eBusiness Weekly
A “lost” part of a soapstone Zimbabwe Bird was reunited with Zimbabwe this century.
When were the Zimbabwe birds made famous?
The first white man known to have seen a Zimbabwe Bird and immediately remove it was the hunter and explorer, Willie Posselt. Excited and inspired by the rumours of a lost city, he and his brother, Harry organised a trading-hunting-exploring trip to the interior.
After an adventurous journey, the Posselts reached the ruins on 14th August 1889, finally climbing the Hill on the 15th. Willie later wrote that, “There in an enclosure which served as a cattle kraal, I saw four soapstones, each carved in the image of a bird and facing towards the east. “Each one, including its plinth, had been hewn out of a solid block of stone and measured four feet six inches in height, and each was firmly set into the ground.”
What did they do?
Willie Posselt immediately decided he had to possess one of the birds and began digging it out. Significantly, the site’s custodian, Haruzivishe, brother to Chief Mugabe (the chief of the area at the time), protested and declared he was ready to use force if necessary to defend the sacred site.
However, after handing over a few blankets and other trade articles, Posselt was allowed to remove the Bird and a round perforated stone. He buried the other stones, hoping to return for them later. Cutting the pedestal off “his” Bird to simplify its transport, Posselt carried the Bird back to South Africa where it was eventually bought by Cecil Rhodes, who had his own plans for this artefact.
What happened to the rest?
Experienced antiquarian Theodore Bent was the first professional researcher to work at Great Zimbabwe in 1891. During his excavations in the Eastern Enclosure, a further four birds and the fragment of another were recovered and removed to the South African Museum in Cape Town.
Interestingly, local people made known their displeasure at this perceived desecration of their shrine, threatening war and marshalling forces. Later excavations by Richard Hall, the first curator of Great Zimbabwe in modern times, brought to light a further two birds, one complete specimen (the one used as the national symbol) and one fragment, the only Birds retained in Zimbabwe.
He was quite proud of the bird head, saying, “the carving shows more artistic skill than do any of the birds on beams in the Cape Town Museum.” The complete specimen, now the National Bird, was found in the Phillips Ruin, buried upside down, with only the tip of the pillar showing. This may explain why it was missed by previous researchers. Hall said that the specimen as a whole showed “evidence of more artistic workmanship having been bestowed upon them than of any previously discovered.”
It is not exactly clear how many stone birds existed at Great Zimbabwe, but as can be seen, eight are known to have been recovered.
Why did we want the birds back?
All the birds except two were exported from the country. Repatriation of the Birds played an important role in the “invention” of Zimbabwe in 1981 and again in 2003 but for very different reasons. The determination of the Zimbabwe government to reclaim the birds stemmed from desire to rehabilitate Great Zimbabwe as a cultural symbol of the African people.
The desire was inspired by the belief that the potency of Great Zimbabwe as the guardian of the spirit of the nation lies in its possession of sacred artefacts such as the conical tower and the Zimbabwe Birds. It was imperative to bring back the bird emblems in order to re-equip and revive the shrine of Great Zimbabwe.
How did we get the birds back?
In 1979 a motion was passed in Parliament that steps should be taken to negotiate the return of the Zimbabwe Birds. Communications were immediately opened between the South African Museum (SAM) and the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe (NMMZ).
Long and protracted discussions ensued and eventually the South Africans agreed to release the Birds in exchange for material of their choice in NMMZ’s care. Eventually they chose the world-class, unique and irreplaceable Hymenoptera collection, consisting of some 30 000 specimens, of which 1,000 were Types of incomparable scientific importance. This caused great controversy within NMMZ: tempers and emotions ran high (to put it mildly) and the curators responsible for the collection resigned in protest.
Others were fired for their protests and open dislike of the decision. Perhaps the curators acted out of “ignorance as to how emotive this issue was”, maybe misunderstanding that the dedication of the curators for “their” collections possibly equalled the need for the new country to have its relics back. One wonders why the South Africans were allowed to extract such a high price for objects known to have been looted from within Zimbabwe. In any case they did not completely fulfil the terms of the agreement keeping the bird Rhodes had bought, arguing that it fell without the jurisdiction of the SAM.
The birds fly home…
On 29 January 1981 the Birds finally returned home when two Dakotas of 3 Squadron of the Air Force of Zimbabwe touched down at New Sarum (now Manyame) and offloaded the sculptures. The cargo was taken to the Great Zimbabwe Museum and proudly put on display, where they remain to this day.
One bird had an adventurous life…
One bird was exported overseas after allegedly being bought by Rhodes, ending up in the Museum für Völkerkunde in Berlin. During the Second World War many collections were packed up and sent to various parts of Germany for safekeeping. Some were captured by the Russian Army, taken as spoils of war.
In the 1970s an agreement was reached between the USSR and the German Democratic Republic that the collections should be repatriated. In 1978 the collection was taken to the Leipzig ethnographic museum but again this was done secretly.
On the eve of reunification of the two Germanys, the Berlin Museum was told that the objects they thought had been destroyed in the war still existed and that they could have them back. The catalogue published at the time revealed the existence of the surviving piece of the bird to the outside world.
How did it get to Belgium?
While planning an exhibition in Belgium on the ancient and modern art of Zimbabwe, a temporary unification of the two parts was planned at the exhibition. Curators asked the Zimbabwean Government for permission to use the original stone birds.
The government declined and alternatives were sought. The Berlin bird was brought out of its nest in the museum and its head was sent from Zimbabwe, for a historic unification during the exhibition.
In 1997 before the opening of the exhibition, Legacies of Stone, Zimbabwe: Past and Present, it was decided by Zimbabwean archaeologists and historians, Edward Matenga especially, that it was time to seek repatriation of the half bird should be sought, especially as the Germans had not really missed it very much. How this was achieved is not at all clear.
When did it return to Zimbabwe?
Finally in February 2000 the German specimen was secretly handed over to the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe by the German Ambassador under a memorandum of understanding in which the bird was being returned to Zimbabwe on “permanent loan” while the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation remained the legal owner of the fragment.
The loan document thus technically avoided the subject of restitution. Why it took three years before the return was publicly announced in Zimbabwe is unclear.
When did we get to see it for the first time?
On May 6, 2004, a year after the openly acknowledged receipt of the lower portion, the two parts were taken back to Great Zimbabwe to be installed in the site museum in a lavish ceremony.
This was in turn praised and criticised in the local and international media. Some believed it was a massive waste of money and other resources just to return a carved piece of stone to Zimbabwe while others saw it as a victory over colonial injustices and thefts.
Former President Mugabe underlined ‘Never again shall the bird be severed in two and never again shall any part of the bird find its way to foreign territory’. Echoing these sentiments, Dr. Peter Schmidt, the German Ambassador said: ‘May the two parts of this bird never be separated again’. ‘Return’ or ‘Restitution’ which will atone the spirits?”
Is there one left outside Zimbabwe?
Rhodes was obsessed with the birds and remains the only known private individual to own one of them. He even went to the extent of having the symbol incorporated into many aspects of his house, Groote Schuur located in Cape Town. He regarded it as a personal totem and it is rumoured that he preferred to have it in his presence when making major decisions.
This bird has remained hidden in Groote Schuur to this day leading to the question, why can South Africa not return the Bird from Groote Schuur, their inventive claims about the terms of Rhodes’ will notwithstanding? It could be given on “permanent loan” like the bird from Germany.
Does the bird have any meaning today?
Local people living near Great Zimbabwe often usually only discuss the interpretations of the Zimbabwe Birds (as chapungu or hungwe), in spite of the fact that they are seen as national symbols.
This is in comparison with the resistance encountered when Posselt took one in 1889. Today, it is merely felt that the removal of the Birds is in part, responsible for the silence and anger of the ancestors and desecration of the site. Interestingly at the restoration ceremony in Masvingo in 2004, President Mugabe said handing over the bird to the chiefs from Masvingo did not mean that it belonged to that province, but it was a national treasure.
