News / Local
Bulawayo launches inaugural culture and heritage carnival parade
18 Jun 2013 at 14:23hrs | Views
Bulawayo last week launched the inaugural culture and heritage carnival parade to showcase the city's abundant cultural activities that have made the city a hub of the arts.
A group of 40 artistes last week started rehearsals at Amakhosi Cultural Centre after BAT Zimbabwe confirmed it would sponsor the carnival section to be branded by the company.
The carnival section will be identified as the BAT Heritage Section. This ensemble was auditioned last month from five top performing groups all based in Bulawayo.
Half of this group represented the city of Bulawayo at the just ended Zimbabwe International Carnival in Harare and did the city proud. The group will showcase three heritage dances of isitshikitsha, inquzu and itoyi-toyi to the carnival parade audiences.
Performances for this group shall be on a BAT truck and ground next to the truck on a yet to be advised street intersection location on Main Street at the city centre.
The BAT Heritage Section will have this Main Street intersection branded exclusively by BAT Zimbabwe and its products as a performance backdrop.
Main Street in Bulawayo belongs to the Government of Zimbabwe and not the Bulawayo City Council and remains the only country's heritage street where trade and commerce was first launched in this country.
The group will then join other section parades and the public in a carnival walk to the King Lobengula Inxwala Grounds situated along Main Street and Masotsha Avenue where a ceremony to relaunch this heritage ground will be held. It was on these very grounds that King Lobengula held his last Inxwala Parade in 1892 before Cecil John Rhodes sent him packing to the jungles of Binga in 1893.
It was this year and on this very ground that King Lobengula's pre-colonial city of Bulawayo died and Cecil John Rhodes' white city of Bulawayo was born. The African City that has since been renamed the Townships was born five years later and grew parallel to the white city separated by the colour bar till 1980. After colonisation this ground became known as "King's Ground" and was a recreational area.
For some years it was the site of annual Ndebele dances on New Year's Day before the settlers discouraged it; paranoid of an underlying African nationalist agenda. It is on this very ground that the BAT Heritage Section will put up their full dance presentations during the relaunch of this site after it has been ignored since independence.
BAT Zimbabwe managing director Mr Lovemore Manatsa welcomed the partnership between the two organisations.
"British American Tobacco has a strong history in Bulawayo where we have enjoyed the support of the community both in trade and consumption of our brands," he said.
Amakhosi Cultural Centre director Cont Mhlanga said the cultural fest was a move in the right direction, adding that Bulawayo remains the historic heartland of Zimbabwe.
"All of us in our small ways should come together and showcase it to the world for the benefit of all of us and our future generations. This is a city event not to miss."
A group of 40 artistes last week started rehearsals at Amakhosi Cultural Centre after BAT Zimbabwe confirmed it would sponsor the carnival section to be branded by the company.
The carnival section will be identified as the BAT Heritage Section. This ensemble was auditioned last month from five top performing groups all based in Bulawayo.
Half of this group represented the city of Bulawayo at the just ended Zimbabwe International Carnival in Harare and did the city proud. The group will showcase three heritage dances of isitshikitsha, inquzu and itoyi-toyi to the carnival parade audiences.
Performances for this group shall be on a BAT truck and ground next to the truck on a yet to be advised street intersection location on Main Street at the city centre.
The BAT Heritage Section will have this Main Street intersection branded exclusively by BAT Zimbabwe and its products as a performance backdrop.
Main Street in Bulawayo belongs to the Government of Zimbabwe and not the Bulawayo City Council and remains the only country's heritage street where trade and commerce was first launched in this country.
The group will then join other section parades and the public in a carnival walk to the King Lobengula Inxwala Grounds situated along Main Street and Masotsha Avenue where a ceremony to relaunch this heritage ground will be held. It was on these very grounds that King Lobengula held his last Inxwala Parade in 1892 before Cecil John Rhodes sent him packing to the jungles of Binga in 1893.
It was this year and on this very ground that King Lobengula's pre-colonial city of Bulawayo died and Cecil John Rhodes' white city of Bulawayo was born. The African City that has since been renamed the Townships was born five years later and grew parallel to the white city separated by the colour bar till 1980. After colonisation this ground became known as "King's Ground" and was a recreational area.
For some years it was the site of annual Ndebele dances on New Year's Day before the settlers discouraged it; paranoid of an underlying African nationalist agenda. It is on this very ground that the BAT Heritage Section will put up their full dance presentations during the relaunch of this site after it has been ignored since independence.
BAT Zimbabwe managing director Mr Lovemore Manatsa welcomed the partnership between the two organisations.
"British American Tobacco has a strong history in Bulawayo where we have enjoyed the support of the community both in trade and consumption of our brands," he said.
Amakhosi Cultural Centre director Cont Mhlanga said the cultural fest was a move in the right direction, adding that Bulawayo remains the historic heartland of Zimbabwe.
"All of us in our small ways should come together and showcase it to the world for the benefit of all of us and our future generations. This is a city event not to miss."
Source - Herald
