Zim: 2022 Culture Month dates announced

Formerly Culture Week, the commemoration has been expanded into a month-long programme to emphasise the important contribution of culture to local communities.

This year’s event will run under the theme Celebrating Cultural Diversity: Leaving No One Behind. Its national launch will take place in the town of Mutoko in Zimbabwe’s northeast on 22 May.

“Following two years of mostly virtual commemorations due to the COVID-19 restrictions, the NACZ is happy that the first edition of Culture Month will provide an opportunity for practitioners and consumers of Zimbabwean CCI [cultural and creative industry] products to interact in their different spaces to celebrate cultural diversity,” NACZ executive director Nicholas Moyo said.

“National Culture Month aims to bring social cohesion and integration through the arts and culture, showcasing diverse cultural practices through various forms that include dance, food, attire, visual arts, literally arts, film and television, and music and poetry, and bringing together diverse cultural activities and practices for increased public consumption.”

Moyo said Culture Month would also afford the country an opportunity to achieve a national consensus in diversity through “commemorating yesteryear cultural practices as well as contemporary culture that inform the Zimbabwean identity.”

“It will also provide a platform to showcase the Zimbabwean cultural identity in a globalised environment for sustainable socio-economic development and posterity,” he said.

Culture Month will be celebrated in line with the UNESCO’s World Day of Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development on 21 May, which is designed to promote, commemorate and celebrate the world’s diverse cultures.