Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter
WHEN one thinks of Amagugu Heritage Centre, perhaps the first two words that would come to mind are culture and wisdom.
Perhaps, these words come to mind because of the centre’s ties to Pathisa Nyathi, a man whose reputation as a jealous custodian of culture and fountain of wisdom is undisputed. In the sprawling metropolis of Bulawayo, a melting pot of cultures from across the world, Nyathi is a wisened men who seems like one of the last remaining threads knitting together various peoples to ancient customs and beliefs that they sometimes appear to be desperate to tear themselves away from.
In another age, men and women would travel from far and wide to hear him dispense wisdom from besides his fireplace. However, in the 21st century, in the age of Facebook and Twitter, hundreds drink from his bottomless well of knowledge through articles and podcasts on multi-media platforms. Because we rarely associate culture and wisdom with youth, it is perhaps little wonder that few would associate Amagugu with young people.
Mr Pathisa Nyathi
However, continuing a tradition set at Amagugu by the likes of Butholezwe Nyathi, Pathisa’s son and the one-time programmes director at the centre, there’s a new breed of cultural practitioners that are showing an enthusiasm for culture that could match even Nyathi’s own. Alington Ndlovu (29) and Quiet Dube (28) both started as interns at the centre in 2016 but have now graduated to positions of higher authority. Ndlovu is now the programmes manager while Dube is the heritage officer. In an interview with Sunday Life, Dube spoke of his passion for culture.
“I am a guy who is passionate about culture, language, history and heritage but of late I have incorporated community development and the attempt to improve the livelihood of the people, especially the local communities to Amagugu,” he said.
Dube’s zeal for culture is set to reach fever pitch during the Amagugu Cultural Expo, to be held on 23 and 24 September at the heritage centre in Matobo. The fest is expected to be an explosion of culture and colour.
“The Expo is basically about showing a number of cultural activities, for example, to mention just a few, there’s the Thatha Bhayisikili that focuses on people artistically painting their bicycles. In as much as it pays attention to the aesthetics of those bicycles, it also incorporates the philosophies behind decorative motifs. It resembles our pan-African philosophy,” he said.
Quiet Dube
Dube said that the Expo would be an attempt to bridge the gap between the corporate and cultural worlds. “Maybe an activity I can highlight is Gwabi Gwabi Mduli which is more inclined to the My Beautiful Home competition, which is an annual activity we hold at Amagugu. Gwabi Gwabi comes in as one of the main events before that. This cultural Expo is also an attempt to breach the market linkage gap between the local community and the corporate world. So, this Expo is an attempt to bring together the buyers and the sellers, thus providing a marketplace for local entrepreneurs and the corporate world because we are also inviting companies, whether they focus on food, clothes or telecommunication technology. So, we are also encouraging them to exhibit and thus linking them to their buyers,” he said.
Dube said that the Expo would also be an opportunity to give much-needed cultural education to young children. “We also come with an educational dimension by inviting learners to come in and learn about culture. The new curriculum now incorporates learning about heritage, performance and history among other things, so we are trying to rope in these subjects. On the last day of the Expo, it will be more like an adventure because after people partake in a number of hands-on activities, we will wrap up the expo in style with things like Braai on the Rocks. After people have showcased and seen what’s on offer, we will go uphill for the famous Braai on the Rocks,” he said.
Ndlovu, the programmes officer, said that his main task was to align the values and needs of Amagugu with that of the local community in Matobo. “What I do basically is trying to organise activities that suit the goals and objectives of Amagugu as an organisation. I’m also there to mobilise the people and make sure that they practise active citizenry by leveraging off the activities that they do at Amagugu. One of the most important roles that I play in the organisation is to link the organisation with the line ministries, like the Ministry of Youth and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, for example. I also engage the donor and diplomatic communities,” he said.
Ndlovu said the upcoming Expo would present an opportunity to bring to life concepts that people only knew as proverbs and vague, but deeply meaningful sayings. “There are over ten activities that will be running during the expo. The activities will come in two-fold as we try to shine the spotlight on our erstwhile but rich cultural heritage. We shall also try to uplift the community’s livelihood through competition because there are going to be exceptional in whichever field they perform. There will be prizes for those that will be more artistic in whatever renditions that they present.
Alington Ndlovu
We cannot speak about infusing cultural heritage into this Continuous Assessment Learning Activities (CALA) thing that everybody is talking about. But we are going to try to bring some aspects of it to these schools in Matabeleland and even other provinces if they are able to attend. Schools are going to benefit a lot because for example, they will be taught about proverbs and how to interpret some of these things that people find it hard to talk about. For example, in skin tanning, they speak of umcapho or ubucapho. People will say, utshwala bunengi njenga’manzi okuphala izikhumba so we want to see local men doing that process. We want to see beer producing processes and we believe that schools, the general world and the corporate world all have space there,” he said.