“The Museum is for All Cultures”

Abstract

Worldwide, community museums can play an important role in regenerating and safeguarding Indigenous living cultures. The aim of this article is to explore and examine the complex socio-cultural context of the Nambya Community Museum (NCM), located in Hwange district, north-western Zimbabwe. Over the past 18 years, a web of multiple stakeholders has struggled to find common ground on what and whose cultural heritage the NCM should represent. As a result, many often conflicting views and attitudes held by different stakeholders have emerged concerning the present or future status and the purpose of the NCM. In this article we deploy multivocality theory, and rely on qualitative data collected during a large-scale archeological and heritage management research project to present and discuss a wide range of conceptual and practical issues confronting the NCM. We situate this case study within current global conversations about the ideal museum of the present and the future.