From: barnhart@gagme.chi.il.us (Mr Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS: ZIMBABWE: DISPLACED INHABITANTS WAN
Originator: barnhart@gagme
Organization: Evanston, Illinois
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 20:44:32 GMT

Title: ZIMBABWE: DISPLACED INHABITANTS WANT TO BE RELOCATED


an inter press service feature

by jide adebayo

masvingo, zimbabwe, aug 27 (ips) --  families displaced from the
environs of zimbabwe's ''great zimbabwe'' monument have renewed
their calls to be relocated at their ''ancestral'' homes.

''we want the government to rehabilitate us in our original
villages, mugabe and nemanwa, at the outer perimeter of great
zimbabwe'', 67-year-old rita haruzinashe told ips tuesday at a
new settlement near the national monument here.

in a bid to preserve the national monument, the authorities
evicted villagers, some of whose homes were a stone's throw from
this prime tourist attraction, some 330 km south of the capital,
harare.

a barbed-wire fence now rings the impressive array of
dry-stone structures spread over a 720-ha area.

an aura of mystery pervades ''great zimbabwe'', the remains
of a large 13th-century city of the indigenous shona people.

haruzinashe, who is one of the shrines' oracles in the
monument's ''great enclosure'', says since 1985 no spiritual
rite has been performed there because of the government's
eviction of the inhabitants.

''it is saddening and ironic the natives can no longer have
free access to their ancestral home because of the barricade
created by the national museums and monuments of zimbabwe
(nmmz)'', haruzinashe says, sitting with 12 other aged women
affected by the displacement.

''during our last rituals, we found that most of the tombs
of our ancestors had been desecrated with some skulls dug out of
the caves by treasure hunters masquerading as tourists'',
another displaced inhabitant, tongogara mugabe, told ips at
another settlement near the monument.

''it is not unlikely that the unprecedented drought now
ravaging masvingo region is a result of the spiritual neglect of
the monuments and dislocation of the descendants of its
builders'', adds mugabe.

it is, however, unlikely that their agitations will ever get
them back to the ''promised land'' as the programme coordinator
for the monument, ubber ndoro, says it is now illegal for
anybody to build anything near the monument. (more/ips)


zimbabwe: displaced (2)

''relocation of the villagers in their old places near the
ruins will violate the zimbabwean monument act which forbids
building any structure within 720 ha of the monument'', ndoro,
an archaeologist, told ips at the monument's conservation centre
wednesday.

nmmz spokesperson stanley goredema says ''in view of the
tremendous work being done to conserve the monument, it is
impossible for the government to go back on its evacuation of
the villagers from the vicinity of the monument.

''before their eviction, the villagers were cutting down
trees and grazing their cattle in the monument. this did not
provide the historical place its deserved natural vegetation''.

according to goredema, the villagers' rehabilitation on their
old sites ''would amount to drawing back the hand of the clock
in the conservation efforts on great zimbabwe''.

in the past five years emphasis has shifted from
archaeological works to conservation activities to prevent
further wall collapses, bulges and tree growth on the
700-year-old dry-stone walls.

the zimbabwean government has spent some 694,000 u.s. dollars
on conservation while the japanese government and other donors
have contributed equipment worth 571,428 u.s. dollars.

the conservation programme is being carried out through
scientific monitoring of movements of the walls to forestall
collapses.

''by the 1964 venice charter, it has become a guiding
principle that only partial repair, with adequate archaeological
documentation, can be effected on monuments to ensure the
original ideas of the builders are maintained'', explains ndoro.

commenting on the minor repairs carried out on some portions
of the walls, ndoro says traditional stone masons were used
instead of application of consolidants prescribed by some
foreign experts.

''we reinforced commitment to conservation of the walls when,
through practical experiment, we found that it would take 20
persons at least a week to quarry and chip 100 stone blocks
similar to those of great zimbabwe'', adds ndoro.

about 15,000 tonnes of stones were used on the ''great
enclosure'', one of the enclosures in ''great zimbabwe''. most
of them are located on a 100-metre-high hill, explains peter
garlake, an archaeologist who has done extensive research on
''great zimbabwe''. (end/ips/ja/apc/ar/92)


-- 
Mr. Aaron Barnhart@gagme.chi.il.us -- posting from Evanston, Illinois