Mul - unesdoc - Unesco

A. Kumirai et J. Muringaniza et D. Munyikwa - Victoria Falls/Mosi-Oa-Tunya World Heritage site
components while eradicating the harmful
processes.
- The exploitist or value-oriented interest,
which sees nature and its raw materials as
of no value until man converts the raw
materials into crafts of economic value.
- The integrist or ‘natural preservationist’
interests which hold the view that while all
natural phenomena are of systemic
benefit to the ecosystem, not all cultural
phenomena are beneficial in the long run.
The colonial powers who decided to
remove the local people from Victoria
Falls took this natural preservationist
approach. They decided to sustain the
integrity of the Victoria Falls area by
disintegrating its link with the cultural and
spiritual elements, and thus negating the
importance of the intangible aspect of the
heritage of that area. This approach
favoured a landscape or ecosystem
mosaic guided by large-scale zoning. It is
guided by the belief that human culture
must naturally be adaptive to the natural
evolving process.
- The inherentist interests ascribe value to
living organisms, believing that, just like
humans, animals and some inanimate
phenomena have rights inherent to their
nature and those rights must be protected.
It is evident that the integrist orientation is
inherent in the concept of integrity of the
combined natural/cultural ecosystem.
The Victoria Falls and the rain forest were
gazetted as a National Monument in 1937 under
the responsibility of the Historical Monuments
Commission. When in 1972 the perimeter fente
of the National Monument was erected the
authorities excluded from the area of the fenced
monument a baobab tree nearby known as the
‘Big Tree’. The ‘Big Tree’ served as a ritual
shrine for the local communities for traditional
rainmaking and propitiation ceremonies. The
management of the Victoria Falls and the
adjacent area was closely linked to these ritual
practices. Currently, the site is managed based
on the division into a) the National Monument,
which is fenced and covers the rain forest and its
environs, b) sections of the Victoria Falls
National Park and Zambezi National Park, and c)
the World Heritage landscape which includes the
National Monument, the Victoria Falls National
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Park and the Mosi oa Tunya National Park in
Zambia.
The Operational Guidelines require that the test
of authenticity be met with respect to cultural
landscapes nominated for inscription on the
World Heritage List. Authenticity in the context of
section 24(b)(i) is required in terms of design,
material, workmanship or setting. However,
natural heritage sites are required to meet the
conditions of integrity specified in section 44(b)
of the Operational Guidelines, in addition to
meeting the requirements of article 43, and at
least one of the nomination criteria in article
44(a).
The Victoria Falls has intangible cultural
attributes that were largely ignored when the site
was nominated. It cari be argued that the site
could have qualified for nomination as a mixed
site if these cultural attributes had been
considered. There is a deep spiritual and cultural
connection between the people who were
displaced from the Victoria Falls area and the
Zambezi River, the waterfall and the ‘Big Tree’.
This connection is still evident on the Zambian
side of the Victoria Falls with the traditional
rituals, rainmaking and propitiation ceremonies
that are performed regularly by Chief Mukuni and
his people.
Ethnographie evidence in some parts of
Zimbabwe where traditional practices are still
respected indicates that the natural environment
has benefited through there being social
designation of some areas as sacred. In the
Bikita District of Masvingo Province for example,
the Norumedzo people have spared a forest of
Uapaca kirkiana (Mashukul Mazhanje) because
they believe the forest (Jiro to be endowed with
spiritual values, and they benefit from harvesting
the fruit of these trees and also from harvesting
the edible insects Haplosterna delagourgei
(Harunn/a). At Victoria Falls, however, the local
people cari only perform spiritual activities
clandestinely because the law regards them as
intruders on the site. In addition, they are
expected to pay in order to gain access into
the enclosed area because the law does not
recognise or respect their traditional custodianship.
WORLD HERITAGE ATTRIBUTES
The choice as to what kind of ecosystem with
integrity we prefer is as Clark (1986) put it: “What
kind of garden do we want? What kind of garden