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Mthabisi Tshuma, Showbiz Correspondent

EIGHT arts practitioners who were honoured at the National Arts Merit Awards (Nama) Legends @40 ceremony and are resident in Bulawayo have been presented with their gongs.

The legends who received their trophies last Friday include Pathisa Nyathi, Ellen Mlangeni, Felix ‘Silandulo’ Moyo, Matesu Dube and Nkululeko Dube.

Mr Muhammed Jogee received the trophy on behalf of his late brother Rashid while Mrs Privilege Zhou took the trophy on behalf of her South Africa-based father and visual artist Adam Madebe. Ms Lucia Tshuma collected the gong on behalf of his brother retired musician Lovemore Majaivana who is based in the United States of America.

A brief handover ceremony was held at the Bulawayo Art Gallery and was graced by the Ambassador of India to Zimbabwe Mr Vijay Khanduja, the Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce Mr Raj Modi, NACZ Director Mr Nicholas Moyo, his deputy Mr Josiah Kusena and Mr Butholezwe Nyathi, the Director of the Bulawayo Gallery.

Speaking at the ceremony, NACZ director, Moyo revealed that the Indian Embassy through the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) sponsored some of the awards.

“We welcome this partnership with the Indian Embassy and we hope it can spread to other programmes in the sector. For example, I would love to see an Indian visual arts exhibition being hosted here at the gallery,” he said.

The Indian Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Khanduja revealed that the embassy was organising a series of cultural events in the country to mark the occasion of their 75th independence anniversary.

“We started the programmes in March 2021 with the celebration of Holi, the festival of colours. One sees vibrancy of colours in Indian paintings.

“The cultural events will showcase several Indian art forms including classical dance forms like Kuchipudi, Bharatnatyam, Mohiniattam and Kathakali which have proponents all over the world,” said Mr Khanduja.

Receiving his award, Nama legend, Nkululeko Innocent Dube who is the founder and director of Iyasa thanked NACZ and its sponsors for honouring the legends with deserved recognition for their different crafts.

Dube said the recognition of legends while they were still alive was significant in that it could inspire others to seek similar acknowledgement.

“Honouring our own while they can still hear us, smell the roses and feel the appreciation. May it not only be at funerals that we tell each other’s corpses, graves and golden caskets that our work was or is appreciated,” Dube said.