Midlands Women with Disabilities Cel¬e¬brate Africa Day in style
By Dumisani Ndlovu
Women With Disabilities in the Midlands Province recently cel¬e¬brated Africa Day in style, a development some women from diverse disabilities say have en¬hanced unity among differently abled people.
Speaking to Kwedu News ,National Council of the Disability Persons of Zimbabwe President, Annah Shiri said they organised the event to cel¬e¬brate Africa Day in a bid to shape re¬la¬tions among the Disability Community members in the province.
“ You have been here taking a look at the so¬cial in¬ter¬ac¬tions and saw for yourself that the program have en¬hanced unity among the visually impaired, the physically challenged, the deaf and people with albinism. The celebrations have also shaped re¬la¬tions between the media and People with Disabilities,” she said.
The women were clad in flamboyant African dress¬ing, depicting true African fashion.
Midlands Association for the Promotion of Rights and Welfare of the Blind, Belinda Musesengwe expressed joy over the gathering saying the event serves to send the gospel of oneness among People with Disabilities and in¬flu¬ence admirable pat¬terns of life all over the province and the nation as a whole.
“I appreciate the gathering; it is health for the disability community and chief among them it has left the community’s relationship closely knitted. We met and encouraged each other regardless of type of disability, organisation, employed or unemployed. We are all human beings, ‘she said.
Joyce Togarepi, who is NCDPZ Women Disability Chairperson, said they have gathered for the sake of transmission and reception of ideas.
“We have gathered here on Africa Day so that we celebrate the day in our diversity. There are cer¬tain styles we spot that, de¬spite their pos¬si¬bly am¬bigu¬ous ori¬gins, have a dis¬tinctly African in¬flu¬ence,”she said.
Kwedu News was astounded by the modernised tra¬di¬tional at¬tire to African-in¬spired dresses, the var¬i¬ous print de¬signs and range of African tex¬tiles that have an in¬flu¬ence on the fash¬ion in¬dus¬try.
From tra¬di¬tional at¬tire to mod¬ernised African-in¬spired attires, the var¬i¬ous print de¬signs and range of African tex¬tiles showcased had an in¬flu¬ence on the fash¬ion in¬dus¬try.
While other coun¬tries have been cel¬e¬brat¬ing their tra¬di¬tional dress from time im¬memo¬rial, Zim¬babwe, de¬spite its rich cul¬ture, has been hav¬ing a hard time com¬ing up with a clearly-de¬fined na¬tional dress.
Zim¬babwe has been in¬flu¬enced by most African cul¬tures to the ex¬tent that we have adopted the way Nige¬ri¬ans dress as our own and termed it ‘African at¬tire.
African fash¬ion con¬sists of vi¬brant colours, with prom¬i¬nent, and at times, clash¬ing prints with tribal-like pat¬terns. One of the most pre¬dom¬i¬nant fab¬rics in Africa used to cre¬ate tra¬di¬tional printed cloth¬ing is Ankara and it is mainly from West Africa.
Lo¬cal de¬signer Ireen Kumundati said African fash¬ion styles are di¬verse.
“One can¬not un¬der¬es¬ti¬mate the im¬por¬tance and the ex¬tent and the enor¬mous va¬ri¬ety and beauty of ex-am¬ples of fash¬ion in Africa and es¬pe¬cially those that utilise African-print cloth,” she said.
“It is re¬ally a West and Cen¬tral African cloth. There are tens of thou¬sands of pat¬terns and men and women have it tai¬lored into unique fash¬ions for them¬selves across the con¬ti¬nent.” She also ex¬plained the ori¬gin of African tex¬tiles. “One of the things that dif¬fer¬en¬ti¬ates African prints from other tex¬tiles in Africa is that they are fac¬tory man¬u¬fac¬tured,” said Kumundati.
Snap research showed that in Gweru, Women with Disabilities event was one of the very few activities held in the Midlands capital.
Although in Zim¬babwe, our sta¬ple food is sadza, on Africa day, the women eat traditional foods, such as sorghum, Sadza rezviyo & stew. Sadza is served with rel¬ish that can be any kind of vegetable stew or meat. The sta¬ple is part of many tra¬di¬tional foods in the coun¬try.
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