Through narrative and ethnographic insights, this volume examines the historical, political, and ecological forces shaping heritage governance and community life in Zimbabwe. 

In a time of political, humanitarian, and environmental crisis, the task of maintaining cultural heritage sites is increasingly challenged by unexpected forces. Bee-Fencing Zimbabwe’s Heritage explores the entangled relationships between people, wildlife, and heritage in northwestern Zimbabwe. It centres on the Nambya and other Indigenous communities whose ancestral stone capitals lie within Hwange National Park. As elephants damage sacred archaeological sites such as Bumbusi and Matowa, communities confront a profound dilemma: elephants are both destructive agents and revered ancestral and totemic beings.

This book asks what should be done when one form of heritage threatens another, and whether hierarchies of value can adequately guide conservation decisions. Rather than resolving the conflict by privileging either wildlife or ruins, it rethinks heritage as a relational process shaped by human and nonhuman actors alike. It presents Indigenous ecological strategies, including the innovative “Plan Bee” approach, that seek to deter elephants while fostering coexistence between the creatures and sacred monuments.