GWAMBE Arts and Culture Club (GACC) hosted a two-day cultural festival in Bulilima District, bringing together community members, traditional leaders and members of the Khumalo royal family to celebrate local heritage and encourage young people to embrace positive values.
The festival, held at Gwambe Grounds, popularly known as koMagabha or eMaboleni, ran from Friday to Saturday under the theme, “Celebrating Our Heritage, Inspiring Future Generations.”
It featured music, dance, art, traditional food and other activities aimed at showcasing the community’s cultural heritage.
Chief Mphini hosted the event on behalf of acting Chief Kandana. Chief Wasi of Mangwe District, Bornman Khumalo of the Khumalo royal families and other dignitaries also attended.
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In a sideline interview, Chief Mphini commended GACC for using cultural activities to engage young people and help address drug and substance abuse in the community.
“This club has been instrumental in helping to shape the lives of the young people in our community. We have had a challenge, mainly with our young people who are into drug and substance abuse,” he said.
“Even the young girls are falling victim to teenage pregnancy. This initiative is effective in that it pulls together the young generation and gives them purpose.”
Chief Mphini said the initiative had also contributed to positive behavioural changes among young people, particularly girls who have increasingly joined the club.
“There has been an improvement in the behaviour of young people since this initiative started. Especially among the girls, you find that the numbers have been increasing,” he said.
“At first there were only four of them, but now we have more than 20 from our community. This is quite commendable.”
GACC representative Ishaman Dile said the organisation wanted to raise awareness of its work while instilling traditional and cultural values in young people.
“Our goal as GACC is to have more people having knowledge about what we do. One of our main objectives is to mould young people in our communities into responsible and respectful adults. This is the responsibility of each and every one of us,” Dile said.
“We want our children to grow up into respectful (adults).”
Dile said the process of shaping responsible young people should begin at household level, with parents and guardians playing a key role in passing on cultural values.
“Grooming children starts from household level. We want our children to be taught traditional and cultural values from a young age so that they can grow up responsible and with respect,” Dile said.
“A child who is not taught values at home will reflect their ill-behaviour to the greater society.”
Apart from cultural activities, GACC also organises ball-game tournaments to keep young people engaged in positive activities.
“We occasionally host ball-game tournaments to encourage them to stay away from drug and substance abuse. We need the support from everyone in fulfilling this mission,” Dile said.
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