The ManicaPost
Chipinge Correspondent
NDAU Festival of Arts proprietor, Mr Philip Kusasa, will today (Friday) fly to the United Kingdom for a five-day workshop on how arts can be used to deal with climate
The workshop was organised by a Wales-based organisation.
Mr Kusasa who is a teacher by profession will join 24 other culture groups from around the world.
“I think NDAFA was chosen to take part in this cause because of the bias of our festival concept to indigenous knowledge systems in trying to solve problems affecting modern communities that include climate change and poverty.
“As a festival, we are so keen to use our traditional knowledge systems to deal with challenges that are affecting the world.
“From how we presented our proposal, we feel that the idea of borrowing our past knowledge systems impressed them so much,” he said.
Mr Kusasa said his organisation was ready to learn from other groups across the world.
“We will take this opportunity to disseminate information using arts and our culture to fight climate change.
Our culture in Zimbabwe has so many practices that are environmentally friendly, for example taboos and myths that are so essential towards keeping the environment intact.
“As a cultural group, we have identified the inclusion of indigenous cultural values in artistic as a starting point.
We need to research further on how people in the past used to live harmoniously with flora and fauna,” added Mr Kusasa.
Mr Kusasa is the founder of Ndau Festival of Arts which is held every year in Bangira area near Chikore Mission. Since its inception four years ago, the festival has grown from strength to strength.
It is now attracting many cultural groups from across the country.
