Unique Easter outing at Amagugu

Bongani Ndlovu, Showbiz Correspondent

Amagugu International Heritage Centre was the place to be this past weekend as the annual Food Expo was on.

It was a triple celebration as the venue was also celebrating its director, Pathisa Nyathi’s National Arts Merit Awards (Nama) legendary status honour that he was awarded last week. Also being celebrated at the same excursion was Iyasa director, Nkululeko Innocent Dube, who was also accorded Nama legendary status.

A limited number of people made the 60KM journey on the Matopos road to Amagugu. Upon arrival, visitors were greeted by women from the community who had displayed an array of traditional food items that they were selling.

Food items such as umfahla, umcaba and inopi were in abundance. Other foodstuffs were amacimbi, inkobe, umumbu, amazambane and indlubu and the ladies took time to teach visitors how to prepare them.

Because of good rains, this year’s food expo had a variety of these traditional dishes.

When one had had their fill, a journey of about one kilometre awaited as a braai on the rocks had been arranged up the mountain. One really needed to be fit to make this journey, especially if they had cooler boxes and other things that they were carrying.

The hike was worth it as the view from the top was beautiful. Also because of the rains, the landscape was green and Gonde Dam looked awesome.

The braaing was unique because it was done on a slab of rock that was heated and served as a braai stand.

This was the perfect getaway, especially considering that it coincided with the Easter holidays. What made the outing even more special was that the people who turned up were not the usual faces.

Touring Amagugu is just what is needed to revive domestic tourism in Zimbabwe as the industry has recorded an 87 percent decline because of the Covid-19 pandemic.