Dar es Salaam. Tanzania
East African Gazette and Harakati Zajiji
Onastories, a non-governmental organization, in collaboration with Tanzania National Museum, has launched a digital campaign in an effort to preserve Makonde culture.
The campaign will run on social platform including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook through photo filters “Instagram filters, among others
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Speaking while launching the digital campaign on Wednesday October 12, 2023, in the City of Dar es Salaam. Tulanana Bohela, the Director of Onastories, said the campaign will involve the upgrading of traditional Makonde tribes in an effort to promote their culture. especially facial ‘incisions’ and the carving of masks.
What East African Gazette have learnt is that the digital campaign will be fun and people will be taken to air space using augmented reality technology to appreciate the values of Makonde culture.
Bohela, who doubles as Head of the Real Technology Division, said they have already empowered 12 designers with the ability and knowledge of augmented reality technology to preserve Makonde’s culture digitally.
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“Stimulating collaboration between cultural conservators, historians, document collectors and designers to ensure authenticity exists.
Digitizing Makonde’s tattoo and making it available to preserve, educate, and connect to platforms like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok,” emphasized Bohela.
Elvida Max, the Head of IT Division, National Museum, said the launch is timely as it will maintain the culture of Makonde for the next generation to come.
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He noted that, before the launch, Onastories has made preparations for six months to monitor the way the Konde people live and put that history on a digital system and later it will be stored in the National Museum.
“This project is inspired by the loss of tattooing culture in Makonde society, the effects of technological changes in the influence of tourists in museums and how technology can be used to connect today’s generation with what the ancestors did using augmented reality technology”. Said Max.
The Resident Representative of UNESCO in the country, Michael Toto congratulated the Institute of Onstories and National Museums for the plan to preserve Makonde culture for current and future generations.
![](https://eastafricangazette.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/digital-campaign-1-1-1024x675.jpg)
In addition, in the event, various stakeholders and people have been able to see for themselves the culture of the Makonde tribe through their mobile phones.
“I’m optimistic that the launch of the Makonde culture preservation marks the beginning of digitizing our Tanzanian cultural history, stirring emotions and igniting a vision for digitizing our cultural heritage.” Elvida Max Head of ICT
What you need to know about the Makonde Culture
The Makonde are a Bantu speaking community who live on both sides of river Ruvuma which forms the border of Tanzania and Mozambique, the community originated from the Northern part of the Republic of Mozambique mainly from Mwende district of Cabb Derogado province.
A small group of Makonde migrated to Kenya in the early part of the twentieth century, and have remained ever since.
The Kenyan Makonde are estimated to be 4000 people and started streaming into Kenya as early as 1948., Kenyan Makonde consists of descendants of exiled freedom fighters, refugees fleeing civil war, Laboure’s who were recruited by the British during the colonial period to work in sisal farms and sugar plantations across Kenya’s coastal province in Kwale, Kilifi and Taita Taveta, Makonde lost their formal working jobs in the sisal firms and sugar plantations in the 1990s
Wait for more information in the next season