‘Young people should be educated about the importance of their culture’

Leonard Ncube,Victoria Falls Reporter
CHIEFS Shana and Whange of Hwange District in Matabeleland North on Thursday led their subjects in observing the traditional Nambya and cultural festival in Jambezi.

Hwange District is largely Nambya and the day was meant to revive their culture and educate members of the community, particularly youth, on the need to respect their culture.

Various other stakeholders from outside the Nambya origin attended the event held at Chief Shana’s village in Jambezi.

The event was first held in 2010 with the aim of restoring cultural practices and norms.
Organisers of the event chose October, which is a sacred month in the Nambya culture with many rituals being conducted in this month.

Culture is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behaviour, institutions, and norms found in human societies as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities and habits of the individuals in the communities.

It provides important social and economic benefits.

Matabeleland North regional magistrate Mr Collet Ncube, who was the guest of honour, said culture helps preserve the people’s way of life.

“October is a sacred month which should be respected. There are many things that must be done or not done in October. In the old days, community members would mobilise each other to pick bones around and this happened in October before the onset of the rains,” he said.

Mr Ncube said there is a need to educate youth about the practices. He said cases of human-wildlife conflict were limited in the olden days because people did not violate cultural practices.

“Since culture was observed, there was less human-wildlife conflict because our ancestors took care of everything on behalf of the community hence no animal would attack livestock or destroy crops. We are now facing the consequences of violating our traditional cultural practices,” he said.

“Let’s love our Nambya culture and everyone should respect it and in our diverse backgrounds and religions.

Let’s pray for rain and a tree is not a tree without roots.”

Mr Ncube implored members of the community to work with traditional leaders. He said young people should be educated about the importance of their culture so that they have an appreciation of how people lived back then.

He said people should be proud to talk, sing and interact in their local language.

Activities of the day included traditional dance, music and drama which captured issues around shunning child marriages and payment of lobola among other norms.

Through drama, villagers depicted how the community would mobilise themselves and move around picking all bones for burial as there was a belief that exposed bones were a bad omen which blocked rains.

The practice was traditionally conducted in October in the Nambya culture.
Chief Shana said the Nambya community should be taught about their way of life.

“The Ilizwe lakhiwa ngabaninilo philosophy is rooted in our culture. As Nambya people, before the onset of the rainy season some rituals were done and today we are trying to revive these practices,” he said.

His wife, Mrs Regina Neluswi said they were inspired by First Lady Dr Auxilia Mnangagwa’s ixhiba campaign which is critical in teaching young people about their culture.

“Our cultural values have been lost and our First Lady has taught us to sit down with young people and teach them about our culture. This is why we are here to practically do it and we are hopeful that if our children follow this route, we will restore our values,” she said.

Chief Whange said young people risk losing all values if they are not guided.

His wife, Ms Florencia Chibaya said: “This is our biggest day as Hwange and this is time to reflect as families and community. We need to remind each other of the good work our forefathers did to promote our culture.”

She said their forefathers taught them a lot regarding their culture.

“All rituals were done in October and we want this revived. Our parents would never spray their crops to protect them from attack by pests but used cultural methods which is what we need to revive,” she said. — @ncubeleon