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afrol News, 21 November - By Tinashe Madava and Tafadzwa Sekeso (SARDC) A village in south-western Zambia's Livingstone area has launched an environmental, cultural and economic development trust to spearhead its aims of becoming a unique cultural tourism center in the Zambezi basin. The Mukuni Environmental, Cultural and Economic Development Trust (MECEDT) in Mukuni Village is seeking to communicate the people's precolonial history and way of life as a method of enlightening tourists on the richness of African culture. Presenting the village's proposal at a workshop held by the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC) in Harare recently, Chief Mukuni, pointed out that his village intend to develop a community based tourism venture in a partnership between the local community and some tourism commercial operators. The partnership is structured in such a way that the local community will have some say in the project but not total control over planning and managing the tours, while the external partners provide the business or marketing skills. In southern Africa, such a set up is not new. It has indeed helped many villages prosper and is tailored along the lines of sustainable utilization of resources. The Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) in Zimbabwe and the Administrative Management Design for Game Management Areas (ADMADE) in Zambia are some of the examples of community-based development programmes based on tourism. The concept being adopted by the Mukuni village is becoming popular in southern Africa as more villages opt for cultural tourism upon realizing the benefits of selling their way of life to earn a living. The Tonga in Zimbabwe's Binga area, and the San in the Kalahari desert of Botswana have also opted for such ventures. There are many different types of partnerships between communities and private operators in tourism and hunting. However, two main approaches are prevalent in southern Africa. The first is where the private operator pays a lease fee to the community for using land or resources and the second is whereby the community has an equity stake or shares in the company that owns the enterprise. Such arrangements are common where the land is not suitable for cultivation; hence the tourism venture will be the community's main source of income. According to Chief Mukuni, being the only "authentic living" African Village within a 10 kilometre radius of both Zambia and Zimbabwe's section of the Victoria Falls, the Mukuni Royal Village is set to capitalize on the popularity of the Falls on the world map. According to the chief, the Zambian government recognises the power and influence of the traditional leaders and does consult them on development projects affecting their areas. Governance is through a balanced system of checks and balances between the chiefs and government leadership including the president. The chiefs are often in the forefront of such projects as they are closer to the grassroots people who will be affected by any developmental project. This governance system has allowed chief Mukuni to lead his village in a lucrative cultural tourism venture that will exploit the community's culture and pre-colonial history to provide income to the village. The venture will indeed be a rich cultural tourism destination as it is made up of different ethnic groups; the Lenje of Mukuni, the Soli of Nkomeshya, the Chewa of Nyanje, the Valley Tonga of Chipepo and Mwemba and the Leya of Bedyango and Sekute, all sharing a common history and heritage from Mukuni Ng'ombe originally from Kola, Congo. The indigenous community in the world famous Victoria Falls has for many years been admired by tourists who appreciate the culture that it offers as unique. In addition, The Zambian side of the Victoria Falls area is, with the coming of Sun International, destined to become a tourism Mecca. - It's difficult to grow anything because of low rainfall and sandy soils but we have found a new crop which is tourism and made sure the Sun Hotel was built, said the eloquent chief. The chief's full name is Munokalya Solika Mukuni the 3rd. He is the 19th chief with Mukuni blood to head the Mukuni tribe. Born in June 1948, his first formal school was Mukuni primary. He then enrolled for priesthood in 1964-65 at Mpima mini-seminary. He later completed secondary school in 1967 at Hillcrest secondary in Zambia. Having passed, he started working for the then Northern Rhodesian government, now Zambia, as an accounts clerk under the provincial secretary. He later joined British Petroleum and Shell in 1967 as a clerk but doing part-time studies at the University of Zambia. In 1980 he graduated with a BA honors in economics and continued working for BP and Shell until 1987. With regards to the Zambezi river basin, the chief dismissed attempts to continually dam this river but applauded the conservation attempts by different organizations along the riparian states. The chief sits on the boards of the United Air Charter, United Touring Company and Mukuni Industries among other companies. With such a business minded leader, the Mukuni village is set to make waves in the cultural tourism sector.
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