ABSTRACT
Recent approaches to community development are driven by some practices
that fail to recognize the integral link between culture and
development. For development to speak to the needs and realities of a
people there is a need to re-conceptualize development as a process, one
which examines how cultural forms such as festivals can inform
development within a community.Using a discursive structure, this study
assesses the LhmbZaar festival of the ZaarSayawa people of TafawaBalewa
and Bogoro local Government Areas of Bauchi State with the aim to
determine ways in which it could strategically function to foster
communal growth. This was done to achieve the set objectives of the
study which looked at the activities of the festival, challenges facing
the festival in ensuring sustainable development and to suggest ways
through which sustainable development can be achieved through the
LhmbZaar festival. There has been a renewed emphasis on recognition of
culture and communal participation by community members as important
steps towards the attainment of sustainable development. Hence,
festivals present themselves as veritable platforms through which
endogenous development can be achieved when they are effectively
utilized. The study therefore deployed community participation theory
and qualitative research tools to collect and analyze data. Through
focus group discussions, participant observation, and interviews with
local community associations, local chiefs as well as community members,
the findings revealed that festivals are culturally friendly tools
capable of engineering community development. However, this function has
largely been compromised in the case of LhmbZaar Festival due to
inadequate participation and involvement of some important people in the
community such as the youths, girls, and some traditional rulers. More
so, the findings reveals that there has not been any attempt to set up
an institutional structure with a mandate to consolidate all development
projects usually discussed and initiated during the festival.
Consequently, the study recommended that communal participation should
be encouraged and structures should be put on ground to ensure
continuity and sustainability in community development projects.