Faith Duri
The Ministry of Youth, Sports, Arts and Recreation and the National Arts Council (NAC) is going to launch Masvingo provincial culture month in Mwenezi district on June 24 2022 at Chitanga Primary School in a move meant to leave no one behind.
In an interview with TellZim News NAC provincial Arts Manager Helen Mudefi said the event is going to give an opportunity to people in the province to showcase their cultural diversity.
“It gives an opportunity to Zimbabweans to showcase their rich cultural diversity and allow networking and create partnerships with different art practitioners who will be at the event. In line with our theme ‘leaving no one behind’, the organizing committee chose a primary school to be the venue to give young people a platform to showcase and appreciate different art genres and other artistic activities scheduled for the day.
“The host district has vast, unique cultures that need to be celebrated and it’s a rainbow when we talk of their diverse linguistics. There are Venda, Ndebele, Karanga and Shangaan people.
“As NAC Zimbabwe, we appreciate and applaud the responsibilities of Chiefs who are the custodians of our culture in safeguarding and preserving different cultures for future generations. Art practitioners can market themselves and we encourage all attendees to put on their traditional attire,” said Mudefi.
She also added that there will be different activities which will be done and the culture practitioners are the ones who will be participating.
“A nation’s cultural identity and those of different localities are expressed through practices that covers music, cultural dance, praise, food, literary and craft works, religion, medicine and tools among others either traditional or contemporary.
“Through showcasing these, Zimbabwean culture is effectively communicated. Everyone is invited, arts and culture practitioners will be participating including traditional leaders too,” added Mudefi
The provincial launch of the culture month was supposed to be celebrated during the month of May.
The Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity by UNESCO in 2001 proclaimed May 21 of each year the World Day of Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development that used to be referred to as World Culture Day.
Set aside and proclaimed as such, the day is designed to promote, consume, commemorate and celebrate the world’s diverse cultures.
The day is intended to provide a chance for the flaunting of various cultural traits/heritages both in tangible and intangible forms that need to be preserved for posterity at a time when globalization is increasingly threatening with extinction lesser dominant cultures of this world.
Zimbabwe, through the efforts of NAC working in liaison with its stakeholders and partners, stands out internationally as the only nation that decided to make celebration of this day a week-long occurrence as a permanent feature of its Arts and Culture calendar every year.
The celebratory and commemorative activities carried out during Culture Week each year revolve around a particular theme depending on what will be the main topical cultural and social issue in each particular year.
This year 2022 the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation decided to stretch the celebrations for the whole May to as “Culture Month” with the theme for 2022 is: Celebrating Cultural Diversity: Leaving no one behind.
