Ngoma Awards: National Arts, Honours and Awards Show

Zambia Sun 22-10-2006

Ngoma Awards: National Arts, Honours and Awards Show
By a Correspondent

In Zambia's humble equivalent of the Oscars, the country's leading artists and performers are praised for their achievements. The show will be celebrated with performances of dances, music, poetry, and drama.

The awards are organised by The National Arts Council of Zambia whose overall objective of is to advise government on policy towards visual, performing, media and literary arts in the country and also to encourage artistic excellence on both amateur and professional levels in the country.

Ngoma (Ingoma, Maoma, Ng’oma) in many Zambian tribes and dialects means drum. Its symbolic use in name is to reflect the cultural use of drums for conveyance of messages as was used in traditional Zambian societies.

The drum as a primary form of communication denoted a whole corpus of cultural advancement in communication as various drum notes when correctly interpreted implied various messages. The Ngoma Awards therefore epitomise the excellence in artistic communication.

There is contemporary music as well, in which the various bands play rhythms from traditional ceremonies on modern instruments.

Poetry reading has always been an important art form in Zambia. Recitations of legends and myths are still common at communal gatherings, and praise-poetry of the chiefs of Zambia's various tribes is still found widely in rural areas.

The drama gives you a chance to discover about many of the social issues that face Zambia today. Plays are about subjects such as AIDS, child abuse, the place of women in modern society, and they are written by local playwrights.

The Council will give awards in the following art disciplines:-

a) Visual Arts – 4 awards
b) Drama – 4 awards
c) Popular Theatre – 2 awards
d) Traditional Music and Dance – 3 awards
e) Media Arts – 3 awards
f) Contemporary Music – 6 awards
g) Creative writing – 3 awards

The Council also gives Recognition Awards (Chairman’s Awards) to individuals and institutions who have made exceptional contribution to the development of the Arts in Zambia. Unlike the other categories, these are not competed for.

The National Arts and Honours Show allow you to witness all these important Zambian art forms. Each of the Ngoma Awards is named after an artist who contributed greatly to the development and promotion of the arts in Zambia, not only as a way of paying tribute to the heroes and heroines in the arts, but as a constant reminder of the rich artistic background.

The show will be held on the second Saturday of December at a location in Lusaka, the capital city.

Contact Details

Name: Basil Mbewe

Fax:+ 260 1 292636

Phone:+ 260 1 292637

Address: c/o National Arts Council, PO Box 50812

Related Links:

National Association of Media Arts (NAMA)

Posted By: African Colours

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