Lost and Found Property: Evaluating Efforts to Resurrect and Resuscitate ‘Institutionalised Garbage’ in Post‐Colonial Zimbabwean Museums

This article evaluates efforts to bring to life some museum collections in Zimbabwe. Scholars have argued that the removal of objects from their social environments into museums literally kills them. The 'heritagisation' and 'museualisation' processes stand accused of killing objects. On the other hand, indigenous African communities consistently and situationally imbued their landscape with spiritual, political and social meanings. These cultural landscapes epitomise 'living museums' where diverse cultural objects were curated with traditional management systems. European colonialism, however, resulted in the denigration of these cultural practices. Objects which were critical for the well-being of Africans were taken into captivity in colonial museums and eventually became 'forgotten' or 'dead'. Ethnographic museums, in particular, are perceived as places of the dead and evil spirits. They are places to dump 'garbage' that no longer has a function in society. Post-colonial African museums have struggled to attract and sustain local community interest. However, there is still hope to re-ignite and sustain public interest in museum programmes. We invoke the notion of 'living archives' as an approach to decolonise the museum. The article appraises case studies of museum collections that have triggered immense public interest.