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Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
Zimbabwe is this week set to host the inaugural Food and Culture Festival, a brainchild of First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa, aimed at showcasing the country’s rich cultural lifestyle. Several cultural activities will be showcased at Harare Gardens from May 23 to 25, during an event aimed at boosting domestic tourism.

The fiesta is centred on celebrating Zimbabwe’s unique cultural Zimbabwean lifestyle through showcasing various traditional foods, languages, arts, music, crafts, fabric, furniture, traditional healers, cultural practices and social activities, among others.
In an interview, Zimbabwe Tourism Authority spokesperson Mr Godfrey Koti said it was their duty and responsibility to educate locals on the country’s cultural diversity.

This, he said, was in addition to their mandate to promote foreign tourists visiting Zimbabwe and having a feel of the various tourist attractions.

“As the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority we are very delighted and elated to be having such events of this magnitude.
“We are looking forward to people coming out to experience the Zimbabwean culture, the Zimbabwean food and all the rich culinary activity the country has to offer,” he said.

“We want to grow the numbers of people who visit the country, but most importantly we have to educate the local community about destination Zimbabwe.

“It’s a 360 approach, we look at the food, the culture, the people, we look at the facilities, we look at the heritage.
“Locals must be able to know them so that they experience them and enjoy them which will ultimately drive up numbers.”
He said it was one of the festival’s goals to promote and restore cultural diversity, unite locals, bridge the cultural divide and promote domestic tourism.

“The Festival idea is premised on the understanding and belief that people and culture are inseparable as it is culture that makes up the fabric of any society, hence society and culture are intertwined.

“The event will not only focus on festivities, but also focus on other serious and pressing business such as lobbying for policy change to strengthen local culture preservation and food consumption,” said Mr Koti. He said there will be a skills development and corporate social responsibility workshop to run concurrently with the cultural festival.

Its objective is to impart life skills to scores of people expected to throng the Harare Gardens and target audience ranging from the youth, general public, cultural custodians to scholars, diplomatic corps, international and local business community.