Jikinya Dance Festival preps gather momentum

Arriving at the McKeurtan Primary School venue this past Friday, there was a buzz amongst the scores of pupils gathered from the Imbizo district. They were jostling to snag the few berths to represent their district at the provincial finals to be held at the Large City Hall tomorrow. Over 20 schools had representatives in the choral, percussion and dance categories to compete for the first and second positions which would give them a ticket to the finals and of course, glory for their schools.

“These are not really competitions, they are opportunities for the kids to enjoy their culture,” said the rather boisterous and big framed master of ceremonies inside Mckeurtan Hall. Yearly, the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe and National Association of Primary School Heads (NASH) jointly host the dance competitions.
“In a nutshell we are what we are because of our culture,” spoke the guest of honour Allima Nyoni the Education Officer in charge of the Imbizo district in an interview. “This kind of competition is where the schools can show their excellence. The policy of teaching arts and culture is has been there since 2008. Culture is incorporated in our way of life and the reason behind it was to make our education relevant to the life that we live. We want to teach them our Zimbabwean way of life and not just to borrow things from other cultures.”

How has the policy been received by parents? “At first parents were apprehensive at the beginning but most of the parents are accepting seeing as we are teaching culture.” “As a ministry we want to build a child that is whole in the manner that the child is equipped with their culture, academically and socially. We teach them why these dances are done. We want them to learn about what happens with different ethnic groups and cultures and they are learning tolerance of others that way.”

Triumphant groups from all the country’s 10 provinces will meet for the national finals in the city on November 29 at the Large City Hall. Bulawayo is second time lucky in terms of hosting the competition since it began several years ago. Imbizo district will be represented by Mgiqika Primary School from Nketa who won the percussion band and choral music section followed by Mahatshula Primary who came second in the choral section. The dance category will be represented by Cementside Primary School whose rendition of the Jerusarema dance was flavoured with innovations that included the female dancers sitting on the laps of the male dancers at one point and doing a ball room dance trick. Had overheard someone seated behind me whisper “Kuzabalahlisa” (it will lose them the  competition) But the audience, a mixture of pupils, teachers, headmasters and a sputtering of parents issued whelps, gasps and ululations. That is what counts: the crowd loving it. Cementside took the dance category berth in the end as the judges Jasper Mataruse and Richard Mbano from the United College of Education announced the winners.

Stand out performances were from all the schools although I may mention one, David Gwena, from Umganwini Primary whose drumming was prodigious. This year the main competition dance is Jerusalem which is originally from Mashonaland West. The dance is in not merely a saucy dance. It is a traditional courtship dance in which the male dancer’s athleticism with its suggestion of virility is on full display.
I suppose that is what enamours the female to succumb to his wooing at the  dance’s end. But why they called it Jerusarema boggles my mind. Promise to dig on it. There is something to be said for these kinds of competitions as they help inculcate our kids with the vital understanding of not just our cultures, but also our common humanity.