Chilima calls on Malawians to promote culture

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Saulos Chilima

Vice President of the Republic of Malawi Saulos Chilima has called on people in the country to be at the forefront in promoting Malawian culture in order to attract more tourists into the country.

Chilima was speaking on Saturday at Mua parish in Dedza as Catholics were commemorating 115 years of the parish’s existence and 50 years of Father Claude Boucher Chisale’s priesthood.

Saulos Chilima
Chilima: We need to be in the forefront in promoting our culture.

The vice president made the remarks after noting the great impact which Father Chisale has made on Malawian culture throughout his stay in the country.

Boucher has been promoting Chewa and Ngoni cultures through the Kungoni Art and Cultural Centre in the district a development which has seen many tourists admiring some of the cultural dances such as gule wamkulu, chimtali and ingoma.

In his speech, Chilima said it is high time Malawians started promoting the country’s culture so that tourists should be visiting the country from time to time.

“For some time now we have seen the great work that father Boucher Chisale has been doing on the country’s culture, as Malawians we should take an example of him (Chisale) who is from Canada. We need to be in the forefront in promoting our culture. We should not wait for people from outside to do it for us, once we promote our culture there is a possibility of seeing more and more tourists into the country,” Chilima said.

The vice president also urged Malawians not to copy other cultures from outside the country as that erodes the country’s culture.

In his remarks, Father Chisale thanked God and the Parish for taking care of him throughout his 50 years of service.

“I thank God for taking care of me, and I pray that he should give me more blessings so as to live longer, I also thank the parish for the love and care they have shown on me,” he said.

Father Claude Boucher Chisale came to Malawi from Canada in 1967 and has worked at Kasina, Mua and other parishes in the country.