MAGUGA CULTURAL VILLAGE EXPANDING TOURISM

PIGG’S PEAK – More places to visit in the country.

The initiative for the cultural village came about through the founder of Maguga Lodge, who, however was unable to live his dream due to a battle with a terminal illness which led to his demise in 2016. The business of this profound man was left in the hands of his youngest son, Brian Figueiredo, who had his father’s vision in mind and decided to implement the dream his father so often spoke about. The project began in late 2018, and it started with the engagement of the Maguga community, KOBWA, Fincorp and other stakeholders. Performances are to be conducted by the local people of Maguga, who include the young school going boys and girls of the community.

The initiative aims to encourage self-sustainability within the community and also to bring insight to the lodge’s non-Swati guests on the kingdom’s culture, it is like an insight in to the history of Eswatini, said Marketing Officer for Maguga Lodge, Tallita Daude. The cultural village set up has a kraal ‘sibaya’ and a fully functional amphitheater which accommodates 200-250 people seated. It has huts for accomodation famously known as ‘bogucas’thandaze’ which Figueredo said was a theme to bring back the authenticity of the culture of Eswatini as this was how people lived back in the olden days.

During the launch, Eswatini National Council of Arts and Culture (ENCAC) CEO, Stanley Dlamini said it was a great initiative to support because it was one that defined the evolutionary identity of the people of Eswatini. Dlamini further said that culture helped local people understand their ancestry with a clear demonstration of historical artifacts. Also present at the launch was Peter Bhembe Minister for Natural Resources and Energy, who said as a government representative, the country was proud of this initiative because it heeded the call of the Eswatini road map encouraging tourism.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) from Eswatini Tourism Authority (ETA) Linda Nxumalo expressed her excitement about the opening of the cultural village she said as an authority, they promoted culture as part of the tourism components, which also helped increase the number of options for tourist attractions as there had only been one cultural village in the country, which is Mantenga in Ezulwini. She said this would also promote domestic tourism among emaSwati as they would now have more reason to want to explore the northern region of the country.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: