Culture Sector

Do not shun your culture: Zimbabweans urged

The UNESCO Harare Cluster Office Director and Representative Professor Juma Shabani urged Zimbabweans not to shun their cultural backgrounds saying development divorced from its cultural context is growth without a soul. Prof. Shabani was addressing artists and invited guests during a Cocktail Party organised by UNESCO for winners and nominees of this year’s National Arts Merit Awards (NAMA) held in Harare in March.

“As a country, Zimbabwe should have confidence in its own culture, and justifiably so”, he said. “Zimbabwe must continue to use the various expressions of culture to nurture and stimulate creativity. As we celebrate the country’s artistic talent, and allow even others beyond our borders to ‘Meet Zimbabwe’, let us realise that development divorced from its cultural context is growth without a soul.”


Professor Shabani addressing the gathering at the NAMA Cocktail Party
(© UNESCO/C. Mapfumo)

He said Zimbabweans should learn from Japan’s process of modernisation whose development status is well documented. “Japan’s process of modernisation did not come through displacement of their traditional values and heritage but as a nation the Japanese were able to blend foreign technology with traditional skills, capitalising on the wisdom of the people accumulated over a number of years.”

“In like manner, I call upon the arts and culture industry and indeed the country as a whole, to utilise our artists and harness their creativity to mobilise our collective energies for active participation in the development of our families, communities and indeed our nation,” he said.



UNESCO Harare once again provided funding to the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ) to host the 5th National Arts Merit Awards. Through NAMA, the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe seeks to award excellence in creativity, a virtue that is also taken seriously by UNESCO.

“Excellence in creativity is something that we take seriously at UNESCO. In all our fields of competence as UNESCO – excellence in creativity is a key concept we seek to uphold always. In fact, UNESCO approaches excellence in creativity as an integrated strategy to development, comprising not only of actions in our key areas of Education, Science, Culture and Communication, but also an endeavour that seeks to utilise the creativity of people in finding local solutions to problems they encounter in their everyday lives. With the finding of solutions – lasting solutions – comes development”, said Professor Shabani.

….Vice President Mujuru bemoans piracy

Officially opening the 2006 NAMA Edition at the 7 Arts Theatre in Avondale, Harare, Zimbabwe’s Vice President Mrs. Joyce Mujuru, bemoaned high levels of piracy in the country. She said artists were not getting the rewards they should be getting because of piracy and violation of Copyright laws.



Citing UNESCO’s 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, the Vice President called upon Zimbabweans to safeguard their cultural heritage through the promotion of the arts. She noted that there was need for Government to increase funding levels for the industry.

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