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Binga which was recently granted town status is ready to host the Culture Month national launch.
Addressing delegates at the launch of Culture Month last Thursday at an event in Harare, Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation Kirsty Coventry said preparations for the national celebrations taking place next Saturday at Kariyangwe Secondary School grounds are well underway.
The Harare launch of Culture Month was attended by the European Union Ambassador to Zimbabwe Jobst Von Kirchmann, members of the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ) and various cultural groups.
The theme for this year’s Culture Month is “Promoting Cultural Diversity, Unity and Peace”. Minister Coventry said the theme speaks to the key objectives of the celebrations which are about showcasing the diversity of the Zimbabwean culture.
“Zimbabwe has moved from hosting the celebrations on one day initially to Culture Week, which ran successfully for several years. Now we have Culture Month which provides an opportunity to host events throughout the month of May with the national launch on the 27th of May which will be hosted in Binga in Matabeleland North Province.
“We are confident that this year, we will be able to host most of the events that have been scheduled with the support of the European Union as the lead partner for Culture Month. We hope this support will go beyond 2023 and spread to other activities to strengthen and capacitate the Cultural and Creative Sector in Zimbabwe,” said Minister Coventry.
She said key activities of Culture Month include the provincial launches where stakeholders in the sector gather to celebrate and recognise the diverse cultures in each province.
“We are happy that these continue to be community events where local and traditional leaders take the initiative to plan and lead activities bringing together different communities showcasing their diverse cultural offerings in one event.
“To the players in the sector, Culture Month offers an opportunity to participate in different cultural displays, performances, skills and sector development workshops which will not only strengthen the practice of Zimbabwean cultural activities but play an important role in safeguarding and transmitting our valued culture and traditions to future generations,” she said.
Minister Coventry said Culture Month also creates a platform for building diverse cultural relationships in the country by offering opportunities for dialogue for development through conferences that are taking place in the Midlands and Bulawayo provinces.
She highlighted that as a ministry, they are pleased that Culture Month has come at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic has been successfully contained with the environment becoming friendlier for big events. She thus called upon members of the public to come out in their numbers to celebrate and showcase their different cultural heritages.
Culture Month commemorations are an extension of the World Day of Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development which is celebrated on May 21 that was set aside by Unesco in the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity in 2001. The NACZ expanded the day to encompass a whole month designed to promote, commemorate and celebrate Zimbabwe’s diverse cultures. Chronicle
