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Ranson Madzamba-Correspondent
President Mnangagwa officially launched Culture Week commemorations at Chief Njelele Homestead in Gokwe South, Midlands Province last Friday.
Well, the occasion was all about celebrating everything that identifies us as Zimbabweans. It was about celebrating who we are and how best we are supposed to remain us.
A number of forces are ensuing in the erosion of our Zimbabwean culture. Some sectors of our population are actually doomed to believe that our own African way of living is devilish and has to be abandoned.
Some people are mentored to believe that anything from the West is the best. It is indeed true that they are some individuals who are fooled to believe that anything African is backward.
A number of our people are suffering from identity crisis. Some pundits and academics are even writing that people are now living in a global village were they are now sharing everything including culture.
It happens that in this global village, the African culture is ever suffering on a daily basis. Modernisation is in a way defined as the process of abandoning our own African culture preferring that of developed western countries if not our former colonisers.
This is to a larger extent very wrong and requires to be corrected as a matter of urgency. Having such a big event at Chief Njelele’s homestead is a great intervention coming from the Government with the President fully behind it and in support.
The Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation Kirsty Coventry, her Deputy Tino Machakaire together with their Permanent Secretary Dr Thokozile Chitepo must be appreciated for their sterling efforts in coming up with various activities that help in the preservation and promotion of our Zimbabwean culture and heritage.
The Ministry romped in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education in the Culture Week celebrations. They agreed that each and every school will this week have a day where all schoolchildren will come dressed in an African attire. This is indeed a way of recognising our culture in cementing the ethos of who we are and what defines us as Africans if not Zimbabweans.
Everything in the development process starts with the mindsets of the people. Once people believe in themselves and are proud to be who they are, the rest would be positives.
However, on the other side of the coin they are some cultural practices that infringe on other people’s rights and freedoms. Those must be condemned at all cost.
The President condemned the killing of young people by some individuals for ritual purposes. He made it clear that such practices have no place in this country and will never, ever be tolerated at all.
“The values of respect and honour must be promoted while our chiefs and traditional leaders must continue to dissuade our people to shun these so called ritual practices. The killing of our children is not acceptable” President Mnangagwa said.
The celebration at Chief Njelele’s homestead was of its own kind.
Gokwe South has never hosted such a big event since independence. The occasion was graced by various people from all the provinces in the country.
Almost everyone in Gokwe wanted to be at the occasion. It was indeed a sizzling moment for some village heads and legislators from the area as they tried to reduce the numbers of people to attend the beautiful function and as demanded by the World Health Organisation (WHO) Covid-19 regulations.
The function brought business to Gokwe. Almost all lodges at Gokwe Centre were fully-booked. Various artists selected from all corners of the country serenaded people with some cultural music.
For everyone who was at the function it was either you were dancing to the traditional tunes or touring the exhibition stands that were showcasing cultural products from herbs,food,instruments among others.
Even the President got the opportunity to tour the exhibition stands accompanied by Minister Coventry.
Officially opening the event, President Mnangagwa reminded people not to neglect their culture since it is vital in bolstering our identity as Zimbabweans.
He went on to narrate how the traditional chiefs and spiritual leaders like Mbuya Nehanda played a crucial role in helping the freedom fighters dethrone the Ian Smith government.
The Second Republic is indeed fighting to turn the arts sector into a vibrant creative industry where it has to add value to the fiscus.
The recognition of the traditional mbira instrument by UNESCO as a world intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity is of great value to the country.
It indeed puts Zimbabwe on the world map. The move is of great value as it will help internationalise the traditional mbira music. This is indeed good news to our artists and the country at large.
Many thanks go to all who came up with proposals, writings and presentations that lured UNESCO to give in and accept the mbira to be a great instrument worldwide.
We thank Dr Biggie Samwanda, the Director Arts and Culture and his team from the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Culture for a job well done.
Online Reporter