Supporting and Sustaining the Indigenous Intangible Cultural Heritage (IICH) of Zimbabwe

Abstract

Africa is one of the continents gifted with a diverse and rich cultural, natural, tangible, and intangible heritage. The manifestations of these diverse gifts are often interweaved through the indigenous people's ways of living, their beliefs, perceptions, and many more. Most importantly, the heritage of Africa, particularly in Zimbabwe, is also brought to life through the partnership of nature and culture, where the intangible gives meaning to the tangible and both provide indigenous communities with their recurrent cycles of life. There is a growing consensus that indigenous intangible cultural heritage is crucial to the social and economic development of Zimbabwe. However, this cultural heritage is in danger of disappearing if no proper steps are taken to sustain it and make it available for present and future generations. To be kept alive, indigenous intangible cultural heritage (IICH) should be relevant to the indigenous communities and continuously be recreated and transmitted from one generation to the other. Despite the risk that certain elements of indigenous intangible cultural heritage could die, or disappear without help, safeguarding measures should be put in place to ensure the IICH is always available and sustainable. Safeguarding indigenous intangible cultural heritage should involve the transferring of knowledge, skills, and meaning to future generations. The transmission of indigenous intangible cultural heritage was emphasized in the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention OF 2003 rather than the production of tangible expressions such as songs, dances, musical instruments, or crafts. This indigenous intangible cultural heritage is transmitted from generation to generation and is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature, and their history. The IICH provides the indigenous communities with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity. A lot has been written on the preservation of IICH but very few writers have gone a step further into discussing the factors affecting the utilisation and dissemination of IICH in Zimbabwe. This chapter seeks to assess the role being played by cultural and heritage organisations in ensuring that the indigenous intangible cultural heritage is being utilised, supported, and sustained for long-term access. Although the role of these cultural and heritage organisations is to collect, preserve, and disseminate information in any medium and format, it is unfortunate that the indigenous intangible cultural heritage (IICH) is slowly becoming invisible and irrelevant in some communities in Zimbabwe, thus compromising its existence and use by future generations. This chapter discusses some of the threats to the sustainability of IICH and the possible strategies of making IICH available for long time access. The chapter also explores the importance of documentation, preservation, advocacy, and transmission of IICH for its sustainability and accessibility to succeeding generations. The chapter concludes by calling for more research into the effective utilization of the IICH for sustainable development in Zimbabwe.