The Masubia Traditional Authority is preparing to host its first cultural celebration since the crowning of its new chief earlier this year.
The Masubia Festival takes place later this week.
The event, significant for bringing together the Masubia people in celebration of their culture and traditions, was last held in 2019.
Multiple issues hampered its commemoration for five years, including health restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the death of sitting Chief Kisco Maiba Liswani the Third, and a subsequent delay in the authority's proclaiming of a new chief—with the consequence that no celebrations were hosted under the royal establishment since then.
Chairperson of the Organising Committee, Alfred Ilukena, in an interview with NBC News, spoke on the upcoming celebration, to be hosted under the new Chief, Gilbert Mutwa Muhongo.
"So this is going to be a very significant one because we now have a new chief on board, who has taken over from the late chief, so we are celebrating two things: one is to celebrate the arrival of the head of the Masubia Traditional Authority, Chief Moraliswani the Third, and then to celebrate the six or so years that the Masubia people have not been able to hold this event, so it's really very significant in terms of the importance of the day, and everyone is looking forward to seeing who the new chief is because they have not seen him, so this is an opportunity for them."
National leaders, including guests from neighbouring countries Zambia and Botswana, are expected to attend the event, where the Prime Minister is set to deliver the keynote address.
"We are very happy to acknowledge and thank the office of the prime minister because the right honourable prime minister himself, Dr. Elijah Ngurare, will be here as the keynote speaker, but we also have the minister of urban and rural development as the line minister; he will also be joining us."
He extended an invitation to all traditional authority chiefs in the region or their representatives.
"We are pushing; we are managing in hope that we will be able to meet the deadlines that we have given ourselves, and more so if you consider that the finalisation of the coronation of our chief was in May, so we did not have enough time, because before then we were not focusing on hosting this event because we didn't know whether we would have a chief or not, so when May came, the coronation happened, and that's when we started putting together the bits and pieces, so it has its challenges because of that factor, given that we only had the month of June to prepare, and in July we are hosting."
The celebration will be held at the Masubia Traditional Authority palace this Saturday.