Livingstone Online Builds Partnership with the Livingstone Museum

by Jared McDonald, University of the Free State, South Africa

Livingstone Online has been building a partnership with the Livingstone Museum in Zambia since early 2016. This partnership was strengthened recently when I undertook a week-long visit to the Museum.

The Livingstone Museum is the oldest museum in Zambia, having opened in 1934. Situated in the town of Livingstone, near Victoria Falls, the Museum has important archaeological, ethnological, and cultural artefacts in its holdings. The Museum also hosts a permanent exhibit on David Livingstone. The many items on display include Livingstone’s notebooks, a signed copy of Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, and other personal possessions, such as Livingstone’s raincoat, cutlery, and medicine chest.

The Livingstone Museum is also home to a sizeable collection of David Livingstone’s original letters. Over the last year, Livingstone Online, in collaboration with the Jafuta Foundation, has begun partnering with the Livingstone Museum with a view to digitizing the Museum’s Livingstone manuscripts and other historical artefacts. My visit was facilitated by Jafuta Foundation trustee, Gail van Jaarsveldt, who has been instrumental in forging the ties between the Livingstone Museum and Livingstone Online.

The visit afforded me the opportunity to build relationships with the Livingstone Museum’s dedicated staff and to update the Livingstone Online Digital Catalogue by consulting the Museum’s collection of Livingstone manuscripts. In an exciting development, I identified over 20 previously uncatalogued letters, along with five hand-drawn maps and gathered the information needed to add them to the Livingstone Online Digital Catalogue.

I was also able to discuss the Museum’s needs in terms of the long-term preservation of Livingstone manuscripts with Museum Director, George Mudenda, and other Museum staff, all of whom are committed to the important role the Museum plays in preserving the history and heritage of Zambia and the Victoria Falls region.

Livingstone Online is very pleased to partner with the Livingstone Museum, which is recognized as one of the most important repositories of David Livingstone manuscripts in Southern Africa. In addition to digitizing the Museum’s Livingstone manuscripts, Livingstone Online and the Jafuta Foundation are also planning to assist the Museum with the conservation of the physical letters. Furthermore, the Livingstone Museum will be able to draw upon this partnership to better preserve other collections in its manuscript and artifact holdings.

Along with Gail van Jaarsveldt and the Jafuta Foundation, the Livingstone Online team looks forward to future collaboration with the Livingstone Museum and to continuing to build our developing partnership.

 Source: Livingstone Online Builds Partnership with the Livingstone Museum (7/5/17)

Lobengula's Spear Stolen

A GOLD coated spear and artefacts belonging to the last Ndebele King, Lobengula, have been stolen from Old Bulawayo with the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe (NMMZ) coming under fire for poor security.

The spear, measuring 1,2m, was stolen from the historic site on the outskirts of Bulawayo where other artefacts of the Ndebele Kingdom are kept. The incident was discovered on Sunday by a caretaker at Old Bulawayo. Sources said the caretaker, Stanley Gwebu, discovered that the spear, a 45cm black fly-whisk and a small brown clay pot which were placed near King Lobengula's statue, were missing at around 1:45pm while conducting his chores and reported the matter to the police.

Police chief national spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba confirmed the incident saying police were looking into the matter.

"I can confirm that there was a burglary at Old Bulawayo where some artefacts were stolen. But I don't have the finer details on the matter. However, police are investigating the matter," said Snr Asst Comm Charamba.

King Lobengula's descendent, Prince Zwide Khumalo, expressed shock at the incident saying the family had not been notified of the theft. Khumalo rapped the NMMZ for failing to provide adequate security at the historic site saying royal artefacts deserved to be kept in a more secure place.

"It raises a lot of concerns within the family, the Ndebele speaking people as well as other Nguni ethnic groups whose history was being kept at Old Bulawayo. There is something grossly wrong with the security at the national museums. This is not the first time there has been a break in at the museums meaning there is a weakness in their security system," he said.

Khumalo said the museums should remember that they are custodians of people's cultures.

Social commentator Cont Mhlanga echoed Khumalo's sentiments saying the break in exposes NMMZ for its recklessness in preserving culture.

"This is not the first time such an incident has happened. There was a break in four or five years ago. Mahachi (Godfrey director of NMMZ) must address this issue. This falls right on his door step," said Mhlanga.

He said it was baffling that a cultural site like Old Bulawayo was neglected yet it held priceless artefacts. "It doesn't make sense that a heritage site of that status can have a single caretaker. There is supposed to be more than one caretaker so that they can work in shifts," Mhlanga said.

He said there were other cultural sites that are also neglected such as Mhlahlandlela and Entumbane which house King Mzilikazi's grave and artefacts.

Mahachi was not reachable for comment yesterday.

Source: Lobengula's Spear Stolen (9/06/16)

Zambia's Mukuni Royal Dynasty celebrates ancient journey of paramount king.

The sun rises on Gundu village, in Mukuni, south-east of Zambia's tourism capital, Livingstone.

Built on a sandy knoll with a population of 10,000 inhabitants, this village is home to the founder of the Royal Mukuni dynasty; Paramount Chief Mukuni Mulopwe, who settled here among the Leya people having travelled from the Congo in the 18th century.

Mukuni village lies just 7 kilometers from the majestic Victoria Falls, known by the indigenous Leya people as Nsyungu Namutitima or Mosi-oa-Tunya - the smoke that thunders.

Every year, members of the Mukuni Dynasty's 33 Mornarchs that stretch across Congo, Central Zambia, Northern Zimbabwe, Eastern Zambia, converge here for a ceremony to remember their past and celebrate their culture.

"Zambia, most of the tribes actually, have arrived in Zambia either from South Africa, or from.... largely from Congo in the last four hundred years, so they've held... they've now been running for something like two or three hundred years," said His Royal Highness, Senior Chief Munokalya Mukuni, a direct descendant of the Mukuni founder.

Known as the Bene Mukuni Ceremony, it also celebrate the converging in Livingstone of the Bene Mukuni Royal Houses and to commemorate the pre-colonial and historic Mukuni Mulopwe's journey.
Each Chief is a descendent from the family of the Paramount Chief Mukuni.

The ceremony is one of the most important for Mukuni followers. Dignitaries come from across Southern Africa.

It begins with the washing of the Chief's feet in the blood of a 'beast', symbolic of when the first chief chose oxen blood to wash mud off his feet.

His brother chose human blood. This was regarded as unwise and he disappeared on their journeys never to be seen again. The lighting of the fire symbolises the light of Mukuni's reign.

The ashes from the fire are then used to honour all the chiefs present, each represented by a young girl from their tribe.

Historically these ceremonies were very private affairs. According to Chief Mukuni it is necessary to make them more public otherwise their culture may not be sustained. It is to remind the youth of where they have come from.

Grand Chief of the Cree Indians, Matthew Caan Comb travelled from Canada to witness the Mukuni ceremony.

Known internationally for his work to protect the traditional way of life of his people, he said the Mukuni people, like his own, were struggling to protect valuable traditions and resources.

"Society are consumers. Hungry for the use of ores, material things. Very materialistic. They've lost their way. Where now they focused on development. Where man thinks now it's my creation. He walks on cement, he makes big buildings. Then he forgets the creator. He forgets to protect the land," he said.

"In the USA, I visited a lot of Red Indian tribes and so on and, very strange, although we are separated by oceans and so on, I found that in essentials we are completely the same people. It was so amazing for me," said chief Mukuni. The journey of Mulopwe Mukuni from the Congo was guided by his sister Kaseba who rode an elephant and was known as Kaseba-Mashila 'clearer of paths'.

Chief Mukuni owns a wildlife adventure business called Mukuni Big 5, that offers elephant rides, close up encounters with cheetahs and walks with Lions.

Source: Zambia's Mukuni Royal Dynasty celebrates ancient journey of paramount king. (19/09/13)

Promoting Zambia's unique cultural identity

The Post, Zambia
By Edwin Mbulo
16 April 2013

Senior Chief Mukuni of the Tokaleya people of Kazungula district says Zambia's biggest tourism draw card is the many cultural ceremonies which can be extended to Livingstone for tourism purposes. Speaking when students from Ndola's Nsansa Trust School paid a courtesy call on him at Lumpasa Palace, chief Mukuni said unlike wild animals which were the same in the southern African region, cultural ceremonies among the 73 ethnic tribes were only unique to Zambia.

"Culture is our biggest draw card, we are very lucky that we have 73 ethnic tribes as it makes culture our most important tourism draw card. Lions are the same in Namibia, Angola, Botswana and Zimbabwe but the Mutomboko, N'cwala, Likumbi Lyamize and Kuomboka are only unique to Zambia and what we have done is that the Bene Mukuni cultural arena [in Livingstone] has been surrendered to the rest of Zambia so that in July and August, those cultural ceremonies organising committees that feel that they can showcase miniature ceremonies can use it. Zambia is endowed with so many cultural ceremonies that no other country has, so this is a biggest draw card we have than any other country," Chief Mukuni said.

He urged youths to look after Zambia's cultural values as this was what made a Zambian unique. "In Africa to show respect one goes down and in Europe they have to stand up, we move in two different directions. But I urge you to look at what is actually yours that makes you unique, and until you travel you realise how special and unique we Africans are. Our friends in Europe live almost like animals; to visit your brother you have to be in a hotel," Chief Mukuni said.

He said despite sharing the Zambezi River and the Victoria Falls, Livingstone was poised to be a major attraction during the UNWTO general assembly in August because it had many cultural and natural attractions.

Read full article here.