Desecration of Mwela Rock Art Site in Kasama District of Zambia

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.