By Prisca Mashushu

Lilongwe, December3, Mana: Deputy Minister of Local Government, Unity and Culture, Owen Chomanika, has hailed national arts and heritage workshop as crucial in promoting culture in the country.

He made the remarks Wednesday at Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe during a two-day workshop, which aims at increasing national awareness, understanding and appreciation of the mandate, powers and operations of national arts and heritage in the country.

The Minister said the coming in of the national arts and heritage will help to make the industry robust and big by promoting competitiveness and innovation from different people of the country.

“The workshop has underscored important policies that matter which includes promoting cultural exchange, building community identity through traditional dances and music, folktales and crafts, literature and poetry, culinary traditions, language dialects and others.

“We are now going to be able to actualise arts and heritage policies on the ground since we are good at making policies without implementing them,” he explained.

Acting Deputy Executive Secretary for the Malawi National Commission for UNESCO, David Mulera, said everyone should actively participate and contribute to the issues of arts and heritage since it plays a crucial role in everyday life.

“The workshop has helped participants to make policies implementable on the ground.

“It will help to address and strengthen cultural arts and heritage activities since it contributes not only to the economy of the country but also is a source of employment and entertainment to the native people,” he said.

Coordinator for the Chewa Heritage in Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique, Senior Chief Lukwa, thanked government for implementing cultural heritage saying it will help traditional leaders to obtain resources for it’s operations from government easily.

“This is going to help expose our culture to other countries thereby attracting foreigners that can bring the much needed forex,” he explained.

One of the participants from the Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST), Roselyn Peter Thompson, said the coming of the law will help boost the industry that has been undermined for a long period of time despite it’s potential to boost sustainable development in the country.

“People will be able to express themselves through music, traditional dances, arts and others due to the availability of the new law passed in Parliament that promote arts and heritage in the country,” she said.