Africa-Press – Angola. The head of the Provincial Department for Culture, Historical Heritage and Traditional Authorities of Cuanza Norte, Genilson da Costa, said this Thursday in Ndalatando that the Government plans to reopen the Handicraft Fair of Dondo, in the municipality of Cambambe, paralyzed since 2020.
Combining history, culture, tourism and business, Feira do Dondo is an annual event, held since 2010, in a partnership between the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Government of Cuanza Norte.
The event aims to reconstitute the history of commercial activity carried out in the territory of Ndongo, known as Feira do Dondo, which began in 1625.
Genilson da Costa stressed that the X edition of Feira do Dondo was held in 2019 and paralyzed the following year, due to the economic crisis that affected the country, combined with the pandemic situation of COVID-19.
Genilson da Costa referred that the government of Cuanza Norte is working on the elaboration of the terms of reference for holding, this year, the 11th edition of the event, which takes place between August and September, and which brings together exhibitors from the provinces of Luanda, Cuanza Norte , Cuanza Sul, Malanje and Cabinda.
He clarified that the Dondo Fair is a booster for the dissemination of the Kwanza Corridor and the history of the Kingdom of Ndongo.
It also serves as justification for the Executive’s intention to register the candidacy of the Kwanza Corridor with Unesco as a World Heritage Site.
“If we want to move forward with the process of inscribing the Kwanza Corridor as a World Heritage Site, the Dondo Fair is one of the indispensable elements of this project, as it portrays the slave trade”, he underlined.
The official added that the event is also an instrument for valuing the work of local artisans and encouraging artists to produce, with the hope of being able to sell.
Genilson da Costa acknowledged that the stoppage of the fair contributed to the drop in artisanal production in the province, due to the despair of artisans, who were left without a market for the exhibition and sale of their works.
Currently, the event’s program has reserved, among other attractions, the launch of literary works, lectures on the most varied subjects, photographic exhibitions that portray various aspects of the Kingdom of Ndongo, visits to tourist and historical sites.
The Dondo Fair has also been used by many visitors to search for information of academic interest or to compose cultural works, with emphasis on discoveries about the importance of the Kwanza river corridor, navigable from Barra do Kwanza, in the province of Luanda, to Dondo (Cuanza Norte).
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