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Dombodzvuku Primary School go through their paces during the annual Mbende/Jerusarema Dance Festival at Murewa Culture Centre over the weekend. — Picture by Innocent Makawa

Jonathan Mbiriyamveka Entertainment Reporter
Dombodzvuku Primary School emerged champions at the annual two-day Mbende/Jerusarema Dance Festival held over the weekend at Murewa Culture Centre.
The children exhibited uninhibited talent and great mastery of the traditional dance thereby ensuring the longevity of the masterpiece in years to come. The groups had children whose average age was 10.
Musami Primary School came second while Chemapango Primary School emerged third in the  hotly contested dance extravaganza that featured six groups from different schools.

More often than not, Mbende/Jerusarema is hinged on the drum beat and the dance. Dancers have to be agile, fit and creative as they go through their paces.
President of the Chiefs Council Fortune Charumbira, who was the guest of honour, hailed the festival saying it was a platform for expressing Zimbabwean identity.
“Traditional dance maps our culture, and culture in its rich diversity has intrinsic values for development as well as social cohesion and peace building.

“Mbende traditional dance is our heritage and a driving force of development, not only in respect of economic growth, but also as a means of leading more fulfilling intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual life.

“The Mbende Traditional Dance Festival is an asset that is indispensable for poverty reduction and the achievement of sustainable development,” Chief Charumbira said.

He also urged the custodians of Mbende to develop more ways and means of attracting tourists to Murewa and UMP to maximise on the heritage for the benefit of future generations.

“This event is a positive response to the country’s blueprint, the Zim-Asset. It is beyond doubt that the skills and technical qualities displayed in Mbende dance are exhibited more profoundly  in the aesthetic unaltered varieties that are performed by groups of traditional dancers based in the Murewa and Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe areas where the dance has its roots,” Chief Charumbira said.

Elvas Mari, the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe director, called on Zimbabweans to support the event to ensure its growth.
“As Jerusarema Mbende Festival continues to grow each year, I urge all stakeholders particularly rural authorities, other corporate citizens of this country and indeed everyone to be part of this programme to sustain its growth.

“Mbende is part of us as Zimbabweans, hence its immense popularity and calling effect as expressed by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation’s(news bulletin) signature. Indeed, the annual festival has the larger effect of bringing Zimbabweans together part from it being a source of our pride as a nation,” Mari said.

The festival was attended by several chiefs including Chief Nyamukoho, the National Association of Primary School Heads executive, Angolan Ambassador to Zimbabwe Pedro Hendrick Vaal Neto, Chibuku Traditional Dance Festival 2014 winners  Ngoma Dzepasi, among others.

Mbende/Jerusarema was proclaimed a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by the director-general of UNESCO in November 2005.
The dance project  was identified by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Committee in an effort to save intangible heritage that was in danger of distortion and disappearance due to Western cultures and commercialisation.