Brian Rungano Temba
A cultural dance group from Masvingo has taken it upon themselves to preserve the environment in the Great Zimbabwe area through the establishment of a traditional culture arts centre.
Besides being a one of the seven wonders of the world, Great Zimbabwe is more than just ruins of walls built without mortar, it is a citadel of Zimbabwe`s cultural purity.
Director of Dzimbabwe Traditional Culture Centre and headman of Zero Farm, Ratson Haruzivishe said the vision behind the culture centre is to recreate the day-to-day lives that the people of Great Zimbabwe led.
“Great Zimbabwe was well known for its Hunting and Trade activities with a rich empire that stretched as far as Beira,” said Headman Harizivishe.
“The people who lived here had a rich culture that celebrated fertility, good health, trade and oneness with the environment,” he added.
Dzimbabwe Traditional Culture Custodian Centre is being designed to emulate in real life how the trade was done through a trade festival where domestic and foreign tourists will meet and barter trade.
“There will be a platform where the monetary value of the item you wish to trade will be defined and then you can trade with anything within the same range just like the good old days,” said headman Haruzivishe.
“We are still talking to National Parks on the setting up of a dog hunting facility where small game like hares are left to breed and tourists hunt with their dogs,” he said.
This is a leisure only those who grew up in the rural areas can recall, game hunting however has been restricted to game parks and big game requires sophisticated tools like rifles and is expensive to get licensing making it an elite sport even for the indigenous people who resort to poaching.
Headman Haruzivishe and his group are bonafide cultural arts performers who have won the Chibuku NeShamwari first place for Traditional dance twice in a row at Provincial level and came in fourth at the nationals.
“I am connected to this place and the culture it represents, sometimes when the lantana-camara out grows in the ruins we the locals cut it down because it obstructs the beautiful scenery of the Great Zimbabwe, ” added headman Harurizivishe.
Haruzivishe is also an Environmentalist heavily involved in tree planting with local environmental awareness group, FAFORALIZ who intend on planting fruit trees along the banks of all rivers to form the “Great Orchard” that will benefit communities and stop siltation.
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