Government has challenged descendants of Ndebele king, Mzilikazi Khumalo, to submit their choice of robes and dances they want recognised.
Director (Culture) for the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Paul Damasane, challenged the family during the opening of the Inkosi uMzilikazi commemoration and festival 2011 in Bulawayo on Wednesday this week.
Said Damasane: “What we are saying, as the Ndebele people, is that we would like to hear the kind of cultural robes that you (the Khumalo family) would like to be promoted in our culture as well as the kind of dances that you wish could be widely embraced so that even the children who are in school do not forget their cultural background.”
The Inkosi uMzilikazi Commemoration and Cultural Festival 2011 took place on Wednesday. The Ndebele community opened the festival with a colourful cultural procession from the Inxwala Festival Arena and ended at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair Grounds.
Damasane said there was a need for communities to embrace one another’s cultures since King Mzilikazi Khumalo “did not segregate any people”.
“I greeted everyone in the different languages because I felt it was appropriate to involve everyone as Mzilikazi did during his time. When he was building the nation, he made the Ndebele, Sotho, Kalanga and the English equal, without discrimination,” Damasane said.
