Matopos National Park: Oasis of natural, cultural tourism

-MATOPO NATIONAL PARKYoliswa Dube Features Reporter
CONQUERING a mountain where every rock, crevice and crack tells a story is a great feeling that a tourist would cherish. It’s in the struggle, the sweating, and the pain one feels in the hamstrings as they slowly but surely embrace each inch of the rock’s rough surface.
The cool breeze one feels the higher up the mountain they go and the magnificent view that waits at the zenith of the mountain is what makes the experience much more worthwhile.

Matopos National Park, about 30 minutes’ drive out of Bulawayo, contains some of the region’s most arresting sceneries.

The hills are covered with an extraordinary collection of huge bare granite moulds with gravity-defying boulders scattered all over the countryside creating a unique and distinctly mysterious landscape.

The area has a rich human history. Bushmen lived in this area many years ago, and left a superb collection of rock art behind, much of which has been well preserved.

It is one of Zimbabwe’s prime wildlife sanctuaries with a large population of white rhino, the elusive black rhino, a variety of antelope species, baboon, rock hyraxes and a large population of leopard and black eagle.

The tourism experience offered by the Matopos National Park is one of many that contribute positively towards the country’s economy. In fact, non-consumptive tourism could be said to be the mainstay of Zimbabwe’s economy.

A distinction is made between consumptive and non-consumptive wildlife tourism. More passive wildlife experiences, such as viewing, photographing, and feeding are typically referred to as non-consumptive while wildlife encounters that involve capturing or killing animals, such as hunting and fishing, are generally considered to be consumptive.

“Zimbabwe benefits primarily from non-consumptive tourism where tourists pay to view attractions and leave them there. This is how a lot of money in the tourism industry is made,” said director of Bulawayo Polytechnic’s School of Hospitality and Tourism, Innocent Nezungai.

Speaking during a tour of Pomongwe Cave at the Matopos National Park recently, Nezungai said because tourists simply pay to view game or visit sites such as the cave or the Great Zimbabwe Monument in Masvingo, it was non-consumptive tourism.

“The challenge we have is in conserving our natural tourist destinations to ensure that they continue racking in revenue,” said Nezungai.

Wildlife tourism is tourism undertaken to view and encounter wildlife. It can take place in a range of settings, from captive, semi-captive, to the wild, and it encompasses a variety of interactions from passive observation to feeding and or touching the species viewed.

While there are undoubtedly abundant opportunities for tourists to make positive contributions to wildlife conservation through the activities in which they engage and the facilities they visit, there are sadly all too many instances where animals are exploited solely for financial benefit.

In many cases, tourists may not even be aware that their visits are contributing to this exploitation, rather than contributing to conservation and protection efforts.

The Matopos National Park is however bigger than natural tourism. It is filled with cultural history and has become a spiritual insignia for many.

“Matopos is much richer than Cecil John Rhodes. We as the people need to reclaim our history because Matopos is one of the richest sites there is,” said culturist Cont Mhlanga.

Rhodes was the founder of Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe following the country’s attainment of independence in 1980.

Mhlanga said many aspects about the Matopos National Park heritage had been left out in the tourism marketing gimmick which has made wide use of Cecil John Rhodes as the focal point of the hills.

“Matopos in its Ndebele narrative says Cecil John Rhodes made himself a hero’s acre on the hill of the spirits of Zimbabwe. The word ‘indaba’ comes from the place called Esidhulini but it’s in grave danger because no one is looking after it since it’s outside the main camp.”

The hills were the scene of the famous indaba between Rhodes and Ndebele leaders in 1896. Rhodes and several other early white settlers are buried on the summit of Malindandzimu, the hill of the spirits.

“Also, Lahlamkhonto, because is outside the main camp is ignored. All significant battles fought are outside the main camp. Matopos needs a total refocusing in terms of telling our story and history,” said Mhlanga.

The culturist bemoaned the fact that one could not access King Mzilikazi’s grave yet that of Rhodes had been idolised.

“You can’t even access Mzilikazi’s grave, no one looks after it yet people pay to go and see Cecil John Rhodes’ grave. What kind of people are we to neglect the founder of our nation? We celebrate the history of our coloniser. The real history of Matopos is excluded from the rest of the world,” he said.

In colonial times, the hills were loved by Rhodes, who chose this as his final resting place. His grave, carved out from the rock, is marked by a brass plaque at the World’s View, a vantage point high up on the rocks.

“Our heritage is broad. We have a pre-colonial as well as a colonial heritage which is epitomised by Cecil John Rhodes who fell in love with the hills and in his will said he wanted to be buried at Malindandzimu.

“The Matopos National Park has unique landscape and is the only one which provides both natural and cultural tourism. We have the hills comprising balancing rocks, whalebacks, leopard, black eagle and the cultural aspect where we have the rock art by the San people,” said historian Pathisa Nyathi.

The next group, Nyathi said, were the Bantu particularly generic Kalanga people.

“Tourists would not have been attracted to the Matopos National Park had it not been for the nature. It should be seen as an oasis. There is also the aspect of Kalanga spirituality where we can talk of Njelele, the rain making shrine and spiritual centre. There is Mzilikazi’s grave who lies with Nguboyenja and Sidhojiwe.”

Nyathi said in as much as Rhodes’ grave had been the primary focus of the hills; it did not eliminate the fact that the Matopos National Park heritage belonged to Zimbabweans.

“It’s our heritage now, not that of the whites. It’s our money. Rhodes is paying rent.”

Turning to the World’s View, Cecil John Rhodes grave, Rhodesia’s first premier of Southern Rhodesia Charles Coghlan and administrator Leander Star Jameson, Nyathi said the difference between the graves of whites and those of blacks was that whites can freely make their graves attractions while Africanism upholds the opposite.

“Amakhiwa athi bonani kodwa abantu abamnyama bathi fihlani (Whites would rather display their graves but black people prefer keeping them sacred,” he said.

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