admin
The Herald, 22 August 2011
THE Murehwa traditional music festival, featuring the Jerusarema/Mbende traditional dance, runs from September 26 to 29. It will see more than 20 schools from the district vying for the title of the best dance group.
Donald Chidoori, the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe marketing director, said the aim of the festival was to provide a platform for the young generation to learn and showcase traditional dances.
“This festival is a chance to showcase and transmit the mbende/jerusarema dance to the young generation,” he said.
Blue Stars, a Murehwa-based theatre group, as well as other established traditional dance groups are billed to be guest performers at the four-day event.
Apart from dance, there will also be theatre performances and an exhibition of mbende drums and traditional attire.
The National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority will also use the same platform to exhibit live animals like crocodiles and cubs to school children.
Chidoori said local hotels would support the function by cooking traditional foods instead of Western dishes.
“Local hotels will also be dishing out traditional dishes like sadza and derere (okra), sadza remhunga and nyevhe among others with a view to keeping the festival traditional,” he said.
“Our aim is to encourage children to appreciate and perform Zimbabwean traditional dance in order to preserve our rich cultural heritage,” Chidoori said.
The defending champions of the competition are Rukariro Primary School, who have won the competition a record three times in a row but face stiff competition this year as other schools have been working hard.
Chidoori also thanked the corporate world for its support in making the festival a success.
“I would like to thank our sponsors especially the Murehwa community, various Government departments and Murehwa hotels for their continued support of the mbende/jerusarema festival,” he said.
The Mbende/Jerusarema Festival was launched in 2008 at the Murehwa Culture Centre.
The dance is very popular in the Murehwa and Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe area thus it is befitting that the dance festival is hosted in its place of origin.
Chidoori urged fans to come to the festival and enjoy themselves.
“I urge fans to come to Murehwa and enjoy the performances that will remind them of the yesteryear,” he said.
LESSONS FOR TODAY
Jerusarema/Mbende is one of Zimbabwe’s oldest and very popular traditional dance, centred in the Murehwa district. Since Independence, the Jerusarema drum beat has been used as the signature tune for both radio and TV news.
The involvement of locals in showcasing cultural activities is a great initiative towards curatorial work.
In tourism, cultural villages are relatively new attractions which have opened opportunities for the advancement of cultural and heritage tourism in developing countries.
Although cultural tourism has been in existence for a long time, it has been quite recently identified as a new revenue market in developing countries.
One concrete way we infuse the arts and culture into a community is cultural planning — a community-wide process of creating a vision for cultural programming and development.
The education system has been an important vehicle for passing on oral traditions.
For historical information contact:
Zimpapers Knowledge Centre at Herald House on:
+263 8677 004323;
+263 0242 795771
E-mail: [email protected]
Online Reporter