The Makulane Cultural Group recently caught the eye of the media when they entertained guests during the Vhembe District Municipality’s imbizo at Mashambatshivhuyuni. Many readers wanted to know more about this vibrant group of youngsters and their trainers.

According to the leader of the dance group, Ms Mercy Molewa, the group was formed in 2022 to keep the young girls from the Mashamba, Tshivhuyuni, and Makulane villages busy on weekends.

She said that she had been watching the young girls lingering around the villages after school and over weekends for some time and one day decided to come up with something to keep them busy. “I invited girls between the ages of 7 and 18 years to join me and we went to the sports grounds at Makulane village, where I started to teach them various cultural dances, like the tshigombela, malende, and xigubu,” she said.

The Makulane Cultural Group has grown since, and her young dancers are proudly showing off their dancing skills as they now get invited to perform at weddings and other special ceremonies and functions, and even take part in traditional-dance competitions.

Molewa said she did not want the Vhavenda and Vatsonga cultures and their traditional dances to fade away because a nation who forgot its culture was doomed. “I would like for these young girls to perform in the Vhembe District and at other organised provincial cultural competitions and events,” she said.

Thovhele Nndweleni Mashamba, one of the senior traditional leaders of the Vhavenda, applauded young girls who take part in these cultural dances, which he says will go a long way in fighting crime and teenage pregnancy. Mashamba said that he himself enjoyed cultural dances, and that people who took pride in their identity were the ones who could help to preserve their cultures.