Temba Dube
Fairness Moyana in Hwange
TRADITIONAL leaders and cultural practitioners in Matabeleland North have been urged to play a leading role in documenting and safeguarding the province’s rich intangible cultural heritage before traditional knowledge and practices are lost to rapid social change.
Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture, Mr Nicholas Moyo, said this on Friday during the official launch of an awareness-raising workshop on the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Hwange.
The five-day capacity-building workshop, running from September 28 to October 2, seeks to raise awareness on the UNESCO convention and strengthen local capacity to identify, document and safeguard intangible cultural heritage across the province.
Mr Moyo said Zimbabwe has a wealth of intangible cultural heritage that remains undocumented and unlisted, making community participation critical as part of efforts to preserve it.
“Zimbabwe is richly laden with diverse Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) elements that are yet to be docu-mented, recorded and listed,” he said.
“This project is here to help bridge the gap in the inventorying of ICH elements across the country. The work rests on us all to actively take part in this process and render our full support in all the processes that will be laid before us.”
Mr Moyo said traditional leaders were central to the process because they remained custodians of cultural knowledge and practices passed down through generations.
“The bulk of the work under this project is heavily dependent on traditional leaders and support throughout the various tiers of community structures as you are the custodians of our culture,” he said.
The UNESCO 2003 Convention recognises intangible cultural heritage as including oral traditions and expres-sions, performing arts, social practices, rituals and festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe, as well as traditional craftsmanship.
Mr Moyo said safeguarding such heritage was important not only for cultural identity but also for social cohe-sion, education and economic development.
He said Matabeleland North could use its cultural heritage to complement Hwange’s position as a major tour-ism destination.
“Intangible Cultural Heritage contributes directly to our development in ways that are often overlooked: through sustainable tourism, as our traditional music, dance, storytelling and crafts are unique attractions that complement Hwange’s standing as a premier wildlife and tourism destination,” said Mr Moyo.
He also linked the preservation of cultural heritage to the country’s devolution agenda, saying communities should have a greater role in determining how their heritage was documented and promoted.
“Devolution is not just about infrastructure and budgets. It is about cultural democracy — giving our people the power to define, protect and promote who they are,” said Mr Moyo.
He said the Government’s Vision 2030 should also encompass the preservation of Zimbabwe’s cultural identity.
“A Zimbabwe that is prosperous by 2030 but has lost its cultural soul is not a success,” said Mr Moyo.
He further encouraged traditional leaders to work with provincial authorities in documenting cultural practices, while urging young people to learn from elders and adapt traditional knowledge for contemporary expression.
Mr Moyo said the workshop had also been designed to include persons with disabilities to ensure that heritage documentation was representative of the wider community.
Meanwhile, speaking on behalf of Chiefs Nekatambe, Nelukoba-Dingani, Mvuthu and Shana, Chief Wange wel-comed the initiative, saying Africa’s traditions, languages, rituals and practices remained an important part of its identity.
He said safeguarding culture did not mean resisting modernisation but ensuring that traditional values and knowledge continued to have meaning for younger generations.
“We must teach our youth the meaning behind our customs, not just the outward forms,” said Chief Wange.
“A young person wearing modern clothing can still respect ancestral values, a musician blending traditional rhythms with contemporary sounds is not diluting culture they are reinventing it for new generations.”
He said dances, ceremonies, proverbs and traditional attire should be understood as living expressions of iden-tity rather than simply performances or symbols of the past.
The workshop brings together Government officials, traditional leaders, cultural practitioners, the National Arts Council, representatives of organisations for persons with disabilities and other stakeholders.
The UNESCO 2003 Convention seeks to safeguard living cultural practices while ensuring respect for the com-munities that create, maintain and transmit them.
