Mbende Jerusarema Dance was proclaimed a masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage. It is performed by the community of Murewa and Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe (UMP) in the North Eastern Districts of Zimbabwe.
The ancient fertility dance was called Dembe/Mbende, a shona word for “Mole” which signified fertility and hence the dance became very popular with the locals.
Christian missionaries who came to the area disapproved the sexual explicitly dance but the Community/Practitioners fearing for its extinction, decided to Christian the dance Jerusarema, a shona pronunciation of Jerusalem (The Holy City). So this dance which is practiced under the auspices of Chief Mangwende and Nyajina of Murewa and Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe (UMP) respectively survived and now faces another threat, that of urban migration of the master practitioners, old age and death. UNESCO, in its wisdom and in order to safeguard the dance, proclaimed it a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. 
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