ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we look at the positioning of the Mutare Museum as a site of public pedagogy and a space for addressing topical social issues within communities. We look at how the Ngoda: The Wealth Beneath Our Feet exhibition at the Mutare Museum challenged neutral and unspoken assumptions about communities by bringing to light stories of their struggles that emanated from being disenfranchised from their ancestral land and mineral resource. The first author, Njabulo Chipangura, was involved in the empirical research of this exhibition between February and May 2013. Data was collected by interviewing members of the community who were displaced from the diamond mining field and resettled at Arda Transau in Odzi, near Mutare. We argue that the processes by which this exhibition was created provided empowering learning experiences to the community and subsequently affected social change. The exhibition elaborated on the events that led to the discovery of surface diamonds by the Chiadzwa community, the mass movement of people into the fields, the activities of the miners, the regularisation of mining activities by the government and the displacement of autochthonous people. Against this background, we demonstrate how the museum became a significant site of adult education by collaboratively producing this exhibition with the community with the aim of advocating for social change and inclusion. In the end, Mutare Museum as a site of public pedagogy and social activism also embraced new museological practices of community collaboration and representation. We will also show how the Mutare Museum battled social inequalities and worked towards social inclusion by incorporating voices from the Chiadzwa community members. The use of the museum as a site of public pedagogy during this exhibition enabled voices from the ostracised community to be heard, and this in turn effected social change. In this way, co-curatorship as a methodology ensured that what was presented in the exhibition was a true reflection of community views and the story of their everyday struggle.
