Melodies of God: the significance of the soundscape in conserving the Great Zimbabwe landscape

Sacred landscapes require a holistic approach for conservation. They are intimate spaces, susceptible to cultural erosion if the focus is on material culture only. Mainstream conservation theories and processes, developed from western heritage traditions, emphasize monumentality. However, there are unquantifiable connections between people and place, which if eroded, can result in memory erasure and, ultimately, the un-inheriting of the heritage place. Soundscape, the relationship between people and the sounds around them, is an innovative way to understand these intimate connections. Using Great Zimbabwe, I examine how local communities connect and sustain place memory through preservation of intangible heritage. Several events at Great Zimbabwe have shown that soundscape is one way to represent these connections and that preserving the soundscape can also enhance tangible heritage conservation. I examine how the Great Zimbabwe cultural landscape’s soundscape is used to preserve memory and sustain connections between the people and the landscape.