Nambya museum

IF the dilapidation that the Nambya community museum building in the coal mining town of Hwange is facing is analogically a representation of what remains of the BaNambya culture, then a lot needs to be done to bring it to life.

The building that used to be the colliery’s sports pavilion and was donated to the BaNambya community in 2005 is evidently crying out for renovations. Like the Nambya culture it has with so much resilience weathered even the most violent of storms.

Although having defiantly emerged a victor of the storms, they left a number of scars on it, itself a sign of the struggle with time and weather. It has therefore been reduced to a ramshackle with efforts to bring it to modernity moving at a snail’s pace due to budgetary constraints.

Through the BaNambya community initiatives, the building that had plastics and cardboard boxes in place of window panes was glazed but a lot still needs to be done. Apart from the 182 window panes that were bought and fixed, the building’s openings still yawns to strangers both welcome and unwelcome as it does not have doors to some of its rooms.

In short the building needs a major facelift and to be taken from the old era that it still so comfortably sit to a modern era structure that talks to the importance of what it stands for. Concerted efforts by the community is however, sure to get the museum to a modern structure museum.

Nambya museum secretary for publicity Mr Simon Tshuma told the Sunday News that they were pulling together resources to ensure they renovate the building. He said they drew inspiration from the adoption and recognition of the 15 local languages plus sign language as official in the constitution of the country that he said was a giant leap in the celebration of tribal and lingual diversity in the country.

It put the traditionally so called “minority languages” such as Nambya on an equal footing with other common languages such as Shona and Ndebele and it means a lot to those whose languages were meant to play second fiddle to others and used to exist as victims of a possible cultural imperialism.

Cultural diversity can therefore be achieved through preservation of cultural artefacts that tells a history of origin to avoid extinction through

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Mr Tshuma said they were mindful of the need to protect their culture and heritage that was predominant in Hwange district of Matabeleland North Province and were working hard to pull together resources to refurbish the Nambya Museum from where they wished to tell their story. He added that traditional leaders in the district like Chief Shana, Chief Nekatambe, Chief Nelukoba, Chief Hwange and Chief Mvuthu have also been leading the crusade to have the museum functional and their language taught at all levels in the district.

“We are trying hard to mobilise resources and ensure that the museum is refurbished, resourced and made functional. We have managed to glaze the structure and add one or two things but we are still far from achieving what we want it to look like.

“The recent sponsored walk that we held did not get us much in terms of resources. It was a far cry to what we envisaged. The companies that we wrote to responded that they had already done their budgets and could not give us much,” said Mr Tshuma.

He however, applauded the traditional leadership for the support saying the level of involvement by the local leadership was encouraging. He said Chief Shana donated a beast at the sponsored walk and the board was going to meet and see how it could be disposed and get the money for the museum. Mr Tshuma said such level of commitment to the people’s cause was commendable.

Traditional leaders who spoke to the Sunday News during a visit to the mining town said a people’s language carried their history, their identity and their culture and was supposed to be protected from vandalism by cultural imperialists and colonists. They concurred that the past failure by the Government to recognise some indigenous languages as official was a counter to the celebration of diversity.

“We are happy that the constitution finally recognises our language as official. We hope the Government will take note of the need to refurbish the community museum so that the history of the BaNambya will be told. We are also concerned with the language being taught and examinable at all academic levels. We still have certain schools in the district that are not willing to teach the language but we are hopeful that the authorities are aware of that and will rectify it sooner than later,” said Chief Shana.

Chief Nekatambe said as traditional leaders they were concerned about the museum’s development as the history of their origin would be told to future generations. He said they were however, a section of people in the district who felt do not belong to the Nambya history — the Dombes.

These, he said, were not active in the activities to refurbish the museum but said they would not lose sleep over their failure to participate.

“We really want the museum to function. It’s a Government project under the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe (NMMZ) but we are realising that it may take forever to complete because of the current state of the economy and that is why the community has chipped in.

“There however, seems to be a section of the community in the district — the Dombes that is not partaking in the activities but that will not stop those that are geared to ensure the history of the Nambya is told. My understanding is that our