It is a wonderful experience to Indlondlo Zulu Dancers Cultural and Art Centre Cooperation Circle and me to receive a URI Certificate today. The atmosphere here in Johannesburg, where an official launch is taking place, is amazing. I am meeting a lot of great leaders from different Cooperation Circles in the Southern African Region.
I feel at home and I believe our communities will gain more hope and faith in our leadership. I want to thank URI’s committee and founders for this wonderful platform.
Looking forward to sharing more news from my Cooperation Circle in South Africa.
Best Regards,
Msizeni Mngadi, Director
About Indlondlo Zulu Dancers Cultural and Art Centre Cooperation Circle:
Indlondlo Zulu Dancers is a Non-Profit Organisation that performs and educates people about cultural dances in the rural areas of the Valley of 1000 Hills/ KwaNyavu / Mkhambathini and surrounding areas. We aim at bringing about a change in the manner in which today’s youth look at cultural and yester-year’s activities. Traditional dances and related activities are perceived as barbaric by certain youth, and we want to change that; to let them see the value of keeping our history alive.
Our main project is teaching and educating people about Zulu culture and Zulu dance, especially the indlamu (warrior dance). This dance is derived as a war dance from the time of King Shaka, who became a Leader of the Zulu Nation in 1816. During the Anglo-Zulu war, the war dances helped inspire men as they were to begin their long barefoot marches to battle.
Indlamu dance in Zulu culture was and still is used as an important factor in maintaining a sense of group solidarity. This traditional male warrior dance shows off muscular strength and mastery of weapons in mock combat. The dance exemplifies Zulu cultural beliefs in competition, stamina and power.
With high kicks and stomping, dancers form a straight line. South Africans Zulus are known for their foot stomping movements that send dust flying and create a resonating force that can be felt through the ground.
Cooperation Circle Objectives:
- To have direct impact on youth education in cultural activities.
- To teach and instill respect of one another, young and old.
- To establish youth development program in all arts.
- To promote social activities that keeps youth away from bad influential substances.
- To educate youth about the importance of education.
- To educate about the negativity of dropping off from school.
- To educate about disadvantages of teenage pregnancy.
- To encourage youth to live positive life with good purposes and dreams.
- To create jobs for our people in the community and exchange our traditional outfits with other nations.
- To promote our culture by organizing Festival and Award Ceremonies to show the importance of our tradition and customs.
- To create means of Cultural Village to welcome people from around the world to experience warmth that we possess in our country.
Zulu Dancers will be joining MSC Sifonia on 6-28 May 2016. They will be teaching and performing Zulu Dance on a cruise from Cape Town, Namibia, Senegal, Spain, Morocco, Croatia, Malta and Italy. We are very excited about the opportunity.
