Important Dates

Bayreuth Academy: Working Group "Rural Futures"

Public Lecture - Dr. Kupakwashe Mtata - Commodification of Culture and Contested Visions of the Future in Rural Matobo

Life in the villages in the Matobo Hills of Zimbabwe seems to quintessentially demonstrate the notion of “the rural,” particularly when it is juxtaposed with practices in the neighboring city of Bulawayo. However, links between town and country undermine the rural-urban dichotomy in a number of fundamental ways. This presentation explores challenges to the rural-urban divide through an analysis of some practices and contestations in Ntabaemnyama, Dewe, Njelele and Fumugwe villages. It also proposes a way by which the ideas of “rural” and “urban”can be more profitably conceptualized.

Venue: Iwalewahaus, Foyer - accessible, wheelchair-friendy entry via the courtyard in Münzgasse