MATOBO’S WOMEN TAKE THE SPOTLIGHT AT 2026 MY BEAUTIFUL HOME PAINTED HUT CONTEST

Colour, culture and community came together at Amagugu International Heritage Centre as it hosted the 2026 My Beautiful Home Painted Hut Contest, celebrating a living tradition carried forward by generations of Matobo women.

My Beautiful Home is a collaboration between Amagugu International Heritage Centre, Ekhaya Gaia – My Beautiful Home in Zimbabwe and the Matobo community. It promotes the painted hut tradition of Matobo, in which women decorate the walls of their homes with distinctive designs.

The programme opened with welcoming remarks from Amagugu Director Allington Ndlovu, who also co-hosted the day as master of ceremonies. Chief N.N. Masuku was represented at the official opening.

The entertainment reflected the community’s living heritage. Pupils from WhiteWaters Primary School performed a traditional dance, followed by the Painted Faces Bhudaza presentation and a performance by Maqedimbuzi. Lewis Ndlovu then led an interactive clapping session that brought the audience into the programme.

Heritage also took to the runway. A fashion show showcased Matobo Cloth, and the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority presented the National Cloth to some of the winners. The moment placed two expressions of Zimbabwean identity on the same stage.

The women were central to the day. This year’s edition drew growing support from companies in Zimbabwe’s corporate sector, who contributed prizes to recognise and support the participating women. Winners received solar panels, solar lights, wheelbarrows, manual ox-drawn ploughs, nartjie trees and cooking pot sets, among other items. The practical nature of the prizes points to the contest’s wider aim of linking cultural recognition to community development.

Organisers described scenes of joy as the women collected their awards, with smiles, dancing and ululation filling the venue. They said the occasion showed what can happen when communities, cultural organisations, development partners and the private sector work together, allowing heritage to become a platform for empowerment as well as celebration.

Amagugu’s message throughout the day was that heritage is not merely something to be preserved from the past. In the centre’s words, it is lived, created, passed on and celebrated. The painted huts of Matobo, it added, remain some of the most beautiful canvases through which communities tell their stories.

Amagugu thanked the women of Matobo, the wider community, partners at Ekhaya Gaia, the corporate sponsors and everyone working to keep the tradition alive.