By Jonathan Mbiriyamveka
HARARE — In 2019, when First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa first gathered chiefs’ wives to compete at the cooking fire, few could have predicted that a seemingly modest culinary contest would, seven years later, become a Cabinet-approved national strategy and earn Zimbabwe an invitation to address an international forum in Cape Town.
At the FAO’s WILD Exchange 2026, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Hon Barbara Rwodzi left no ambiguity about the credit.
The First Lady, she said, had “reintroduced Zimbabwe’s traditional cuisine” and championed its entire value chain — “including the participation of women, youth, people living with disabilities and rural communities.”
The United Nations Tourism organisation has given her a more succinct title: “Queen of Gastronomy Tourism in Africa.”
From “Amai’s Cookout” to National Policy
The architecture has a traceable origin. In 2019, Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa launched the traditional cookout competitions, initially confined to chiefs’ wives.
By the sixth final held in Kwekwe in May 2026, the participant base had widened to include men, women, youth, students, persons with disabilities, inmates, church groups and professional chefs, drawn from all ten provinces.
That expansion was not incidental. In July 2026, Cabinet approved the Zimbabwe National Gastronomy Strategy 2026–2030, positioning gastronomy tourism as a “priority high-value tourism product” with the goal of establishing Zimbabwe as a competitive destination by 2030.
Information Minister Zhemu Soda, announcing the approval, emphasised the strategy’s Ubuntu foundation — “sharing meals symbolises care and hospitality, connecting communities and generations.”
The strategy’s pillars include developing contemporary culinary professional capacity, reviving schools of service excellence, using gastronomy tourism as a catalyst for rural industrialisation, and establishing a National Tourism (Culinary Arts) Academy in Victoria Falls.
What makes the framework distinctive is that it did not emerge from a ministry’s drafting desk alone; it grew outward from a grassroots competition stewarded by the First Lady.
International Recognition and Institutional Dividends
The international system’s response came faster than expected. During an April 2026 visit to Zimbabwe, UN Tourism Secretary-General Shaikha Al Nowais told Mnangagwa directly: “Her love for gastronomy is real.” Al Nowais also singled out the First Lady‘s “farm-to-market” programme and the creation of a Zimbabwean wine brand.
The more consequential dividend was institutional: UN Tourism announced it would build an “African International Culinary Arts Academy” in Victoria Falls, named in recognition of Mnangagwa’s contribution.
That decision dovetails with the national strategy’s own planned culinary academy — meaning an international agency is, in effect, underwriting both the First Lady’s personal brand and Zimbabwe’s culinary education infrastructure with multilateral resources.
Rwodzi has repeatedly tied the country’s tourism diplomacy directly to the First Lady‘s work. In October 2026, she dedicated an “Unstoppable Africa Minister Award” to the President and the First Lady, crediting Mnangagwa’s passion for “national heritage, culture, wildlife and gastronomy” with continuing to enrich Zimbabwe’s destination identity.
The Tension Between Personal Brand and Institutional Durability
Yet the model’s very success conceals its deeper question. Zimbabwe’s gastronomy tourism strategy is tightly bound to one individual’s profile.
The UN Tourism recognition, the FAO invitation, the culinary academy — all are narrated through the frame of “Dr Mnangagwa’s initiative.”
Supporters see this as efficiency: in a system where administrative execution is often fragmented, a committed patron can mobilise resources and cut across departmental silos.
The “Amai” brand — meaning “mother” in Shona — lends the policy a warmth and grassroots legitimacy that no ministerial document could replicate.
Critics, however, may ask: what remains when the patron is no longer the patron? The Cabinet-approved 2026–2030 strategy offers a partial answer — it anchors gastronomy tourism within the monitoring frameworks of National Development Strategy 2 (NDS2), the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2063. An institutionalised policy framework can, in theory, outlast individual influence.
But the culinary academy is not yet built. The FAO’s WILD Africa-Caribbean initiative is still at the connecting stage. And whether rural producers have genuinely achieved measurable income growth through “value chain participation” remains an open question.
The answers will determine whether the “Queen” title represents a sustainable development model or the projection of a highly personalised political brand onto the tourism sector.
On the FAO stage in Cape Town, Zimbabwe shared its “experience.” At home, the real test is whether — when the competitions end and the applause fades — the rural women who learned to cook traditional dishes at those fires can actually turn a plate of madora or a cup of mapfura into stable income.
The First Lady‘s kitchen has proven it can attract international attention.
What it must prove next is whether it can sustainably feed the people standing behind the cooking fire.
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