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Professor Munyaradzi Manyanga-Custodianship of Zimbabwe’s diverse heritage
Professor Dawson Munjeri, who died on Monday and was accorded a State-assisted funeral following his brilliant work that inspired many, was the custodian of Zimbabwe’s heritage par excellence.
A formal system of heritage management in post-independence Zimbabwe took huge strides during Prof Munjeri’s leadership as regional director, deputy executive director and executive director of the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe.
His leadership was instrumental in putting together systems to effectively manage Zimbabwe’s oral traditions, intangible heritage, monuments and shrines (diverse heritage).
A key component of the management philosophy was to preserve and present this heritage so that it could be utilised in national development.
This was an unprecedented and comprehensive effort in post-colonial Zimbabwe to design a national heritage conservation strategy that for the first time involved local communities, local and international tourists for the purposes education, revenue generation and instilling a sense of national pride.
Local communities were to be the major beneficiaries through their active involvement in the conservation and entrepreneurship activities at heritage places.
These management programmes had such foresight in that, although three decades back, they are akin to the current heritage based philosophy that is driving the National Vision 2030.
Closely linked to this are the deliberate training and capacity building programmes that provided Zimbabwe with the highly trained human capital that train, manage and research our heritage.
Prof Munjeri left a huge mark in the training of generations of custodians of our heritage at the National Archives, the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe and both undergraduate and post-graduate students at the Midlands State University and Great Zimbabwe University.
The post-independence heritage management system in Zimbabwe is the envy of many and components of the systems have been adopted by many countries in southern Africa and beyond.
World heritage, cultural diplomacy and national service
Under his directorship of the Southern Region, Great Zimbabwe was nominated and listed as a World Heritage Site.
This was followed by many years of professional and systematic conservation of the fabric at Great Zimbabwe that followed international best practices and local values in conservation.
He often questioned the blanket application of Eurocentric approaches driven by conventions and charters pertaining to the conservation of cultural heritage.
Prof Munjeri’s critique of the wholesale application of documents such as the Venice Charter and the NARA document on authenticity opened new perspectives on the subject, which is rooted in Africa and its values.
He advocated for the inclusion of African values in the criteria for World Heritage listing.
He pushed through the World Heritage Committees the recognition of intangible cultural heritage.
Today, there is a United Nations Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List now featuring 678 elements.
It covers local practices, representations, expressions and skills. At present, Zimbabwe has the Art of playing Mbira (2020) and the Mbende Jerusarema dance (2008) on the representative list.
Prof Munjeri served his country well for 15 years as the Deputy Permanent Delegate of Zimbabwe to UNESCO, based in Paris.
Using his specialised skills as a heritage expert and in international diplomacy, Prof Munjeri was able to sit in various heritage committees.
He served as president of the 17th General Assembly of States Parties to the World Heritage Convention and as a member of the Executive Board of UNESCO.
He also served with distinction as a Member of the Academy of the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), as Vice-President, International Council of Monuments & Sites, Member of UNESCO World Heritage Committee and as Vice-President and Rapporteur, World Heritage Committee.
In between these committee tasks, Prof Munjeri successfully carried out various monitoring and assessment missions for ICOMOS in the various parts of the world.
He has been an integral part of World Heritage business since joining National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe.
Prof Munjeri organised the Global Strategy on World Heritage in 1995 and contributed to the organisation of the first ICOMOS General Assembly in Africa at Victoria Falls in 2003.
He was also a member of several expert groups, notably the one tasked with reviewing the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention from 2000 to 2004 and another to draft the text of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Prof Munjeri’s doctoral thesis on international laws governing the protection of heritage touches on the contentious issue of restitution and repatriation of Africa’s cultural heritage, that was looted during the colonial era.
Over the years he has been an avid fighter for social justice, in which he advocates for the correction of past cultural injustices on the African continent.
Prof Munjeri was fearless in his articulation of issues in the World Heritage Committee and often warned about the politicisation of the committee and insisted that only properties of Outstanding Universal Value should be inscribed on the World Heritage List.
He always defended Africa, its values and its place in the cultural arena.
Liberation heritage in Zimbabwe, Africa and the World
A true son of the soil, Prof Munjeri made strong contributions to the preservation of liberation heritage in the country, in the SADC region and internationally at UNESCO.
Under his leadership, the museums played an important role in looking after national shrines such as the National Heroes Acre.
However, liberation heritage was not always being celebrated and protected enough at the international level.
At UNESCO, Prof Munjeri worked with others, resulting in the adoption of a declaration to include liberation heritage sites from Africa as world heritage.
His works on liberation heritage have been embraced by many African countries including South Africa, who have since submitted nomination dossiers for their own liberation sites.
Prof Munjeri’s vision was to use heritage as a vehicle for preserving our hard won independence and to help Africans to resist neo-colonialism.
In all of this, he placed African values at the front and centre of everything.
Renowned intellectual and heritage professional
Prof Munjeri was an outstanding professional and teacher and successive generations of heritage professionals passed through his hands.
He was a top scholar, whose publications straddled many related disciplines such as oral history, archival science, museology and heritage management.
Sharp and candid in his perspectives, Prof Munjeri made it look so easy in the articulation of the African position on world heritage matters.
The current Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention and the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage are documents with an African flavour, owing to Prof Munjeri’s immense contribution on the subject.
His championing of intangible cultural heritage, cultural diversity and spirituality in African heritage made heritage not a mere vestige of the past, but current, alive and relevant to African people.
His value-based approach to heritage brought people and communities at the heart of the culture discourse.
Prof Munjeri was a far sighted thinker, who from an early stage realised that heritage management can only be sustainable if people draw social and economic benefits from their heritage.
The current heritage management framework at Great Zimbabwe, Khami and Matobo cultural landscape are guided by the community beneficiation philosophy, which Prof Munjeri has been advocating for in the past four decades.
He has inculcated the belief that our heritage is our pride and a driver and enabler for socio-economic transformation.
While Prof Munjeri’s passing on is a huge loss to the family, country, region and the world, he left an indelible ink on society!
The Heritage fraternity has lost its leader and father figure.
The country has lost a champion of its heritage based philosophy.
Prof Munyaradzi Manyanga — Bantu Mosaics Research Associate and Executive Dean of the School of Heritage and Education, Great Zimbabwe University.
Online Reporter