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A hippopotamus display at the National History Museum of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo

Bongani Ndlovu Showbiz Correspondent
THE National Museums and Monuments has pledged to do more to preserve black African history as little has been done to tell the African story because of the effects of colonialism.
Speaking on the sidelines of the official unveiling of the Hippopotamus display at the National History Museum of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo on Wednesday evening, western regional director Dr Moira Fitzpatrick said because of the effects of colonialism, the museum did not have much information on black Zimbabwean history.

“The museum was built during the colonial period and those who were collecting the history focused more on white history. This had an effect on the black history which was collected. So as an organisation, we are going to start collecting as much artefacts as we can that are focused on black history in Zimbabwe,” she said.
Dr Fitzpatrick said she would rope in local historians such as Pathisa Nyathi to help them collect and chronicle the African history.

“Very little has been said about African history. There is more of what Rhodes did and less of what the indigenous Africans did. We have people like Pathisa Nyathi who we can work with to help us to gather such information,” she said.

Turning to the Hippo display unveiling, Dr Fitzpatrick said they started working on the display two months ago after receiving four hippo trophies as a donation from friends of the museum. The display is situated in the Mammal Gallery on the ground floor after the Lowveld Gallery where the second largest mounted elephant in the world is found.

Fitzpatrick said it took over six months to plan, work and complete the exhibition under the watchful eye of Ntombizodwa Philomena Sibanda, the chief exhibition officer of the National Museums and Monuments.

Sibanda, who made the King Mzilikazi bust which is also housed at the museum in the Hall of Kings, said it took a lot of hard work to finish the piece.
Sibanda said the exhibition was a mixture of real and artificial materials as she used raisins, polyurethane rocks and glass to come up with the effect of the waterfall.