BY GRACE MACHA IN ARUSHA
The government is set to give more push to fashion as a tourism product with a great potential.
This will be part of efforts to diversify the tourism attractions in the country now largely focused on wildlife.
"We want to see cultural tourism climbing higher. It can turn around our tourism", said the former deputy minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Mary Masanja.
She cited the rich Maasai cultural fashion which, she said, should be preserved and promoted for the coming generations as well as for tourism.
The deputy minister made the remarks here on Friday evening last week when she graced the Maasai Fashion Night at Gran Melia Arusha.
Joining the traditional dance of the Maasai and clad in Maasai women attire, Ms Masanja was full of steam on why cultural tourism should be promoted.
"The government will fully support such initiatives.We should position cultural tourism top of our priorities", she explained.
The Maasai Fashion Night,which attracted scores of members of the ethnic group clad in decorated attire, is a precursor to the Maasai Festival to be held in Arusha in October this year.
The Festival will be organized by the Dar es Salaam-based Wonderland Travel whose CEO and founder Saidi Rukemo said.
"Culture should complement wildlife in Tanzania's tourism landscape. Today we are celebrating Maasai fashion. Next time, it should be any of our 120 tribes".
He said the cultural relics in Tanzania, including fashion, songs and artifacts can get lost if not preserved or passed from one generation to another.
The fashion night was dominated by a display of the decorated Maasai cultural artefacts from the head gears, necklaces, earrings to the ankle bracelets.
The colourful festival attracted some participants from as far as Houston, Texas in the United States of America (USA) who came to support the initiative.
Ms Asia Idarus Khamsin runs an outlet called 'Mother of Fashion Tanzania' in the US did not hide her feelings that she was excited by "the beauty of the Maasai".
"The Maasais are rich in culture. Let us stick to our culture. Many artists here are putting on nothing else but the colourful Maasai attire",she said.
Clad with all the usual decorations of a Maasai woman at a festival, the Zanzibar-born Ms Khamsin was full of beaded decorations such as jewelry,necklaces, earrings, headbracets and others.
The 64 year old fashion designer said the fashion industry has a great potential for the country's economy given the diverse cultural relics found in Tanzania.
She has been in the US for the past 15 years promoting the country's fashion designs in America, the leading tourism source market for Tanzania. In all, she has been in the fashion industry for over 40 years.
Speaking at the well-attended event,Lekoko Lepilal, the director of Maasai Fashion implored the tourism stakeholders to promote cultural fashions to complement wildlife-based tourism.
"Cultural tourism is not confined to fashion (traditional attire) but cuisine, songs, lyrics and artefacts", he pointed out.
He said Tanzania will not attain the target of five million tourists (a year) by 2025 without adding some new products to the familiar tourist attractions.
He noted that fashion designs and other components of cultural tourism would serve as a catalyst to promote Tanzania as a leading tourist destination in Africa.
According to Mr, Lepilal, the fashion industry also has a potential to create employment for the fashion designers and other people in its value chain.
The Maasai, who originated from the northern Tanzania regions of Arusha, Manyara and Kilimanjaro, have lately become famous and easily recognizable thanks to their brightly coloured robe.
Maasai 'shuka' is predominantly red or blue cloth, wrapped around their lean and slender frames. Red symbolizes Maasai culture and it is the color believed by these people to be able to scare off lions even from a great distance.
Maasai jewelry, created with beads and metal wire, are just as famous: men wear wrist or ankle bracelets, and sometimes belts and necklaces too, while women feature an explosion of color and jewelry.
They wear tens of bracelets and big flat bead-decorated collars in various patterns and colors, that identify the clan they belong to and their social status.
In recent years, Maasai fashion has made a captivating transition into the global fashion scene, combining traditional elements with contemporary designs. T
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