting to safe­guard the monument whose construction first began in the 11th century and continued until the 14th century.

Instead, the source of the feud appears to be the desire for the economic benefit derived from the control and ownership of the country’s most treasured monument.

After laying his claim to the ownership of Great Zimbabwe, Headman Nemamwa, Elimon Matambo, emphasised the need for chiefs to benefit from the “natural resources” found in areas of their jurisdiction.

“As headman of this area, I am not getting even a cent from the money that is realised from the tourists that pay to visit the ruins. As local leaders, we must benefit from the natu­ral resources that are located in our areas. We have, for example, the nearby Lake Mutirikwi. My subjects are not, in any way, benefiting from it,” said the traditional leader.

Another leader involved in the feud, Chief Mugabe, whose full name is Matubede Mudavanhu Mugabe, accused some of the chiefs involved in the feud of being greedy and eyeing the finan­cial gains realised from the world heritage site.

“The other chiefs, especially the younger ones, are not only the true custodians of the site but are actually vultures that are bent on eco­nomically benefiting from the ruins,” said the youthful chief.

He said the Great Zimbabwe monument was not being respected and was being “too com­mercialised.”

“That place is sacred but some of the chiefs that claim to be the rightful owners are busy renting out the site to anybody who cares to use it. A musical gala was recently held at the ruins and the youngsters that attended the event lit­tered the shrine with used condoms. I cannot allow such a free-for-all approach,” fumed Chief Mugabe.

He is also not happy with the way the National Museums and Monuments of Zim­babwe, the custodians of the site, are giving back to the local community.

“It is a pity that the National Museums and Monuments never consulted us in matters to do with their social responsibility pro­grammes.

I heard through rumours that they (National Museums and Monuments) are paying school fees of only three children from my chieftaincy as part of their social responsibility pro­gramme. I was never con­sulted in the first place. They behaved as if I did not exist. They could have done better by sitting down with me as the chief,” he said.

However, Dr Godfrey Mahachi, the direc­tor of the National Museums and Monu­ments, begged to differ with Chief Mugabe.

“For us, the Great Zimbabwe has served as a test case. We have discovered that it is possi­ble for us to go into conflict with the commu­nity. To avoid conflict, we set up local man­agement committees which we work with in identifying areas that we need to work and help each other,” he said.

Dr Mahachi said that as part of his depart­ment’s social responsibility programme, the National Museums and Monuments pays schools fees for 20 deserving schoolchildren drawn from around the Great Zimbabwe vicinity.

“We survive on a Government grant. Besides paying for the school fees, we are a source of employment for the locals whom we hire peri­odically. We also provide fire­wood to the com­munity. We should be doing more but I would want to say that we are not totally blind to the fact that we have to some­how empower these communities,” Dr Mahachi said.

Despite the fact that the Great Zimbabwe monument is 70km away from his village, Chief Murinye, Ephias Munodawafa, still claims ownership of the ruins.

“My forefathers used to be headquartered at Boroma, just outside the ruins. All the chiefs know this. They are now lying because they think that they can get money realised from the tourists that pay to visit the ruins. This feud has more to do with money than a gen­uine need to safeguard the monument,” the chief, speaking through his assessor Elliot Munodawafa, said.

However, according to renowned histo­rian Cde Aeneas Chigwedere, none of the three chieftainships should claim control over the monument.

According to Cde Chigwedere, Chief Nemamwa was the first to arrive in the area around the Great Zimbabwe monument, which had already been built by people of the Mutapa Empire.

All the chiefs involved in this feud acknowl­edged this fact. It is believed the Mugabe clan only arrived at Great Zimbabwe in 1840 and fought the Nemamwa clan to get control of the monu­ment. As the chiefs continue to heckle and bicker over the ruins, James Mazvidza, the Masvingo District Administrator, said the areas surrounding the ruins were, as of now, “no man’s land.”

“We cannot say that the areas surrounding the ruins belong to a particular chief. The Gov­ernment is currently in the process of gazetting such places as it seeks to emplace chiefs follow­ing the land redistribution exer­cise,” Mazvidza said. He said the Masvingo Rural District Coun­cil would call a meeting with the feuding tra­ditional leaders to resolve the issue.

“The future is bright. We are not faced with a gloomy picture. We are going to sit down with the chiefs and find an amicable solu­tion,” he concluded.

According to historians, Great Zim­babwe at one time spanned an area of 722 hectares and could have housed up to 18 000 people.

The present-day site covers an area of nearly 80 hectares.

Great Zimbabwe, which means big house of stone, gave the nation its name in 1980.

However, from the accusations and counter-accusations traded by the chiefs, the feud over the ownership and control of the Great Zim­babwe might prove to be a hard nut to crack.