Beaven Tapureta
Ribbon pulling at the Grand Opening of the Alexandra Park L. Ron Hubbard Landmark to celebrate L. Ron Hubbard’s legacy (Photo: By Scientology Media Productions)
When on a certain Tuesday afternoon six years ago poet Philani Nyoni and friend Dorcas Gwata sneaked from a British Embassy-hosted lunch party to visit the late literary hero Dambudzo Marechera’s grave at Warren Hills, it was more than just a visit. It exposed a hunger for literary landmarks in the country to visit and draw inspiration from.
The duo’s tribute visit to the great man’s grave resonated with a call for families, local cultural preservationists and government to consider officially recognizing the writers of the past generations.
It disgraces history if graves of our literary legends lie in neglect, or when their residences that had an impact on their lives are forgotten.
While the National Archives and other organizations are doing a great job in preserving significant historical information, writers need their own different places to visit which are specially kept to celebrate the exemplary lives and works of arts and culture icons. They are literary places of wonder. In some countries, celebrated authors are remembered through their childhood homes or places where they spent their later years. The places are given landmark status and preserved for future generations.
Who would not want to have a real feel of the legacies of notable Zimbabwean writers such as Professor Solomon Mangwiro Mutsvairo who was the first to publish a Shona novel and also wrote the National Anthem, Ndambaningi Sithole, who also was the first to publish a Ndebele novel and later became a well-known politician, or Patrick Chakaipa, Mordekai Hamutyinei, Yvonne Vera, Chenjerai Hove, Julius Sekai Chingono, Charles Mungoshi, to name but a few? Yet, sadly, due to various reasons, writers’ tools of trade, their writing studios from where they hatched ground-breaking masterpieces, their personal libraries, their manuscript drafts, disappear soon after they die.
The cost of estate restoration and maintenance, cultural beliefs and restrictive inheritance laws or long-drawn legal processes, among other factors, may hinder the transformation of a mere writer’s home into a heritage site. So silently, memories of our outstanding ancestors fade out and the future forgets its past. And worse still, in Zimbabwe hardly are there national awards, streets, or buildings specially named after writers. Arts tourists, students and researchers simply need a place they can visit and enjoy archival materials of departed well-known writers who put the country in the limelight through their massive creative works.
Thus the spectacular grand opening of Alexandra Park House, Harare, on June 28 to celebrate the life and works of author, adventurer, explorer, philosopher and founder of Dianetics and Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, happened as a cue for Zimbabwean arts and cultural sector to turn attention towards officially recognizing possible literary heritage sites which future generations cannot live without. This event, well-attended by guests from across all sectors in Zimbabwe and abroad, stirred a lot of curiosity to know who L. Ron Hubbard was.
Standing at 31 John Plagis Avenue, now known as the Alexandra Park House, this is where Hubbard briefly resided when he came to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1966. The house showcases his books, writings and photography tools, offices and rooms he used for different purposes, copies of his typewritten letters and documents, self-portraits, certificates and awards, and what’s more, his old magnificent Pontiac and Ford Mustang Fastback parked in the garage, a few steps from the swimming pool in the eye-catching garden.
The Alexandra Park House echoes with the tempo of man who believed in freedom. He came to Rhodesia at a time when the Ian Smith regime was facing condemnation locally and internationally due to its repressive rule. This scenario wasn’t doing any good for the black people in Rhodesia. Hence, upon arrival in 1966 Hubbard wasted no time to pen ‘A Tentative Constitution of the Nation of Rhodesia’, urging the Smith government to embrace racial equality and fundamental human rights.
His love for equal treatment of blacks and whites touched many a heart, including those who worked for him, his typists, cooks, general hands, everyone and he wasn’t ashamed.
The wide range of Hubbard’s publications on diverse subjects will edify bookworms with worlds of life-changing discoveries. A room upstairs at the Alexandra Park House has walls of shelves with some of the books the tireless life-observer produced. That he ‘lived as an artist’ [to borrow from David Mungoshi’s poetry book title] is no secret. He was gifted as a writer, musician, photographer, and in other different artistic arenas. However, his complete legacy is still being felt across the world. The L. Ron Hubbard Landmark Sites in the USA, UK, and Southern Africa are timeless medicines for the mind, body and spirit.
As noted by a guest who attended one of the recent Harare events organized by the Alexandra Park House, these landmark sites are healing sites.
“I am very impressed at the restoration of this heritage site. This is the best way peace is restored amongst people of all religions. L. Ron Hubbard kept a simple life as exhibited by the things available in this particular heritage site – his car, motorbike, typewriter, and the table with which he breathed life into all the rest! It is real to me that these are not just places of residences, but places of healing the world; they are healing sites.”
According to Asthra Maximov, the House Director, since it opened to the public, the Alexandra Park House has received a number of guests from different organizations.
No doubt, Hubbard’s presence in spirit in the country has invoked this ‘landmark’ idea. If only we learn how great it is to remember and pay tribute to those who made history in the arts, families and authorities would start today to collect and preserve our literary forefathers and foremothers’ artifacts and homes.
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