CULTURAL EXHIBITS
Elisabeth Pasalk Valerio, founder of ELISA along with her husband, Danny, offers details about the Cultural Exhibit Centre. Located at Gwango Heritage Resort, the centre is among many facilities the couple established in Zimbabwe at Gwango Wildlife Park, which is aligned with ELISA, a robust initiative driving cross-sector collaboration across Africa.
Our Cultural Exhibit Centre is dedicated to highlighting African culture with permanent displays and temporary exhibitions of traditional African art and artifacts. In addition to exhibitions, African cultural heritage is presented at events through guided tours, film screenings, art and music workshops, traditional dance performances and other activities.
Through this endeavor, we create long-term changes in the lives of artists by providing skills development and stimulating self-motivation and sustainable career growth, especially for economically disadvantaged artists who have limited access to resources and technology. We mentor and showcase creative African talent for the development of creative and entrepreneurial skills. We also conduct research with local and international collaborations.
The The Culture Shop, which we’re establishing as part of the Cultural Exhibit Centre, will increase the sales of creative products and create greater awareness for African artists.
Every purchase made from the Culture Shop contributes income towards African artists, of which most are women. Proceeds also assist in building the identity of top-tier cultural entrepreneurs from Africa.
While visiting the rural Nambya settlements in the local area, we learned about our community and were lured by its mystical stories.
The BaNambya Exhibit—a compilation of stories documented through scholarly research and oral tradition—expands knowledge and understanding of the Nambya people, a tribe of about 100,000 individuals who were the inhabitants of Hwange National Park until the park was established in 1928. Today, the Nambya people live clustered around Hwange, a town named after the Nambya King Whange.
We learned that the Nambya are descendants of the Rozvi Dynasty, and it is believed they came from Great Zimbabwe in Masvingo. They were a division of the Karanga in the early 18th century, and went northwestwards to settle in what is now the Hwange District. Their spoken words are reminiscent of the Shona language, but with a new vocabulary.
We compiled a record of the Nambya journey sourced through oral tradition, and discussions carried out by Gwango with the support of our local community. We have presented these materials as part of a series of public forums, which included the participation of five Traditional Chiefs from our region of Zimbabwe, namely Chief Shana, Chief Mvutu, Chief Whange, Chief Nekatambe and Chief Nelukoba.
These 5 chiefs came together to bless the grounds where our projects were to be developed, and from there, a bond was formed. This led to a series of discoveries in which we came to know about sacred places where annual pilgrimages and ancient ceremonies took place in times past. With the Chiefs and elders from our community, we arranged a series of gatherings and expeditions to the sacred sites of the Nambya, including Mtoa, Bumbusi and Shangano.
These discoveries and more are featured in our BaNamya Exhibit. Visitors can also tour a traditional Nambya Homestead, where they can learn about the culture and people that live here and taste the food, as well as view the area’s art and hear its native music.