The Politicisation of Liberation-Struggle Exhumations in Eastern Zimbabwe: Spiritual Evocation, Patriotism and Professionalism

In recent years, there has been an increase in the exhumation and reburial of remains of liberation-war fighters in Zimbabwe. Since 2011, the Fallen Heroes Trust of Zimbabwe (FHTZ), an organisation established by war veterans aligned to the ruling party, ZANU(PF), has taken a lead in these exhumation projects. Drawing on my experience of working with FHTZ as an archaeologist then employed by the government under the parastatal National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe (NMMZ), this article looks at the politicisation of liberation struggle exhumations by FHTZ, focusing on the case of Butcher site in eastern Zimbabwe in 2013. I argue that, during the exhumations, FHTZ deployed spirituality in a spectacular fashion in the service of ZANU(PF)’s ‘patriotic history’, a narrative through which the party claimed legitimacy, as a means of attacking the opposition party in an election year. This approach sparked methodological conflicts between NMMZ archaeologists and the FHTZ in terms of the speed of exhumation, the tools used in undertaking exhumations and the means by which graves were located and human remains identified. NMMZ was overridden in these conflicts. As a result, the archaeologists were in effect commandeered to participate in and legitimise a political project that used exhumations as a campaigning vehicle for ZANU(PF).