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

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 significance 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 values 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, archaeology, 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

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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

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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. A number of to give that province a distinct and mar- tourist amenities are planned and interpretive ketable identity. There is a ‘Mapungubwe visitor centres are being built inside the pro- Tourism Initiative’ and a prominent tected area that has recently been renamed Limpopo provincial leader, Romokone the Mapungubwe National Park. A stairway Moloto, has asserted that ‘Limpopo is the enables visitors to climb Mapungubwe to see home of Mapungubwe, the home of civiliza- the ‘royal’ quarters and to enjoy what is a tion’ http://www.anc.org.za/limpopo/ spectacular view of three countries. There is anclimpopo.html 8 July 2005). a shop and view site at the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashi rivers, and a canopy- An annual Mapungubwe Arts Festival has level boardwalk in the riverine trees along been launched in Polokwane and politicians the Limpopo provides views and opportuni- declared the inaugural event ‘a resounding ties for birding and botanizing (Norton 2000; success that showcased many of Limpopo’s SiVEST 2002; DEAT 2002). talents and succeeded in attracting the best artists from all over South Africa and the David Lowenthal believes that it is inherent continent. This festival has clearly put in modern heritage sites to ‘become major Limpopo [Province] on the arts and cultural sources of employment and revenue alike. map of our continent’ (www.limpopo.gov.za/ Eco-tourism and cultural travel are increas- dynamic/news/view/Speech1.asp?SpeechID ingly conjoined’ (Lowenthal 2005: 82). =2 18 July 2005) Among the legal requirements for South African World Heritage Sites is the obliga- To have a World Heritage Site that can facil- tion that they encourage investment and job itate these schemes, and attribute them to creation and promote the development of Mapungubwe, is politically and ideological-

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ly useful in promoting the image of Limpopo Mapungubwe is an indigenous example. Its Province. claim to technological brilliance is the indigenous production of wrought gold, ironically an industry generally much Mapungubwe: repositioning South Africa maligned in South African history because within Africa its demand for cheap unskilled labour meant The South African government is anxious to a level of coercion that played the major role project itself as a stable modern developing in the disintegration of traditional African nation, worthy of global respect. South community structures and the consolidation Africa plays the leading role in the African of racial segregation. Union (AU) and also devised and heads up In May 2005 the South African Mint the New Partnership for African Develop- launched a new gold coin (a hippopotamus) ment (NEPAD), a continental economic ini- in the ‘Natura’, ‘Giants of Africa’ series. tiative that stands for good governance and Symbolically, this was done near Mapun- neo-liberal economic management. In fur- gubwe on a property belonging to De Beers, thering this image of South African political the company that operates Venetia, an open- and economic modernity and global out- cast diamond mine in the area. Once vilified reach, Mapungubwe is an appropriate sym- by anti-apartheid activists, De Beers has bol because it salutes an early modern, tech- become a partner with the government in the nologically advanced state and economy that Mapungubwe enterprise because the lucra- existed in the region long before the era of tive mine is critical for its contribution to colonization. In common with modern South Limpopo Province’s economy and employs Africa, therefore, Mapungubwe had a com- around 760 people (http://www.mining- mercial system with ramifications world- weekly.co.za/min/sector/diamonds/?show=6 wide. The values encapsulated in this cultur- 9276 Creamer’s Media Mining Weekly 20 al landscape are modern, capitalistic and July 2005). international. Modern South Africa is replete with para- While this jargon might seem strange to use doxes and some of them take form around for a site that is precolonial, integral to the Mapungubwe. Before coming to power in agenda of the AU and NEPAD is the intel- 1994 the policies of the African National lectual component of the African Renais- Congress, the Congress of South African sance. ‘The term “African Renaissance” car- Trade Unions and the South African Com- ries great resonance, but for historians and munist Party were based on a vision of a archaeologists the question will inevitably classless society, entrenching workers’ rights arise: what was the original African “Golden and instituting an anti-capitalist programme Age” that will inspire the Renaissance—the of nationalisation. Some rhetoric of this kind rebirth of society and culture—in the new remains despite the introduction of GEAR millennium? The European Renaissance, (Growth, Employment and Redistribution) emerging out of the “dark” Middle Ages, and government policy certainly aims to try invoked as its vision the “Golden Age” to reduce the gap between rich and poor. But drawn from the classical cultures of Greece as explained, technology, mining, interna- and Rome. What is it that southern Africa tional trade, environmental and human can call upon in the postcolonial era to serve exploitation and capitalist accumulation are as an appropriate model from the past?’ The integral to the cultural landscape that is simple answer, according to archaeologist World Heritage Mapungubwe. There is some Tim Maggs, is Mapungubwe (Maggs irony, therefore, in the fact that Mapungub- 2000:4). This is reflected also in the symbol- we is celebrated as an example of early, ism projected by the Order of Mapungubwe, indigenous evidence of class distinction in a national decoration that recognizes excel- southern Africa. This class division did not lence in science and creativity. Of this, come about because one intruding communi-

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ty came to dominate another, it was an their own set of marks … [Farmers] assimi- organic outgrowth of Mapungubwe society lated their powerful places at a general level emanating from the inequitable control over but, at the same time, expunged and rewrote resources by the few who consolidated and the meaning and power of place in their own expanded their power over others (Huffman terms’. Foragers were ‘displaced, out-com- 2000: 20–27). This cultural landscape there- peted and marginalised as the density of fore celebrates the emergence of a society farmer settlements and their social and eco- with a hierarchy based on wealth and class nomic complexity increased’ (Hall & Smith and moreover, one that erased or assimilated 2000:30–31). By the time that Mapungubwe the culture of another. collapsed in around 1300 AD conventional forager identity had been erased from the region. Mapungubwe: cultural imperialism After Mapungubwe was suddenly aban- Mapungubwe does not commemorate a first- doned, its nine thousand inhabitants scat- nation culture or one with an integral attach- tered and mingled with other Iron Age cul- ment to the landscape as a source of spiritu- tures. Thereafter, changing climatic condi- ality such as the San/Bushman hunter-gath- tions left the Limpopo valley sparsely popu- erers of the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg, lated but the region continued to be a corri- another South African World Heritage Site dor for human movement. Groups such as —a mixed site combining natural and cul- the Tlokwa and Birwa are known to have tural criteria. Mapungubwe is an example of passed back and forth and over time, frag- one culture suppressing and supplanting ments of these communities settled in the another: farmers squeezing out herders and environs of Mapungubwe. The colonial fron- foragers. In contrast to Mapungubwe’s hier- tier in this region opened with a trickle of archical and class-based society and the frontiersmen. First was the arrival of the emphasis on material accumulation, the Buys people from the Eastern Cape in the small, kin-based San communities of the 1820s, and they soon became embroiled in area were egalitarian and bonds between local Venda contest for power. Once the people were predicated on a strong sharing Voortrekkers arrived in the late 1830s the ethic and on a spiritual life characterised by balance of power shifted again. The northern shamans and trance expressed in rock paint- Boer Zoutpansberg Republic, with its capital ings and engravings (Lewis-Williams 1981; at Schoemansdal, was dominated by ele- 1989; 2002). Prior to the rise of Mapungub- phant hunting and the export of many tons of we and its associated sites, the Limpopo area ivory each year. In due course, settler power was inhabited by forager groups whose lega- consolidated in the area in the late nineteenth cy is reflected in the rich rock art of the area. century. Another economy, that of the herders who preceded the farmers, traders and miners of After the South African War (1899–1902) a the Mapungubwe ‘golden age’, also left its series of generous land settlement schemes mark. The complicated relations among began, but because of the rugged nature of these groups in the area have been explored the country and its deleterious climate most by Simon Hall and Ben Smith (Hall & Smith farms were owned by absentee landlords or 2000) and Karim Sadr (Sadr 2005). The evi- for speculative purposes by mining and land dence from the archaeological record is that companies. In the 1930s Leo Fouché was the accomplishments of the society that is able to describe the region as ‘perhaps the celebrated in the Mapungubwe Cultural wildest and most desolate in the Transvaal. Landscape had a range of negative implica- The farms for the most part were unoccupied tions for foragers. Despite farmers expropri- and only used for a few weeks shooting in ating rock shelters ‘by overwriting, adding to the winter’ (Fouché 1937: 1). Eventually the and subtracting from, and recycling hunter- extension of the railway line to Musina and gatherer deposits and images by imposing the burgeoning copper industry there (also a

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precolonial mining site) brought a degree of Van Graan later returned with his father, prosperity to the district but the drought and E.S.J. van Graan, and three other local men depression of the 1930s shattered the stabil- intent on solving the matter of the interesting ising economy. container. In trespassing on the farm Greef- swald, the Van Graan party commandeered an African, named only ‘Mowena’ in the Mapungubwe: a colonial adventure story record, to point out Mapungubwe, the The rigid and bureaucratic criteria of the ‘sacred hill’. It seems first by cajoling and nomination procedures for World Heritage subsequently by threatening and bribing, the status are unable to incorporate fully the man—‘literally shivering with fright’ complexity of the layers of cultural interest (Fouché 1937: 1) —eventually nodded in the around Mapungubwe. One of the narratives direction of where they should look for the that is omitted concerns early European per- route that gave access to the summit. In the ceptions of Africa and Africans that mythol- narrow crevice that provided a difficult ogized the continent as replete with supersti- climb, a large rock fig gave some purchase. tious and barbaric practices, peopled by peo- The first to ascend was the young Van Graan. ple who were backward or primitive. Until Although terrified of falling into the abyss the 1920s there was a general reluctance below and frightened by bats that flew into among Europeans to acknowledge that the his face, he realised that a stairway had been complex walled sites such as Great Zimbab- deliberately carved into the rock. Soon the we and others between the Limpopo and the group was atop Mapungubwe where they Zambezi rivers might have been constructed found golden objects in profusion—beads, by Africans. Phoenicians, Romans, bangles—and many thousands of ceramic Hebrews, Dravidian Indians and other out- and glass beads and pots and potsherds. As siders were all credited from time to time they dug around and disturbed the surface with their construction. Only with British they found more and more. Eventually they archaeologist Gertrude Caton-Thompson’s realised the extent of what they had discov- work on Zimbabwe in the late 1920s were ered and, inevitably, discussion ensued about indigenous Africans eventually rightly what should be done. While the Van Graans acknowledged as the creators of these mar- felt guilty about their grave-robbing and vellous works (Caton-Thompson1931; some responsibility to alert the authorities, 1939). the others argued for keeping the treasure to As explained, in the 1920s the Limpopo val- themselves. In an interview done during the ley on the South African side consisted of mid-1980s when he was then an elderly man, private land, farms each of about 3 000ha Van Graan recalled ‘I then threatened to go that had been sold on extremely favourable to the police … Things were getting really terms by the state. The Van Graan family ugly. My father also pleaded: We don’t have were settlers and young J.C.O. van Graan the right to these treasures … It belongs to was a student at the University of Pretoria. history … South Africa’s prehistory’ (Van At home on vacation in 1932 Van Graan was der Merwe 1984: 18–37). hunting on a neighbouring farm. The day was hot and the young man was thirsty and Mapungubwe: a prism of South African went looking for water. At a nearby African archaeology homestead he was offered water in an interesting ceramic container. Being intrigued by The catalyst for the academic study of the unusual characteristics of the bowl, Van Mapungubwe was Leo Fouché, Van Graan’s Graan offered to buy it. The owner refused to history teacher, to whom the student had told part with it but did, however, divulge that it his story. At the time, Fouché was a founder had come from a ‘sacred hill’ not far way member of what had become the University (Fouché, 1937: 1–10). His interest piqued, of Pretoria and its Professor of History.

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Unusually for this period he taught precolo- Africans who helped with the manual labour. nial as well as settler history and he believed Archaeological understanding of the time that archaeology (in which he was well read was limited, the experts differed in their and relatively expert) had much to tell about interpretations and the underlying dynamics the South African past. Thoroughly bilingual of the place eluded them. The concept of a but English-speaking rather than Afrikaans, southern African Iron Age did not then exist he was a great friend and admirer of Jan and most archaeological work had been done Smuts and had been Smuts’s personal secre- on Stone Age sites. Fouché concluded that tary in 1914. Once Fouché had visited this was a cultural site of the local communi- Mapungubwe he appreciated the signifi- ty and in his book (published 1937) he even cance of what had been discovered. Fouché included a photograph of a man in tattered arranged that the Van Graans and their clothes labelled as ‘Petty Chief Tshiwana, neighbours be paid out for the gold objects successor and reputed descendant of the leg- and these were donated to the University. endary chief, Mapungubwe.’ After Fouché The professor also located E.E. Collins, the left, the dig was led by Rhodesian archaeol- absentee owner of the farm Greefswald, and ogist Dr Neville Jones and second series of negotiated for the government to purchase it. excavations in the 1930s was conducted by Politicians of both parties of the time acted Captain Guy Gardner whose monumental quickly. Given his well known and well work was published only in 1963. established scientific interests, opposition Institutional politics played a large part in leader Jan Smuts, Fouché’s friend, was the archaeological history of Mapungubwe extremely supportive. At a meeting of the and more detailed research in this regard South African Association for the Advance- would be rewarding. Between his adopting ment of Science in 1932, Smuts observed the site for his University and the publication that archaeological science was ‘a great field of the Mapungubwe volumes, Fouché had awaiting investigation in South Africa’. In resigned from the University of Pretoria in 1933 he personally visited Mapungubwe the most unpleasant of circumstances—he (Mason 1989:107–8) and the site was the was hounded out for his ‘liberal’ and ‘anti- major reason for the establishment of a Afrikaner’ views—and had taken up a post at South African Archaeological Survey the University of the Witwatersrand. During (Fouché 1937: 5). the 1930s the University of Pretoria increas- Mapungubwe was announced internationally ingly came into the grip of the cultural and in the Illustrated London News of 8 April political values of Afrikaner Nationalism, an 1933. The first scientific publication relating ideology that led to full-blown apartheid in to the site was an article that year in the 1948. In 1932 the language policy of the South African Journal of Science entitled University became exclusively Afrikaans ‘Trade and mining in the pre-European with an avowed mission to enter ‘the service Transvaal’ by F.R. Paver. The author dis- of the Afrikaner volk and … to pursue the cussed the ‘remarkable grave’ on the farm ideals of the Voortrekkers’. Academic free- Greefswald that directed attention to the dom became impossible and only the heroes ‘older native history of the Transvaal’ that of Afrikanerdom were studied and revered. was extremely valuable and interesting. A culture of intolerance took hold and those Paver expressed a keenness to hear what the who were not politically and ethnically cor- archaeologists would discover and looked rect—like Fouché—were victimised (Mou- forward to the time when facts would replace ton 1993; University of Pretoria 1960). The speculation (Paver 1933: 603–611; Van Riet discipline of History became the Afrikaner battleground and, not surprisingly in the par- Lowe 1936: 282–291). adigm of Afrikaner Nationalism and the The first archaeological team under the lead- ‘myth of the empty land’, Mapungubwe was ership of Fouché arrived at Mapungubwe in political anathema. Because in Fouché’s April 1933. Soon they were joined by local time there was no Department of Archaeolo-

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gy, the Professor was responsible for the 189–209; 2003: 826–827).This was accom- establishment of an Archaeological Commit- plished through the establishment of a tee that operated between1933 to 1947. Bureau of Archaeology (later the Archaeo- Thereafter, however, Archaeology was logical Survey) in the Department of the incorporated into a new department of Interior. Thus archaeology in the 1930s was Anthropology (known as Volkekunde in a directly funded branch of the civil service. Afrikaans). This is a questionable discipline This national priority, however, came to an in South Africa because of the racism that abrupt end in 1948 when Smuts was ousted Volkekunde espoused in its ‘scientific’ sup- as Prime Minister and when the ‘settler pan- port for atomizing African communities into Africanism and Anglophilia … were ‘ethnic’ groups and thus relegating them to replaced by the parochialism of Afrikaner Bantustans in terms of apartheid policy. nationalism; the strange occluded twilight of prehistory—part fantasy, part brute material In the nomination document for World Her- artifact—was eclipsed by the narratives of itage Status, a University of Pretoria Profes- Afrikaner sacred history’ (Shepherd 2003: sor of Archaeology is quoted as saying that 833). With Smuts’s patronage ended (he died the slow pace of research at Mapungubwe in 1950) archaeological enthusiasm and can be explained by the lack of trained enterprise wavered: the second Pan-African archaeologists (DEAT 2002: 21). To some Congress in Prehistory, which was to be held extent this is entirely correct, but there is lit- in South Africa, did not take place there, and tle evidence that the University of Pretoria the Archaeological Survey faltered and then went substantially out of its way in the early closed down in the early 1960s. Only after decades of working the site—this despite the 1994 did Mapungubwe serve a national pur- fact that the excavations had deeply ‘stirred pose. As explained in the introduction to this the pubic imagination’ (Mason 1962: 25)— article, the place needed to be imaginatively to prioritize the Mapungubwe dig or to bring created and its culture validated as national- it within South African national conscious- ly significant. ness. This might have been accomplished, for example, by incorporating knowledge of Apart from the archaeological politics, a the site (scanty as it might have been at this comparison of Fouché’s1937 work with the time) into school textbooks and the public Goodwin volume of 2000 edited by Mary literature as is being done today. In this Leslie and Tim Maggs is informative about regard, one might compare the high interna- disciplinary developments in archaeology tional profile enjoyed by Great Zimbabwe at that have aided reconstruction and apprecia- this time. Moreover, because at the time they tion of Mapungubwe’s regional and interna- regarded their discipline as one remote from tional significance. In the period 1920 to modern society, most archaeologists in 1950 effort was concentrated on artifact South Africa distanced themselves and their typologies, stratigraphic context, and mater- work from the public domain and the ques- ial sequences. Despite the fact that ‘it was tion is moot as to whether any other South possible—in fact, it was entirely normal—to African academic institution, perhaps one practise African archaeology without know- with a tradition of liberalism or Marxism, ing, or wanting to know, anything about would have done any more to publicize African people per se’ (Shepherd 2003: 838), Mapungubwe and create public value and it is fortunate that early archaeologists had national pride around it. Shepherd argues been conservative. Consequently their find- that archaeology has a ‘history of political ings can now be reinterpreted as societal pat- implication’ and has created more myths terns and benefit from developments in cog- than it has dispelled, but he also acknowl- nitive archaeology (Steyn & Nienaber 2000: edges that under the political patronage of 112). Radio-carbon dating made its useful Jan Smuts, ‘the study of prehistory played a mark in the 1950s and 1960s and from the key role in an emergent South African 1970s the evidence has been re-examined national identity’ (Shepherd1999; 2002: (Maggs 2000: 4–5). The department of

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Volkekunde at the University of Pretoria and 1949 it received wide publicity in South later, the department of Archaeology that Africa and was known at the time as the separated from it, never ceased working at ‘Battle of Dongola’. It led to some of the Mapungubwe. There have been a number of longest and most acrimonious debates in the spurts in archaeological output. The first was South African parliament and the largest from 1934 until the outbreak of the Second Select Committee Report on record. In 1944 World War. Some digging was conducted in when discussion began, the Dongola Wild 1953–4 and again from about 1968 (Voigt Life Sanctuary (named after a volcano- 1983: 5) to the mid-1980s (http://mapung- shaped mountain in the north-east corner of buwe.up.ac.za 13 December 2004). It is now the farm Goeree) was to be a vast area of 240 well recognized thanks to this work that 000ha, stretching from five kilometres west Mapungubwe is part of a regional develop- of Musina to the confluence of the Limpopo ment and has a place in a far larger picture and Macloutsie rivers, an area some 100km that includes other stone-walled sites of the long and 36km wide at its widest point. By region, for example the newly celebrated the time the politicians had compromised, Thulamela site in the Kruger National Park the national park (Dongola Wild Life Sanc- as well as Great Zimbabwe, Khami and the tuary Act No. 6 of 1947) had been reduced to others. 92 000 ha, beginning further westwards and ending not far west of the junction of the Limpopo and Shashi rivers. A far smaller Mapungubwe: a protected area protected area has been recreated in the Mapungubwe is presently within a newly Mapungubwe National Park and this has established national park and is part of the been at considerable expense to the state proposed transfrontier conservation area that because since the 1950s irrigation in the is being negotiated with neighbouring Zim- Limpopo Valley has become feasible and babwe and Botswana. Important though there is an extensive agricultural industry by these developments are, there was, however, way of citrus, tomatoes and other crops. a previous life to this protected area and it is The Dongola Wild Life Sanctuary would integral to the history of Mapungubwe and have been South Africa’s first national park national park policy in the region. It forms to be founded on ecological and scientific another layer in the cultural construction of principles. Attention had been drawn to this Mapungubwe that needs to be recalled. I area in the 1920s by South African botanists have written elsewhere in an article called who were in the vanguard of the new eco- ‘Dongola Wild Life Sanctuary: “psychologi- logical thinking that was developing in cal blunder, economic folly and political Britain. The person most responsible was Dr monstrosity” or “more valuable than rubies I.B. Pole Evans who, after an education in and gold”? (Carruthers 1992) about the Wales and at Cambridge, took up the post of details of the genesis, brief existence and mycologist and plant pathologist in the demise of the only substantial national park Department of Agriculture in the Transvaal in South Africa ever to be abolished. Colony in 1905. He was soon out of the lab- Few people are aware that this Limpopo val- oratory and in the field. He initiated vegeta- ley landscape was formerly a national park tion surveys, developed new fodder grasses, with a strong cultural focus in addition to an described plant species and involved himself ecological one. Nor do they know that polit- in the broader issues of soil and vegetation ical pressure from local white farmers and conservation. Pole Evans became well Afrikaner Nationalists keen on vote-grab- acquainted and friendly with Jan Smuts, bing before a general election led to its abo- himself an amateur botanist of some stature, lition. It is surprising that the Dongola Wild and thanks to the efforts of these men in Life Sanctuary fell from public memory so 1918 the Department of Agriculture estab- quickly because during the period 1944 to lished a Botanical Survey of the Union.

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To assist the Botanical Survey a number of ahead, announcing his scheme in October botanical reserves were set aside in different 1944 in the Government Gazette. Because ecosystems of the country and one of these private farms were to be expropriated, a was in the Mapungubwe area. This block of Select Committee had to be appointed. nine farms was named the Dongola Botani- cal Reserve. Over the next decade, the When the matter came before Parliament, Reserve achieved some of its objectives. the debate was vicious and personal and the Being under conservation management Dongola National Park was a major election rather than cattle ranching, it was not long issue in 1948. The fact that the international before wildlife returned to Dongola. There community considered this favourably was, was soon a distinct difference between envi- at that time of rising South African isolation- ronmental conditions within and outside it, ism, a negative argument not a positive one and problems of overgrazing on the neigh- as World Heritage status is today in a differ- bouring properties were soon quite clear. ent national and global environment. That Because no work had been done on Mapun- black Africans might have been canvassed gubwe for a number of years, in the early for their views and given the national park 1940s the government took over the farm their support was another negative to the Greefswald from the University of Pretoria National Party. But when parliament voted and added others to the Dongola Reserve. in 1947 it was strictly on party lines and the national park was written into law. Soon Pole Evans lobbied to have Dongola elevat- trustees were appointed, money raised, farms ed to national park status, not so much on acquired, negotiations for the transfrontier account of the wildlife it contained, but on park begun, and Dongola was poised to ful- the basis of the scientific value of a natural fil the promise which Conroy, Smuts and research station, the ecological knowledge Pole Evans (now warden) believed that it that could be gained and the proximity of held. Mapungubwe. When Smuts became Prime Minister again in 1939 the scheme really But this was not to be. So intense were emo- took off and his Minister of Lands, Andrew tions over Dongola that when the National Conroy, became a great proponent. Part of Party won the 1948 election the national the government’s plan was to collaborate park was abolished—as voters had been with the Rhodesian government and the promised. There was a short revival of inter- chartered company of Bechuanaland to cre- est in re-establishing the Dongola Sanctuary ate an international protected area that would in the mid 1960s by the South African Asso- straddle the Limpopo valley and have ciation for the Advancement of Science Mapungubwe as its cultural focus, much as which sounded out the Minister of Agricul- is the plan today. ture, the National Parks Board and the Uni- versity of Pretoria. From all three quarters In the event, Dongola was politically divi- there was a negative response, memories of sive and highly contested. Conroy, Pole the previous debacle still being too fresh Evans and Smuts were taken aback by the although three farms became a ‘reserve’ in animosity towards the scheme from local 1967. farmers and the opposition National Party which, hoping to come into power in1948, During the 1970s and 1980s South Africa defended white property owners against was involved in a war with its neighbouring expropriation. The National Parks Board, states that harboured what were regarded by dominated as it was then by Nationalists and the then government as ‘terrorists’ intent on by the Broederbond, refused to discuss the destabilising the country. The army built an matter. The scheme was vilified in the electric fence along the Limpopo boundary Afrikaner press. But undeterred and and Greefswald became a place for ‘rehabil- undaunted, and apparently without specifi- itating’ conscripted gays and drug offenders. cally cultivating support, Conroy went Army top brass often went out hunting and

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poached the large game of the district. They summit of the hill. Declaring this a World even defaced local rock shelters with graffiti Heritage Cultural Landscape is, arguably, (Bonner & Carruthers 2003: 8, 53). But iron- celebrating environmental usage which was ically, the fact that an army detachment was quite unsustainable. based on Greefswald brought renewed atten- Lowenthal argues, as I do, that culture and tion to the site and in the 1980s both K2 and nature are interconnected and indivisible Mapungubwe Hill were declared national (Lowenthal 2005: 81–92). Mapungubwe is monuments. By the 1990s the political not natural, but an environment constructed ground had shifted once more and to most to reflect the society that utilised it. The dri- people it had become clear that the end of apartheid was in sight. It was around this ver of the original society was the use, time that the Venetia Diamond Mine began exploitation and maximisation of natural operating and diamond giant De Beers estab- resources to reinforce social, political and lished its own 26 000ha Venetia Limpopo economic values. The lesson that can be Nature Reserve, including Schroda and bor- drawn from Mapungubwe as a cultural land- dering on Greefswald. scape is the recognition that ‘much of the world’s terrestrial surface is, to a greater or While recognized for its good record in lesser extent, “cultural landscape” [and] one wildlife conservation and management of the most important long-term benefits of South African National Parks has, however, the inclusion of cultural landscapes under the come in for fierce criticism because of its World Heritage Convention is that it should ethos of ‘fortress conservation’ that margin- help to promote everywhere greater aware- alized local communities and Africans in ness of landscape issues generally’ (Fowler general, from the national park enterprise. 2002). But as well as the physical landscape, SANParks can also be criticized, however, the intellectual and political landscape of for neglecting its legal duty in terms of cul- Mapungubwe subsequent to its abandon- tural conservation because, by law, it is ment needs to be remembered and integrated obliged to value the cultural, historical and into its heritage values. Mapungubwe has archaeological dimensions of its protected faded out of the ‘history’ of the modern era areas. The fact that Mapungubwe now lies twice: the first time after 1290 when it was within a national park is of obvious merit to abandoned, and the second after 1949 when righting the situation. it was suppressed. It has now been resurrect- ed and transformed to meet the demands of a new society and has been given a role to play Conclusion in national identity, national pride, national and transnational economics and politics. World Heritage consultant Peter Fowler has emphasised that the absence of any intrusion of unsympathetic development is an essen- tial quality of a World Heritage cultural land- Acknowledgements scape (Fowler 2003). Despite the fact that I thank the Humanities Research Centre, The Aus- the place was once the home to around nine tralian National University, Canberra, and its Direc- thousand people with their cattle, agricultur- tor, Professor Ian Donaldson, for awarding me a Vis- al fields and iron and gold smelting works iting Fellowship in 2005 and with it the opportunity the site is considered to be ‘authentic’ to benefit from the ‘Cultural Landscape’ programme. because no one lives there. (There are, how- I am also grateful to the History Program of the ever, currently a number of land restitution Research School of Social Sciences at The Aus- tralian National University for previous visits to claims in the area and on Greefswald (SAN- Canberra that have greatly informed my work on Parks 2002: 33)). Certainly the pre-colonial heritage issues. In particular I value assistance from population at Mapungubwe altered this envi- Libby Robin, Tom Griffiths, Mandy Martin, Guy ronment substantially, probably removing Fitzhardinge, Vincent Carruthers, Peter Norton, Phil trees as well as piling tons of soil on the Bonner, Richard Grove, Mike Smith, Jane Lennon,

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Kirsty Douglas, Max Bourke, John Mulvaney, Tom GARDNER, G.J. 1955. Mapungubwe 1935–1940. Huffman, Isabel McBryde, Alex Mouton, Greg South African Archaeological Bulletin 10: Cuthbertson and Emily O’Gorman, as well as the 73–77. anonymous readers of this article. GARDNER, G.J. 1963. Mapungubwe Vol. II. Pretoria: Van Schaik. HALL, S. & B. SMITH. 2000. Empowering places: rock shelters and ritual control in farmer-forager References interactions in the Northern Province. Pp. 30– 46. In: LESLIE, M. & T. MAGGS (eds.). African BONNER, P. & E.J. CARRUTHERS. 2003. The recent Naissance: The Limpopo Valley 1000 Years Ago. history of the Mapungubwe area. Mapungubwe Cape Town: The South African Archaeological Cultural Heritage Resources Survey. Unpub- Society. (Goodwin Series, Vol. 8.) lished report commissioned by the Department HOFMEYR, I. 1989. Turning region into narrative: of Environmental Affairs and Tourism: Funded English storytelling in the Waterberg. In: BON- by the Norwegian Government. NER, P., I. HOFMEYR, D. JAMES & T. LODGE BREEDLOVE, G. 2003. A systematics for the South (eds.). Holding their ground: Class locality and African cultural landscape with a view to imple- culture in 19th and 20th century South Africa. mentation. Ph. D. thesis, University of Pretoria, Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press. Pretoria. HUFFMAN, T. M. 2005. Mapungubwe: Ancient CARRUTHERS, J. 1992. Dongola Wild Life Sanctuary: African civilisation on the Limpopo. Johannes- ‘psychological blunder, economic folly and burg: Witwatersrand University Press. political monstrosity’ or ‘more valuable than HUFFMAN, T.M. 2000. Mapungubwe and the origins rubies and gold’. Kleio 24: 82–100. of the Zimbabwe culture. Pp.14–29. In: LESLIE, CARRUTHERS, J. 2005. Wildlife science and livestock M. & T. MAGGS (eds.). African Naissance: The disease in South Africa, 1900 to 1960. Paper pre- Limpopo Valley 1000 Years Ago. Cape Town: sented at the conference ‘Science, disease and The South African Archaeological Society. livestock economies’ at St Antony’s College, (Goodwin Series, Vol. 8.) Oxford. LESLIE, M. & T. MAGGS (eds.). 2000. African Nais- sance: The Limpopo Valley 1000 Years Ago. CATON-THOMPSON, G. 1939. Mapungubwe. Antiquity 13 (51): 324–341. Cape Town: The South African Archaeological Society. (Goodwin Series, Vol. 8.) CATON-THOMPSON, G. 1931. The Zimbabwe Culture. Oxford: Clarendon Press. LEWIS-WILLIAMS, J.D. 2002. A cosmos in stone: Interpreting religion and society through rock DEACON, J. 1993. Archaeological sites as national art. Walnut Creek: CA, AltaMira Press. monuments in South Africa: a review of sites LEWIS-WILLIAMS, J.D. 1981. Believing and seeing: declared since 1936. South African Historical Symbolic meanings in southern African San rock Journal 29: 118–131. paintings. London: Academic Press. DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS AND LEWIS-WILLIAMS, J.D. 1989. Images of power: TOURISM (DEAT). 2002. Mapungubwe World Understanding Bushman rock art. Johannes- Heritage Site Nomination. Pretoria: Government burg: Southern Book Publishers. Printer? LOWENTHAL, D. 2005. Natural and cultural heritage. FOUCHÉ, L. (ed.) 1937. Mapungubwe: Ancient Bantu International Journal of Heritage Studies 11(1): Civilization on the Limpopo. Cambridge: Uni- 81–92. versity Press. LOWENTHAL, D. 1997. The heritage crusade and the FOWLER, P. 2002. World Heritage Cultural Land- spoils of history. London: Viking. scapes, 1992–2002: a review and prospect, Cul- LOWENTHAL, D. 1985. The past is a foreign country. tural Landscapes: the Challenges of Conserva- Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. tion World Heritage 2002, Shared Legacy, Com- MAGGS, T. 2000. African Naissance: An introduc- mon Responsibility Associated Workshops tion. Pp. 1–4. In: LESLIE, M. & T. MAGGS (eds.). 11–12 November 2002 Ferrara—Italy. http:// African Naissance: The Limpopo Valley 1 000 whc.unesco.org/venice2002. Years Ago. Cape Town: The South African FOWLER, P. 2003. World Heritage Cultural Land- Archaeological Society. (Goodwin Series, Vol. 8.) scapes 1992-2002, World Heritage Papers 6, MARSCHALL, S. 2005. Making money with memo- 2003. UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Paris ries: The fusion of heritage, tourism and identity World Heritage Cultural Landscapes 1992-2002 formation in South Africa. Historia 50(1): http://whc.unesco.org. 103–122. GARDNER, G.J. 1958. Mapungubwe and the second MASON, R. 1962. Prehistory of the Transvaal: a volume. South African Archaeological Bulletin record of human activity. Johannesburg: Witwa- 13: 123–132. tersrand University Press.

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