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Bongani Ndlovu, Showbiz Correspondent
BULAWAYO province will celebrate Culture Week, under Covid-19 regulations through an intimate, strictly by invite event at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, with organisers saying preparations are in overdrive.

Culture Week will be celebrated from tomorrow to 22 around the country, as Zimbabwe joins the world in celebrating cultural diversity.

This year’s theme is “Resilience in Safeguarding Creativity and Cultural Diversity.”

In Bulawayo, at the gallery, there will be performances from Afro soul songbird Thandi Dhlana, Umkhathi Theatre Works, Thaluso the poet, Sithandazile Dube, visual artiste Marvellous Munashe Chitsa and Maskandi musicians Mkhuphuli and Yellow World.

National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ) Bulawayo provincial arts manager, Cleopatra Dube said they were working hard to hold a successful Culture Week celebration.

“The local organising committee is working full out to make the Culture Week launch a success. The event will be strictly by invitation, so that we adhere to the Covid-19 regulations.

“The week is a time to showcase and celebrate our culture that lives in all of us in everything we do be it our language, dressing, ornaments, architecture, crafts, music, dance and so much more. Culture is alive because we as a people are living it,” said Dube.

She said Culture Week was different this year because it was being celebrated during a global pandemic.

“We’ve also become aware of so much that is happening around us in other countries therefore we have diverse experience that influence our culture. We are proud of who we are as a nation and this year we celebrate to bring social cohesion and integration through the arts and culture in the face of Covid 19 and its associated lockdown measures,” said Dube.

The week-long cultural fiesta will feature various online showcases including dance, music, film, theatre, visual arts, literature, poetry and comedy on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok, YouTube, television and radio.

The concept of Culture Week is drawn from UNESCO’s 2001 Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, which in 2001 proclaimed May 21 as World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development.

Last year, Google celebrated Zimbabwe’s national instrument, the mbira, as part of Culture Week, with an interactive Google Doodle video that allows people around the world to play and learn about the instrument.