Govt to honour traditional leaders such as Chiefs

The government has promised to continue honouring traditional Chiefs of various ethnic groups in the country, the Deputy Minister of Information, Culture, Arts and Sports Juliana Shonza. The deputy minister said in parliament during question and answer session that, the government’s move aims at protecting and defending traditional values and myths which are observed by different ethnic groups. The deputy minister was responding to the question which was earlier raised by the special seat Restituta Mbogo (CCM) who wanted to know when the government will recognize traditional Chiefs from various tribal groups in the country, as well as plans by the government to build the traditional museums at district level in order to preserve traditional artifacts for tourists. In responding, the deputy minister noted that already the government has gathered reports of 38 tribal groups in the country and noted that, these have been collected by use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and some reports have been compiled in the form of books. She said the government stands for its policies and that it will continue working in collaboration with the stakeholders to ensure that, it builds museums for the preservation of traditional myths as this is one way of dominating national culture. Contributing to the debate, the Minister for Information, Culture, Arts and Sports Dr. Harrison Mwakyembe said that, he was impressed by the way the traditional culture of the Sukuma tribe recently when he visited their museum in Mwanza region