adminDaisy Jeremani Entertainment Editor
ARTS and culture gurus have called for the collection, documentation and transmission of one of the country’s cultural heritages — storytelling.Speaking in Bulawayo at a workshop on the preservation of the art form, prominent historian Pathisa Nyathi said there was a need to revive the art form which was used by the people in the olden days to pass on cultural values.
The two-day workshop, which was supported by Unesco under the project Preserving and Safeguarding Zimbabwean Folklore and The Art of Storytelling, saw more than 30 local storytellers and teachers coming together to map a way forward to preserve the art.
“Though they had a dimension of entertainment they were used for inculcation of cultural and social values,” Nyathi said.
He added that folklores were a repository of people’s thoughts, philosophies, beliefs and world views and it would be folly for Zimbabwean communities to let the intangible heritage die.
Intwasa director Raisedon Baya said the workshop was premised on the fact that folktales were an integral part of orature and a people’s living traditions.
“The objectives of the workshop are to revive, resuscitate, recognise and celebrate the dying art of storytelling,” he said.
The workshop, which ended yesterday at the Samaritans, also saw arts practitioners Cont Mhlanga, Naison Tfwala, Cletus Moyo and Nelson Mapako facilitating.
Baya said: “They (folklore) form part of our intangible cultural heritage. For illiterate communities, folktales become a form of communication, education and a form of socialising children and young people”.
While the arts and culture sector in Zimbabwe has been generally developing, the art of storytelling and in particular the telling of folktales is on the verge of disappearing completely. Now the art form is almost non-existent and very few young people nowadays know and even have time to enjoy folktales.
Speaking at the same event, Amakhosi founder, Cont Mhlanga, said many people were running with contemporary stories instead of chasing the traditional ones.
“Our cultural practices and traditions carry history and nurture wisdom. The fireplace is gone but there is a need for us to create other platforms to perpetuate our cultures such as storytelling”.
Mhlanga said there was a need for Zimbabweans to tell their stories and put them out there instead of assimilating into other people’s tales.
“Go anywhere in the world, they fund traditional projects merely to tell and sell their own stories,” he said.
It was resolved at the workshop that Intwasa would spearhead the compilation of folktales from different communities in the country as a way of preserving it for posterity. These would be launched early next year.
Online Reporter