Government backs Umthetho Festival tourism potential
Minister of Information, Tourism and Culture Kondwani Nankhumwa has endorsed Umthetho Cultural Festival as one of the country’s prime cultural calendar events.
Nankhumwa told thousands of patrons at the Ngoni cultural event at Hora Mountain Heritage Centre in Mzimba on Saturday that the annual encounter has the potential to generate forex through cultural tourism and government has since put it on a list of places to do.
“I’m glad to inform you that government has come up with a calender of events to guide you on cultural and artistic events happening in the country and Umthetho is one of them. I would like to ask events organisers and other interested Malawians to look at it and make suggestions where there is need for improvement,” he said.
The revelation puts the cultural encounter in the same league as Lake of Stars and Sand Festival, two entertainment events which attract thousands of tourists from overseas to the stunning shores of Lake Malawi.
It also hints at government’s efforts to put sanity in the way cultural and artistic events are scheduled, with most summer festivals, especially the Lake Malawi affairs coinciding in the past years.
On Friday, Inkosiya Makosi M’mbelwa V, whom President Peter Mutharika commended for preserving and promoting culture, launched the construction of a campsite for tourists and researchers trekking to the historic mountainside place that is Hora.
M’mbelwa’s chiefs council and Mzimba Heritage Association are pursuing plans to build a hotel, stadium, cultural village and other attractions at the site.
Hora was the epicentre of early Ngoni settlements in Mzimba, said the association’s general secretary and ex-curator of Mzuzu Museum curator NdabazakeThole.
Despite the ambitious project, the hilly etting is eclipsed by a rough, dusty road, which M’mbelwa V said needs to be upgraded into a tarmac.
