The Department of Museums and Monuments under the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Culture has partnered Linga Fine Foods and Winery, a fruit wine producing company, to increase awareness of the Malawisaurus, a dinosaur that lived in Malawi over 115 million years ago.
Malawisaurus, meaning Malawi lizard, is believed to be indigenous to Malawi having been found in the northern parts of Malawi. A complete skeleton of a Malawisaurus fossil is displayed in Karonga Cultural and Museum Centre.
Speaking at the showcasing of a billboard put up by Linga Winery in promoting awareness of the underutilized treasure, Director of Department of Museums and Monuments, Dr. Lovemore Mazibuko highlighted that tourism is about uniqueness, hence the need to showcase what is unique to Malawi.
“We have partnered with Linga Fruit Wines to have the billboard strategically placed to market our heritage locally but also internationally. Not many people know about this Malawisaurus which was discovered around the 1990’s in Karonga, Malawi.
“We are trying to raise awareness on the existence of this animal and also promote it for tourism development because we believe we can attract people through showcasing what is unique to Malawi,” he said.
He further said the partnership between the two will boost the tourism sector as well as the economy of Malawi as they may request other companies to assist in putting up billboards that promote several tourism sites such as the Malape Pillars in Machinga.
On his part, Ronald Ngwira, Director for Linga Fine Foods and Winery Limited, said the company celebrates the artifacts that Malawi has, hence its interest in promoting awareness of the treasures as well as its wines.
“It was exciting to be given the authority to put up this banner to celebrate the Malawisaurus as well as Linga Wine as it had always been our dream to put up an advert of the dinosaur together with Linga Wine as a way of attracting people to Malawi,
“We are hoping that this billboard will spark a lot of conversations because many people do not know about it as they should and it is not well celebrated. We believe that the time is now to bring more tourists back in to celebrate the attractions,” he said.
Commenting on the importance of the partnership to Malawians at large, Mervis Mwai Maigwa, who is known for her tour guiding operations, said it is important for Malawians to embrace the spirit of travelling and exploring cultural, heritage and tourism sites in their own country which promotes historic tourism.
“These sites promote awareness of our various tourism sites and must be utilised as they help boost the economy through tourism which helps in creating job opportunities as well as business opportunities for those that work in the tourism sector,” she said.
The Linga Wine and Malawisaurus billboard is mounted along the Kamuzu International Airport road to attract tourists entering and within the country.—Mana
