Gilbert Pwiti

Gilbert Pwiti is an archaeologist. He is a pioneer of modern archaeological and heritage management research in southern Africa and Zimbabwe. Pwiti was amongst the first generation of indigenous historians to be trained in archaeology in postcolonial southern Africa and he was the first professor of Archaeology in Zimbabwe.

Education and early life Pwiti was born in 1958 in Mazoe, Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. His thesis was entitled Continuity and change: an archaeological study of farming communities in northern Zimbabwe AD 500-1700.

Career Pwiti was amongst the first generation of indigenous archaeologists in Zimbabwe. In 1985, he established the first archaeological unit in Zimbabwe, as part of the Department of History at the University of Zimbabwe. He undertook excavations at Kadzi, recording evidence for farming in the fifth century CE. His research has also addressed the transformation to complex societies in the 2nd millennium CE, questioning the existence of a 2nd wave of Bantu migrations.

Pwiti has undertaken major work on cultural heritage management in postcolonial Africa, including developing key concepts such as intangible heritage and community participation. Through this work he showed how colonial rule separated people from their physical and cultural heritage.

Throughout Pwiti's career he has authored and edited several key publications, including Caves, Monuments and Texts: Zimbabwean Archaeology Today (1997), and Legal Framework for the Protection of Immovable Cultural Heritage in Africa with Webber Ndoro (2005). He established the publication series Studies in the African Past in 2001 with colleagues from East Africa.

Selected publications Pwiti, G. 1991. Trade and economies in southern Africa: the archaeological evidence. Zambezia 18 (2), 119-129.

Pwiti, G. 1994. Prehistory, archaeology and education in Zimbabwe, in P. G. Stone & B.L. Molyneaux (ed.) The Presented Past: Heritage, Museums and Education: 338-48. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Pwiti, G. 1996. Continuity and Change: An Archaeological Study of Farming Communities in Northern Zimbabwe AD 500-1700. Studies in African Archaeology 13. Uppsala: Societas Archaeologica Upsaliensis.

Pwiti, G. 1996. Let the ancestors rest in peace? New challenges for cultural heritage management in Zimbabwe. Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites 1(3), 151-160.

Pwiti, G. 1997a. Caves, Monuments and Texts: Zimbabwean Archaeology Today. Studies in African Archaeology 14. Uppsala: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History.

Pwiti, G, and Ndoro, W. 1999. The legacy of colonialism: Perceptions of the cultural heritage in Southern Africa, with special reference to Zimbabwe. The African Archaeological Review 16(3): 143-153.

Pwiti, G. 2004. Economic change, ideology and the development of cultural complexity in northern Zimbabwe. Azania 39: 265-82.