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via Zambia Daily Mail by Online Editor on 6/2/13
GOVERNMENT says it is working closely with traditional leaders to rebrand traditional ceremonies and promote tourism, trade and industry.
Chiefs and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkandu Luo says a properly organised and rebranded traditional event can have a positive impact on the country’s development.
Prof Luo said the Patriotic Front (PF) government is promoting tradition and culture for sustainable development.
She said this in an interview with ZANIS yesterday on the sidelines of the Kazanga Kabompo traditional ceremony of the Nkoya people of Kabompo district in North-Western Province.
Prof Luo said Government hopes that in future, local people will take the lead in organising ceremonies and making them part of trade and industry.
She said it is regrettable that traditional ceremonies are only synonymous with singing and dancing when they should be providing a platform for local people to engage in economic ventures that can help to improve lives.
Meanwhile, Prof Luo says due to financial constraints, Government has no immediate plans to gazette chiefs that were degazetted by colonialists.
Prof Luo said some chiefs have approached her ministry to consider gazetting them but that the matter has financial implications.
She said there are currently 288 chiefs who are being paid allowances of about KR4, 000 besides providing them with transport and palaces.
And Kabompo West member of Parliament Ambrose Lufuma, who officiated at the event, appealed to Government to look for investors who can explore the vast mineral resources North-Western Province is endowed with.
Mr Lufuma said the province has mineral resources such as copper and oil, among, others but they have remained unexploited because of lack of investment.
He thanked Government for the support rendered to the organising committee in hosting the ceremony.
Mr Lufuma also thanked President Sata for creating Manyinga district and urged the President to create more districts in North-Western Province to foster development.
He also cautioned residents to desist from engaging in vices that may expose them to HIV and AIDS.
Meanwhile, Patron of Kazanga Kabompo traditional ceremony Crispin Shumina said this year’s ceremony was hosted in honour of American talk show host Oprah Winfrey whose latest DNA test traced her ancestry to the Nkoya people of Kabompo.
Mr Shumina said it would be good for Ms Winfrey to visit Zambia so she can meet her relatives in Kabompo. – ZANIS.
