Digital Memorials
The Internet as a New Space for Remembrance and Countermemory in Zimbabwe
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63726/jchd.v1i1.227Keywords:
Cultural heritage, digital memorials, digital preservation, digital archiving, memory and commemoration, virtual Heritage.Abstract
In Zimbabwe, where memory, identity, and heritage are deeply entwined with struggles for liberation, post-colonial nation-building, and personal loss, digital memorials are emerging as powerful tools for reimagining remembrance. This paper investigates how Zimbabweans are increasingly using the internet through social media, online archives, and digital storytelling platforms to commemorate individuals, events, and cultural legacies that are often marginalised or contested in official heritage narratives. From Facebook tributes for political activists and COVID-19 victims to YouTube documentaries about Gukurahundi and WhatsApp-based oral history sharing, digital memorials offer new avenues for meaning-making that are accessible, participatory, and transnational. Drawing on case studies and interviews, the paper explores how these digital practices contribute to intangible cultural heritage, challenge state-controlled memory, and foster intergenerational dialogue within the Zimbabwean diaspora and at home. The study highlights how digital memorialisation in Zimbabwe is reshaping heritage into a living, evolving process rooted in everyday experience and digital citizenship. It also considers the implications of digital memorials for intangible cultural heritage, intergenerational transmission, and collective identity in an increasingly global and digital society. Ultimately, the paper argues that digital memorials not only preserve memory but actively reshape how heritage is created, experienced, and sustained in the 21st century.
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