First year Journalism students educational visit

News   Hazviperi Mbizi   November 15, 2018
PIC: Students taking pictures of the paintings in the Museum
The first year students from the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at The Polytechnic, on Monday, 13 November, 2018 visited Mua Arts Cultural Museum in Dedza, as part of their Sociology Educational Cultural tour.

The museum which was founded by Father Claude Chisale Chagomerana  in 1976, aims  at preserving the church history which is the Mua Mission and culture around the area.

According to the class Lecturer, Peter Mitunda, he thought it wise to take the students to this place because the museum designer and guardian of the inspiration lives there to share his experience, dreams and aspirations.

“Mua is also internationally recognized as a protected Centre of heritage by UNESCO and it is so far the richest visual preservation of cultural memory for the Chewa, Ngoni and Yao tribes,” Mitunda explained.

He added that Mua is a ‘Living Museum’ which is located where its guardians live. They work there and perform cultural displays to re-enact memories and demonstrate culture in reality.

The Bachelor Of Arts In Journalism Class 1 representative, Yewo Munthali, explained that they have learned a lot about the Chewa heritage through the sculptures, paintings, traditional musical instruments and the presentation on the ‘Gule Wamkulu’ culture.

“We learned that each day a ‘Gule Wamkulu is born and that every ‘Gule Wamkulu’ represents something. It is interesting to discern that the Chewa people have an annual festival where two Gule Wamkulus are born,” Munthali explained.

Munthali further clarified that they have also gained knowledge about how the three tribes differ in their cultural beliefs. This was explained to the students by the tour guide Chikondi Teputepu who interpreted that every tribe believes differently on the life cycle of human beings.

 The first year journalism students had the chance to witness a traditional drum beat at noon and 13:00 to signal the start and end of the lunch break.

Finally the students were given a tour around the museum except which is believed to store private stuff for the Gule Wamkulu tradition.

The students expressed their utmost satisfaction and were delighted that apart from its academic relevance, the cultural museum is also a life cultural enrichment experience.


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