Nzira Yeparuware is an audio experience at Edinburgh Castle which explores the connection between Edinburgh and Harare, two cities connected through Scotland’s colonisation of Zimbabwe.
Lateral North worked alongside artist Tanatsei Gambura to help bring "Nzira Yeparuware - A Path Upon A Rock" to life at Edinburgh Castle.
In 2022 artist Tanatsei Gambura was invited by Historic Environment Scotland and the University of Edinburgh to respond to the Managing Imperial Legacies brief and to create a sound installation reflecting on her experience as a black artist working in Scotland. Living and working in Edinburgh her inspiration for her response didn’t come from the city she was in, however instead came through a piece of serendipity on her first trip back home to her hometown of Harare (Zimbabwe) since moving to Scotland.
Asked to run an errand by her mother she ended up on Clyde Street, Harare. All of a sudden, in a place where she grew up, “this strange map of Scotland started to build around me”.
Nzira Yeparuware – translated as ‘A Path Upon A Rock’ – explores Scotland’s role in the colonial rule of Zimbabwe (previously Rhodesia) and, in particular, explores how this is translated in the names of places within the built environment of Harare (previously Salisbury). The sound installation – and associated interpretation panels – leads you around Scotland’s most visited landmark (Edinburgh Castle) reinterpreting the path upon which you walk.
Importantly, the project asks the question “what would these places [in Harare] be called if they were not Scottish? Not English? Not Welsh?”
