Mapungubwe: an Historical and Contemporary Analysis of a World Her- Itage Cultural Landscape

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Mapungubwe: an Historical and Contemporary Analysis of a World Her- Itage Cultural Landscape carruthers.qxd 2006/04/17 03:08 PM Page 1 Mapungubwe: an historical and contemporary analysis of a World Her- itage cultural landscape JANE CARRUTHERS Carruthers, Jane. 2006. Mapungubwe: an historical and contemporary analysis of a World Heritage cultural landscape. Koedoe 49(1): 1–13. Pretoria. ISSN 0075-6458. The Mapungubwe World Heritage cultural landscape, situated on the farm Greefswald at the junction of the Limpopo and Shashi rivers on the border of South Africa, Zim- babwe and Botswana, falls under the management of South African National Parks. This article presents a close examination of contemporary and historical issues around the inscription of the site and argues that the value of places is not self-evident but that sig- nificance is culturally constructed. This, as is explained here in respect of Mapungub- we, has changed over time and has been imposed by the concerns, aspirations and val- ues of society at a specific time and within a specific context. Basic facts about Mapun- gubwe are provided and its importance as a contemporary economic and cultural driver is outlined. A brief history of Mapungubwe’s inclusion in a national park from 1947 to 1949 is presented, as is the archaeological science that it spawned. The effect that the inscription of Mapungubwe may have on elevating South Africa’s international profile and on African national pride is described. Key words: Mapungubwe, World Heritage, cultural landscape, national park, archaeol- ogy, history. Jane Carruthers Department of History, University of South Africa, P.O. Box 392, 0003 Unisa ([email protected]). Introduction (Hofmeyr 1989: 263). The aim of this article is to interrogate against the grain some of The inscription of a World Heritage Site is these imaginative and material values that, generally greeted with considerable publicity over time and within context, have together and expressions of national pride and self- constructed the ‘cultural landscape’ of congratulation. While this may have palled a Mapungubwe, a World Heritage Site in little for some countries that have been northern Limpopo Province, South Africa. involved in the process since the inception of The trajectory from scientific discovery to the World Heritage Convention in 1972, the World Heritage value is contextual and, I excitement is still very real in South Africa. argue, explains much about changing link- Having been barred for years from many ages between South African society and the UNESCO projects on account of apartheid, natural and cultural environment. The twen- in 1997 the South African government was tieth century history of Mapungubwe able to ratify the World Heritage Convention requires remembering in all its complexity. and thus became eligible to nominate sites Too often heritage sites present sanitised ver- for the list. sions of the past because the ease of an over- The legislation governing South African simplified story is so alluring. World Heritage Sites is the World Heritage The Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape, situ- Convention Act No. 49 of 1999. ated in savanna country at the point at which No site is ipso facto culturally or environ- South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana con- mentally valuable. ‘A place is neither auto- verge at the confluence of the Limpopo and matic nor self-evident. Places have to be Shashi rivers, was added to the list of World made both imaginatively and materially’ Heritage sites in July 2003 at a meeting held ISSN 0075-6458 1 Koedoe 49/1 (2006) carruthers.qxd 2006/04/17 03:08 PM Page 2 at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. Mapun- scape and its fifth World Heritage Site of gubwe itself is a high (30 m) isolated sand- which (at March 2006) there are seven. stone outcrop, some 323x78 m in extent that overlooks the confluence. Its geographical position is significant because some seven Discussion hundred years ago Mapungubwe straddled the trade routes both to the Indian Ocean and into the interior. The underlying importance Mapungubwe: basic facts of Mapungubwe, which was abandoned after There are more than four hundred document- 400 years of settlement in 1290 AD, is that it ed archaeological sites in the vicinity of was for a period the largest ‘kingdom’—to Mapungubwe. During the period 900– use a Eurocentric term—in the sub-conti- 1300 AD there were three dense settlements nent. Unlike many other precolonial sites, it around Mapungubwe and each of these has is frozen in time, its remains are almost yielded considerable information about the untouched and the whole place (there are economy and society of this region. The first other sites in the vicinity) bears witness to major centre was on the farm Schroda. This the development and altering landscape of Zhizo settlement (900–1020 AD) was fol- complex social and political structures. lowed by a site that archaeologists refer to as The World Heritage Committee defines cul- K2, an extensive midden deposit of the tural and natural criteria to which nominated Leopard’s Kopje stylistic cluster which is sites must conform in order to be eligible for quite separate from the Zhizo ceramic tradi- inscription onto the world list. Cultural land- tion (1020–1220 AD) and not a continuation scapes, however, are a later inclusion into of it (Maggs 2000:18). Mapungubwe, the hill World Heritage. In October 1992, after years about a kilometre to the northeast of K2, was of discussion, the Operational Guidelines of inhabited between 1220 and 1290 AD and it the convention were revised to include this is here that the first consequences of wealth new category that represented ‘the combined accumulation become evident. This in- works of nature and man’ that were of ‘out- equitable distribution of wealth resulted in standing universal value’ as specified in Arti- class distinction and disparity in access to cle 1 of the World Heritage Convention. As resources, together with the physical separa- far as Mapungubwe is concerned, four of the tion of commoners from the ruling class or five possible cultural criteria apply, viz., cri- ‘sacred leadership’, the latter living on the teria (ii), (iii), (iv) and (v). It also meets Arti- top of the hill, the commoners below and cle 39 of the Operational Guidelines of the serving their interests. When Mapungubwe World Heritage Convention, falling into the was suddenly abandoned, the result of a category of an ‘organically evolved land- combination of factors including the onset of scape’ and the sub-categories of (ii) ‘a relict the ‘Little Ice Age’ and perhaps a strong El (or fossil) landscape in which an evolution- Niño (O’Connor & Kiker 2004: 49–66), the ary process came to an end at some time in centre of regional power shifted to Great the past, either abruptly or over a period. Its Zimbabwe between 1290 and 1450 AD and significant distinguishing features are, how- then to Khami (Rozwi) from 1450 to ever, still visible in material form’ and (iii) 1820 AD, both of which were inscribed on an ‘associative cultural landscape … by the list of World Heritage sites in 1986. virtue of the powerful religious, artistic and cultural associations of the natural elements Mapungubwe: a contemporary ecomonic of the landscape rather than material cultural and cultural driver evidence, which may be insignificant or even absent’, as specified in paragraphs 35 to At Mapungubwe, there is no ongoing rela- 42 of the Operational Guidelines. Mapun- tionship between people and place. No mod- gubwe was South Africa’s first cultural land- ern community occupies the site or can lay Koedoe 49/1 (2006) 2 ISSN 0075-6458 carruthers.qxd 2006/04/17 03:08 PM Page 3 claim to an organic association with it. No culturally, environmentally and economical- oral evidence survives about the rise or aban- ly sustainable projects, while facilitating the donment of the sites during the period 900 to empowerment and advancement of histori- 1300 AD. Mapungubwe celebrates an cally disadvantaged persons. African, but nonetheless an alien, culture for World Heritage status thus encourages the modern black and white South Africans commodification of heritage but it also feeds alike. It is therefore, and unusually, a spiritu- into national pride and cohesion around ‘spe- ally and culturally uncontested landscape, in cial places’ (Marschall 2005: 103–122). The this regard not unlike another South African status of Mapungubwe as being of world World Heritage site, the far older hominid value is useful to South Africa because the fossil deposit at the Cradle of Humankind resources of Limpopo Province are extreme- near Johannesburg. Mapungubwe’s symbol- ly limited and it will need substantial mar- ism can be appropriated by a number of keting and education in order to become groups and interested parties and the fact that attractive to the average international tourist it can be shared by many stakeholders means or even to South Africans. First, the site can- that it can serve as an exemplar landscape for not be understood without substantial inter- South African reconciliation and nation- pretation. Second, getting to Mapungubwe building. It can also be utilised for present- takes effort, as it is a long drive from any day political and economic outcomes and metropolitan area, the climate is tropical and serve a number of contemporary agendas often extremely hot and malaria is a threat. quite unrelated to its original function. Substantial investment will be required in The most urgent of these agendas is eco- order to promote and publicize the destina- nomic development. Mapungubwe holds the tion (Norton 2000; SiVEST 2002; DEAT promise of considerable practical benefit for 2002). expanding the tourist industry and the The Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape accompanying developmental infrastructure specifically elevates the profile of Limpopo into the Limpopo valley, one of the more Province and is already being actively used remote parts of South Africa.
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