San Ibhoro Bush Cultural Festival on the cards

Ntombiyolwandle Ndlovu, Sunday Leisure Reporter
THE San people living in Tsholotsho, Matabeleland North Province, are set to host the inaugural Ibhoro Bush Cultural Festival which is aimed at safeguarding their cultural heritage.

The two-day festival will be held next month and will also include a road carnival from Bulawayo’s Large City Hall to Gariya in Tsholotsho. The festival will be held under the theme; My Culture, My Heritage, My Pride.

In an interview with Sunday Leisure, Tsoro-o-tso San Development Trust director Davy Ndlovu, said the festival has already been registered with the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe.

Ndlovu said the festival was part of efforts meant to facilitate the restoration and growth of the Tjwao language and San cultural heritage through conducting Ibhoro Bush Camps for San people to interact closely and learn from their elders various aspects of San language and culture.

“In Zimbabwe there is very little information about the San people, their cultural heritage and value system and in our quest to document and record the history of the San, we have decided to use various strategies to revive their history, this carnival is one of the strategies,” said Ndlovu.

Ndlovu said there would be traditionally decorated cars and models to showcase how the San people used to dress.

“We are going to use nicely decorated cars and have boys and girls traditionally dressed in the way San people used to dress in the past. They will be carrying tools that were used during those days. We will go to Tsholotsho passing through places like Nyamandlovu distributing some pamphlets on Ibhoro and explaining the cultural heritage of the San,” he said.

Ndlovu also said that they would establish culturally defined roles to be done by men and women as it was in the old San communities.

Arts groups invited to perform at the festival include Cwatshe, Goba and Lompanda Performing Arts, all from Bulawayo.