News / National
Jive for Gushungo
28 Feb 2015 at 15:11hrs | Views
IT'S here.
The long-awaited 91st birthday party for President Mugabe, which is celebrated under the auspices of the 21st February Movement, will be held today in Victoria Falls.
And all is set for the national event that has throughout the week been on the nation's lips and, already, all roads have been leading to the resort town where festivities will be headlined by a musical gala to be held at Chinotimba Stadium.
The celebrations being held under the theme "Celebrating the birth of Gushungo, the icon of Zimbabwe's revolution and champion of youth empowerment" will see comedians Clive Chigubu, Babongile Sikhonjwa and poet Sithandazile Dube hosting the gala which will have a mixture of Sungura, Zim dancehall, Afro Pop, Gospel, Jazz and Tshibilika music.
Talented bands from the host town - Mokoomba, Ubuntu Bomuntu, Sunset Cruise, Insubuli, Inkume and Chicken Bus will be joined by the Zim dancehall duo of Seh Calaz and King Shaddy.
Dance group Iyasa, Sandra Ndebele, Sulumani Chimbetu, Tambaoga, Esau Siwela, Shingisai Suluma among other artistes are expected to lead an expected 20 000 strong crowd in celebrating the life of an illustrious statesman, President Mugabe.
The gala running under the theme: "Jive for an icon" will kick off at 6pm and be broadcast live on ZBCTV from 8:30pm for five hours.
"For those who aren't able to make it to Victoria Falls, the gala will be beamed live on ZBC-TV. They can join the festivities in the comfort of their homes and celebrate the President's birthday wherever they are in the country," gala co-ordinator Alois Chamboko said on Thursday.
He said they had done away with the usual gala line-up and settled for youthful acts as it
was in line with the 21st February Movement philosophy.
Birth of the Movement
The Movement was established to create an opportunity for the youth of Zimbabwe and indeed across Africa and the Third World to draw lessons from President Mugabe's illustrious life of sacrifice and public service.
Besides suffusing the youth with the spirit of patriotism and Pan-Africanism, the Movement also has an operational trust fund that caters for I youth activities throughout the year.
Early in 1986, the Youth League of the ZANU-PF party that President Mugabe leads decided to have an educational and cultural movement of children whose tender age disqualified them from joining the ranks of this wing of the party.
The League tasked Cde Webster Shamu and the late Mike Munyati to research on how such movements were constituted in sister republics like Cuba, Angola and Mozambique.
After comprehensive and thorough research, the two comrades submitted a document to I ZANU-PF'S Central Committee and this was adopted with minor amendments.
After consultations with relevant stakeholders, it was agreed that children aged between five and | 14 should be taught to emulate the selfless life of | President Mugabe.
They were to be nurtured to grow up endowed I with President Mugabe's enduring spirit of sacrifice to the nation.
It was then resolved that President Mugabe's birthday would be the rallying point for all these efforts.
The 21st February Movement works closely with the Child Survival and Development Foun-dation.
Further to that, the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture closely guides the 21st February Movement in its national programmes.
The long-awaited 91st birthday party for President Mugabe, which is celebrated under the auspices of the 21st February Movement, will be held today in Victoria Falls.
And all is set for the national event that has throughout the week been on the nation's lips and, already, all roads have been leading to the resort town where festivities will be headlined by a musical gala to be held at Chinotimba Stadium.
The celebrations being held under the theme "Celebrating the birth of Gushungo, the icon of Zimbabwe's revolution and champion of youth empowerment" will see comedians Clive Chigubu, Babongile Sikhonjwa and poet Sithandazile Dube hosting the gala which will have a mixture of Sungura, Zim dancehall, Afro Pop, Gospel, Jazz and Tshibilika music.
Talented bands from the host town - Mokoomba, Ubuntu Bomuntu, Sunset Cruise, Insubuli, Inkume and Chicken Bus will be joined by the Zim dancehall duo of Seh Calaz and King Shaddy.
Dance group Iyasa, Sandra Ndebele, Sulumani Chimbetu, Tambaoga, Esau Siwela, Shingisai Suluma among other artistes are expected to lead an expected 20 000 strong crowd in celebrating the life of an illustrious statesman, President Mugabe.
The gala running under the theme: "Jive for an icon" will kick off at 6pm and be broadcast live on ZBCTV from 8:30pm for five hours.
"For those who aren't able to make it to Victoria Falls, the gala will be beamed live on ZBC-TV. They can join the festivities in the comfort of their homes and celebrate the President's birthday wherever they are in the country," gala co-ordinator Alois Chamboko said on Thursday.
He said they had done away with the usual gala line-up and settled for youthful acts as it
was in line with the 21st February Movement philosophy.
The Movement was established to create an opportunity for the youth of Zimbabwe and indeed across Africa and the Third World to draw lessons from President Mugabe's illustrious life of sacrifice and public service.
Besides suffusing the youth with the spirit of patriotism and Pan-Africanism, the Movement also has an operational trust fund that caters for I youth activities throughout the year.
Early in 1986, the Youth League of the ZANU-PF party that President Mugabe leads decided to have an educational and cultural movement of children whose tender age disqualified them from joining the ranks of this wing of the party.
The League tasked Cde Webster Shamu and the late Mike Munyati to research on how such movements were constituted in sister republics like Cuba, Angola and Mozambique.
After comprehensive and thorough research, the two comrades submitted a document to I ZANU-PF'S Central Committee and this was adopted with minor amendments.
After consultations with relevant stakeholders, it was agreed that children aged between five and | 14 should be taught to emulate the selfless life of | President Mugabe.
They were to be nurtured to grow up endowed I with President Mugabe's enduring spirit of sacrifice to the nation.
It was then resolved that President Mugabe's birthday would be the rallying point for all these efforts.
The 21st February Movement works closely with the Child Survival and Development Foun-dation.
Further to that, the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture closely guides the 21st February Movement in its national programmes.
Source - the herald
