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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter

ZIMBABWEANS have been challenged to be proud of their mother tongues and traditional cultural practices which shape them as a people.

The Joshua Nkomo National Foundation on Saturday held a cultural day expo which was a precursor to the National Unity Day on 22 December, in an effort to unite all the country’s ethnic groups through language and cultural tolerance.

Proceedings started with a carnival procession from the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo statue in the Bulawayo city centre, which was led by drum majorettes from Mgoqo Primary School in Nkulumane 12 to the venue of the event at Queen’s Sports Club.

Entertainers showcased traditional practices and languages from their respective different ethnic groups.

Represented were Kalanga, Ndebele, Nambya, Chewa, Tonga, Xhosa, Sotho, Venda, Dombe and Shona cultures.

Each ethnic group wore unique traditional attires showcasing their cultures.

Traditional foods associated with respective ethnic groups were also served.

The foundation was inspired by the vision of the late nationalist Dr Joshua Nkomo of seeing a united inclusive and progressive nation, to come up with the event.

The foundation’s chairperson Mr Nyararayi Sibanda said the event sought to celebrate the diversity of tribes.

He said it will be held annually event to encourage cross cultural interaction among the country’s ethnic groups.

“We are here to celebrate culture and unity among people using language, cultural activities, dressing and traditional practices. All languages are important and we have to embrace each other,” said Mr Sibanda.

“We were celebrating diversity, which is the Zimbabwe that nationalist Joshua Nkomo fought for. The event was just but a build-up to the National Unity Day and a simple pronouncement that Unity Day is around the corner and let’s celebrate each other’s language, culture, dressing, food and music.”

Mr Sibanda challenged Zimbabweans to be proud of their cultures and values which build a nation.

He said the organisers were elated by the success of the event despite a low turnout which he said was, nevertheless, encouraging for an inaugural event.

“It’s going to be an annual event and next week we will do a post-mortem where we will come up with a date for next year’s event so that no one will be caught by surprise again,” he said.

Proceeds from last Saturday’s event will be given to charity.

Zimbabweans were encouraged to proudly speak in their mother tounges, which is also in line with the country’s constitution that recognises 16 official languages.

The initiative comes at a time when Government is working on an indigenous language policy that seeks to promote native languages.

The theme for the event was: “Celebrating unity in diversity through showcasing our official languages.”

Artists were drawn from across the Matabeleland region while a majority of ethnic groups showcased different kinds of traditional foods such as inkobe and amaqebelengwane.

The foods were prepared differently, according to each ethnic group’s culture.

Among the participants were individual artists, poets, dance groups as well as Nkulumane Primary School from Mpopoma which presented the Sarafina dance and Mgoqo which led the carnival march from the city centre.

-@ncubeleon