The Sunday News
Ntombiyolwandle Ndlovu, Sunday Leisure Reporter
BINGA councillor Mackson Mudimba of Lubu Village has formed a traditional dance group (Cilimba) called Ncalilayi as a way of reviving traditional dances in the area.
Speaking to Sunday Leisure, founder of the group and councillor, Mudimba said the group would be a step towards the revival of the Tonga culture which seems to be wearing off as time passes.
“The dance group will renew and preserve local dances that have since been abandoned by the people and there are more of such projects that we are going to embark on to uplift our culture and go back to our roots,” said Mudimba.
The dance group has 18 members and is targeting both young and old, at the moment the youngest is 12 and the oldest is 61 years.
“I’ve also decided to select teenagers because they would need to carry the legacy through teaching the upcoming generations while the elders would be there to give coaching lessons and pointers to the young ones and giving them directions on what is expected of them and how our culture has to be preserved,” said Mudimba.
Mudimba added that he has always had passion for music from a tender age and now he is determined to develop this group.
“I used to compose songs at school during my learning days but due to economic challenges my passion was shelved and this hindered my progress to higher levels. Right now l have decided to take musical abilities seriously by establishing this group at the same time promoting my culture,” he said.
The group recently released their first DVD album entitled Ncalilayi with six songs with the idea to also generate income for unemployed people in the group.
“This is self-sustained and includes a lot of old people who don’t have anything to do for a living. The idea is to also work with these talented people and produce our own music for income generation through selling our music. We’re happy that our debut album is on sale,” said Mudimba.
He said they were facing financial challenges which hinder their way of developing their music as they were in need of drums.
“Currently we are facing some problems of equipment. We do not have sufficient drums and we need assistance from professionals to ensure that we produce quality videos,” said Mudimba.
The group was introduced with the aim to teach people around the country the Tonga culture and tradition as well as revive and maintain the culture with upcoming generation.
