Tendai Rupapa in Victoria Falls

ZIMBABWE yesterday made history by hosting the maiden UN Tourism Regional Forum on Gastronomy Tourism for Africa in the resort city in recognition of First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa’s exploits in promoting the country’s tourism brand through her traditional meal cookout competitions with gastronomy tourism capturing the imagination of the world.

Amai Mnangagwa is also the country’s patron for tourism and hospitality.

The First Lady embarked on the gastronomy tourism journey in 2019 when she invited traditional chiefs’ wives to State House where she gave them traditional grains and vegetable combo seeds to distribute to women in their communities for planting.

Back then, people did not understand what she was driving at.

After the crops were harvested, the mother of the nation introduced cookout competitions for women to learn how to prepare indigenous dishes, starting with spouses of chiefs and village headmen.

The programme then escalated to wards, district, national, regional and international levels, culminating in this gastronomy forum for Africa in honour of her hard work.

She made the nation and African continent proud.

The historic event saw United Nations Tourism awarding 100 scholarships to President Mnangagwa for Zimbabwean students to study Culinary Arts while a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Zimbabwe and UN Tourism to build the Africa International Tourism Academy for Culinary Arts in Victoria Falls.

Early this year, Amai Mnangagwa also secured 100 culinary scholarships for local students from the then UNWTO.

The UN Tourism also recognised President Mnangagwa and the First Lady for promoting gastronomy tourism and handed them award plaques.

In attendance at the first-ever such event on African soil, which President Mnangagwa officially opened, were First Ladies from various African countries and United Nations Tourism Secretary General Mr Zurab Pololikashvili, his wife, senior United Nations Tourism officials, local and foreign Government Ministers and stakeholders in the tourism and hospitality sector.

Angolan First Lady Ana Dias Lourenço and Serbian First Lady Tamara Vucic were present while representatives were sent by First Ladies from Rwanda, Burundi, Namibia, Tanzania and Equatorial Guinea.

On display at the forum were countless mouthwatering dishes from various African countries in a celebration of African unity and mutual communion.

Among the dishes was Galulu De peixe from Angola which is sea fish (both dry and fresh) cooked with spinach, okra, eggplant and palm oil.

Cassava pap featured palm oil beans served with sweet potatoes and plantains.

From Botswana were seswaa, Serobe (tripe), Mosutlhwane (sorghum rice) and Kabu (mangai).

Malawi presented Terere, Usipa, Nguku yachikuda (road runner) and oxtail mixed with beans.

Nigeria served Egusi soup, Jolof rice, Pepe soup, Moimoi and pounded yam.

Ghana and Angola also showcased diverse dishes.

As host, Dr Mnangagwa had a kitchen and prepared wheat sadza, road runner, matemba, goat stew, mazondo and different types of vegetables, roasted meat, sweet potatoes, mutakura, cassava and green mealies as well as maheu.

Dr Mnangagwa taught the foreign guests how to prepare Zimbabwean dishes.

The visitors cooked wheat sadza, sorghum sadza, millet sadza and dried meat in peanut butter, vegetables, nhopi and dressing road runner chickens.

Spouses of traditional chiefs were also in the kitchen assisting the guests.

Later, the First welcomed the President, Cabinet ministers and tourism ministers from other countries to her kitchen where the Head of State and other guests had a taste of mapfura wine, a traditional brew.

In her remarks, Dr Mnangagwa shared her journey and Zimbabwe’s experiences leading to the hosting of the forum by the country.

“Let me start by welcoming you all to Zimbabwe Victoria Falls resort city, special mention goes to the United Nations Secretary General of United Nations Tourism and your team including the director-general of the advanced culinary centre for affording Zimbabwe the rare opportunity to host the First United Nations Tourism Forum on Gastronomy Tourism in Africa. We appreciate this gesture. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to include that globally, gastronomy tourism is regarded as a fundamental component for promoting local cultures and a major element of the intangible heritage. It is a key driver for socio-economic development characterised by the preservation of cultural heritage and community empowerment. Tourism and recreation have evolved,” she said.

Dr Mnangagwa said many countries like Spain, Italy, China and France relied on gastronomy tourism as a major driver of their economies.

“Ultimately, that is what we are aiming at. To put Africa on the global map and be the gastronomy tourism powerhouse. My gastronomy journey was driven by a passion to improve the livelihoods of families, and communities and the national vision of Zimbabwe becoming a prosperous country with and empowered upper middle-income society by 2030.

“In 2019, I came up with the gastronomy tourism concept focusing on cookout competitions from district, provincial and national levels. It is important to highlight that today Zimbabwe continues with the journey of raising awareness on the significance of our traditional foods including medicinal properties and how they are important as immune boosters to our human body systems.

“In 2021, I premièred another initiative, the Nhanga/Gota/Ixhiba Programme, in recognition of the need to preserve our customs and traditions as this helps in bringing out our national identity and ethics as well as helping deal with issues of drug and substance abuse and child marriages which have of late escalated in recent years among our communities, especially amongst our youths. The Gota/Nhanga/Ixhiba programme is also a means to promoting and improving livelihoods for youths in particular, and the community at large,” she said.

Last year, Dr Mnangagwa said, the programme was further elevated to the Sadc regional gastronomy competitions.

“This inaugural event was successfully held in Masvingo Province at Great Zimbabwe Monuments with seven Sadc countries taking part namely Zimbabwe, Botswana, Angola, DRC, Namibia, Mozambique, Nigeria and Malawi. I led the Zimbabwe delegation of tourism teams to the UN Tourism Global Forum on Gastronomy in Spain in October 2023.

“The Zimbabwean experience in promoting traditional cuisine was shared with other countries from all over the world. Furthermore, I was also invited to the United Kingdom to showcase the Zimbabwean cuisine during the World Travel Market in November 2023,” she said.

To enhance the tourism and culinary skills among students, Dr Mnangagwa said the United Nations Tourism awarded her scholarships to 100 students in the field of tourism and hospitality in 2023.

“The country was also given the opportunity to build a United Nations Tourism Academy School for Africa here in Victoria Falls Resort Town. I would like to encourage the young generation from across Africa to take advantage of this academy and enrol with it to train and sharpen their culinary skills when it eventually takes off.

“I would also like to urge African youths to be proud of their culture and heritage. Let me also take this opportunity to call upon health professionals to help unpack more medicinal qualities embedded in our traditional food varieties for the benefit of our Africa and the world at large,” she said.

First Lady Lourenco described the hosting of the forum as a great day for Zimbabwe.

“It is a great day because we can see the gastronomy for some African countries here and I am glad I participated in the opening ceremony. It is indeed a great day for Zimbabwe and for us all as Africans.

“The First Lady is doing a great job to elevate the traditional food of Africa. Count me in, I am also going to spearhead this in my country,” she said.

Ms Nelly Mukazayire, who represented the First Lady of Rwanda Mrs Jeannette Kagame, said Zimbabwe had done a good thing.

“First of all, it’s a great pleasure to be here representing the First Lady of Rwanda under the invitation of the First Lady. This initiative has a great impact in Africa to foster tourism through our culture because food is part of our culture and identity and we commend the work that is being done by Her Excellency the First Lady and other initiatives. We have good collaboration as a country, but also looking at tourism, there is a huge opportunity in Africa.

“We are excited to be part of this initiative,” she said.

Speaking at the same event, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Barbara Rwodzi said the tourism and hospitality industry was located within the matrix of chief economic pillars and economic growth accelerators of Zimbabwe which were key for the attainment of the national strategic vision 2030.

“Over the years and on average, the tourism and hospitality industry is ranked number three in the country after mining and agriculture in terms of contribution to the national GDP. However, in the first half of 2024, the tourism and hospitality industry your excellency, its economic statistics show that this industry has shot to the number one position in the first six months of the year having experienced an 83 percent increase in tourist arrivals. The objective of the Second Republic is to grow tourism and hospitality beyond the US$5 billion mark that we pledged from 2020 to 2025 Your Excellency. The significant growth that we are experiencing in the tourism and hospitality industry in Zimbabwe is a result of our tourism and hospitality industry strategy that is placing an increased focus on our heritage, that is our people, that is our culture, that is our fauna and flora, that is our geology and our landscape in Manicaland far and wide and a resultant of food culture that we are gathering here today for Your Excellency and it’s a key determinant of our comparative advantage,” she said.

The country’s heritage, Minister Rwodzi observed, must be its competitive advantage in tourism.

“Ladies and gentlemen, expressed in different terms, our strategic focus for growing the tourism and hospitality industry in Zimbabwe is heritage based. This philosophy is a pull factor in the tourism and hospitality industry and its uniqueness is about the people and their cultures,” she said.

Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development Minister Professor Amon Murwira paid tribute to the First Lady for her heroics which he said were in line with Education 5.0.

“Your Excellency, we transformed our education to Education 5.0 specifically so that we can eat from what we have through knowledge and skill. Through Education 5.0 we have started developing new food varieties based on our local plants and animals thus promoting gastronomy tourism and we are so happy to follow the steps of Her Excellency the First Lady for the work that she is doing. We are encouraged and we feel invigorated,” he said.

UN Tourism Sec Gen Mr Pololishkavili said he met the First Lady in St Sebastian, Spain and was pleased with the progress she had made in promoting Zimbabwean dishes.

“You have already written the history of Africa. Of course, the most important person we have here is his Excellency the President. Your presence takes this event to another level. We are more responsible after your visit and I promise you that this train will never stop. This train will go everywhere in the world,” he said

He said they were enthusiastic to promote African gastronomy across the globe.

“We are enthusiastic to promote African gastronomy worldwide. We have 11 tourism ministers with us from different countries. I want to personally greet all of them and urge them to be united in promoting African gastronomy. All of us understand how important gastronomy is. When we were getting ready for World Cup cricket in 2017, when thousands of people came, they needed lunch and dinner and all my friends were asking what is the local food? What are the local dishes? – Herald