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The International Cultural Fair to take place end of July will showcase Uganda’s diverse heritages.
Launching the Cultural Fair State Minister of Labor and Industrial relations, Kabafumzaki Herbert said it will showcase diverse cultural heritages in art and craft, poetry, traditional tales, fashion shows, drama, cuisine, local brew, legends and acrobatics.
Uganda is composed of 65 diverse and rich cultural heritages that possess different kinds of behavior, social norms, marriage ceremonies, language and indigenous knowledge systems of environment.
The celebrations under the theme “Celebrating our cultural diversity: Understanding who we are” willprovide the Ugandan community with a platform to showcase opportunities in the culture industry to its National and international community.
Kiwanda Godfrey, State Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities said, “We plan to introduce region to region cultural shows in weekly clusters, so that we can get to know more about other cultures. For instance we organize karamonja cultural shows and invite the public view. This will help the nationals publicize their cultural arts in other countries which will attract more tourists.”
“The government aims at attaining a middle class status by 2020 and through industrialization;the youth should contribute productively to stop the importation of second hand clothes by embracing tailoring of Uganda made clothes both from skins and hides,” State Minister of Gender and Culture, Peace Mutuzo confirmed.
“We need to know and appreciate our identity that is manifested in decent dress code of Kanzus and Gomesi hence the Fair will promote a broader spectrum of African based culture and borrow from different heritages.”
Mutuzo added that Kiswahili is the second official language but not many can speak due to ineffective enforcement for the primary school curriculum which is our weakness but working towards improving on that.
However kiwanda rebuked hotels for charging nationals in dollars; this kills the touring mood. They ought to charge fairly so that they promote local tourism.
The fair aims at strengthening communities attain significant development changes, diverse our economic base in boosting rural economy and provide an opportunity to develop innovative skills of modern technology through animation of cultural heritage.
Uganda is a signatory to the UNESCO 2003 Convention on safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage; the 2005 convention on the protection and promotion of cultural expressions in diversity.
