By Monica Tambala

FILE PHOTO: Tourism Minister Dr. Micheal Usi

Lilongwe, MANA: The Minister of Tourism, Culture and Wildlife, Dr. Michael Usi has urged Malawians to put culture on the fore front in the fight against corruption.

Speaking on Monday in Lilongwe where he presided over the opening of the 2022 Malawi National Conference on Arts and Culture, the Minister emphasized on the importance of leveraging arts, culture and heritage for sustainable development while at the same time made mention on utilizing culture to curb corruption in Malawi.

“Issues of corruption can be best tackled from the cultural perspective, culture is the way we live and Politics modifies itself to suit the objectives. So when we talk about culture we are talking about who are we, what we value and our ethics,

 What seems to happen is that our culture has not really come upfront to fight corruption and therefore corruption appears to be a part of our culture,” he said.

He further said politicians cannot fight against corruption on their own because some of them are involved in corruption hence the need for culture to come in and be on the fore front as it promotes ethics which will help Malawians to be of good ethical standing.

“Not only is culture a way of life, it is our perspective of what is right and what is wrong, as politicians we can diverge certain things to benefit us depending on the time, but when culture is on the forefront it helps reduce cases of corruption, hence the need for it to lead,” said Usi.

Meanwhile the Minister encouraged various artists in the country to embrace quality by being creative and authentic as originality of products is of great value in a competitive market.

On his part, Francisco Gomez Duran, Head of the Culture Unit at UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa commended the strides that the Ministry of Tourism is making in promoting and supporting culture and creative industries in the country.

“It is important to implement the Malawi national cultural policy because of the potentials that the creative industries have in achieving sustainable development, job creation, opportunities for growth and also social cohesion for national identity,

The government of Malawi is bringing together different professionals and stakeholders in the cultural industry to effectively implement its policy. We need to hear all the voices of the different stakeholders to see what needs to be improved and strengthened for the country to tap effectively into the potential of the industry,” He said.

Commenting on the importance of bringing in different voices to contribute on how the policy can effectively be implemented was Nyokase Madise, Creative Director for Good Talent Creative Hub who hailed Ministry of Tourism for involving the youth in the conference.

“Sustainable development is what we all need to be talking about in all sectors and it is great that artists are getting into the conversation as well. It is important to involve more young people to push things on the ground, be responsible for lobbying as well as research for sustainable development,” she said.

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