International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue VII, July 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186
Desecration of Mwela Rock Art Site in Kasama District of Zambia
Kenny Changwe, Tomaida C Milingo and Inonge Milupi*
The University of Zambia, School of Education, Department of Language and Social Sciences Education. P.O BOX 32379, Lusaka, Zambia
*Corresponding author
Abstract: This paper examines desecration at Mwela rock art site in Kasama District of Zambia. The study was aggravated by extraordinary levels of desecration at Mwela rock art site. To have an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon under study, the researchers employed a qualitative approach particularly, case study and narrative designs. Data were collected through observations, semi structured interviews and focus group discussion from a sample of sixteen (16) respondents out of which five (5) were subjects of the Bemba Royal Establishment (BRE) that included four (4) Village Headmen and 1 Village Headwoman, 3 focus group discussions representing three responses from National Heritage Conservation Commission (NHCC) members, four (4) elderly men and four (4) elderly women respectively. Purposive sampling distinctively typical case study was used to purposively select 4 BRE subjects, 3 FGDs with NHCC members and the 5 elders. The respondents were purposively selected because they were deemed reliable for the study as they possessed relevant knowledge and understanding of the phenomenon under study. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The study revealed that Mwela rock art site has experienced desecration due to a number of factors that include the construction of the railway line, coming of NHCC at the site, demographic changes, coming of Christianity and social economic hardships. In order to minimize desecration of cultural sites, the research recommends for the incorporation of the traditional authorities and their indigenous belief system into formal cultural heritage management as propounded in cosmopolitanism type of analytical framework in heritage preservation. This study contributes towards the enhancement of cultural heritage preservation.
Key words: Custodianship, Desecration, Heritage, Preservation, Beliefs, Indigenous.
I.INTRODUCTION
Royal ancestry worship has been part of the Bemba cosmology for a long time. According to Hinfelaar (1994), major changes in Bemba cosmology, date back to the arrival of the Christian missionaries at the end of the 19thcentury. However, the 17th century marked the fundamental change in Bemba cosmology when the older cult slowly gave way to a more centralized and public worship that reached the paramouncy of the Bena Ng’andu (Crocodile) dynasty of the Bemba kingdom. Werner (1971) stated that the belief in ngulu possessions were a new religious development in Bemba cosmology. The cult of ngulu spirits resulted from the invasion of land belonging to neighboring tribes.