Reigning Kobudo World Champion Shidoshi Wilfred Mashaya has arrived in Budva, Montenegro for the 8th Humanitarian Martial Arts Festival and Seminar scheduled for September 7-8.
Master Mashaya, also known as the “Zim Ninja,” will receive a Martial Arts Humanitarian Award for his contributions to Bujinkan Ninjutsu and Kobudo.
The Humanitarian Festival is part of the commemoration of September 10th, World Suicide Awareness Day. The organizers aim to involve as many young people as possible in sports activities and to teach them how to deal with depression by practising mental strength through martial arts.
Mashaya, who won the Kobudo weapons World title in England in 2023 and will defend it in October, has also won multiple medals in competitions in Bangladesh, including a remarkable haul of 5 medals in his most recent outing in England.
The Zim Ninja has pioneered Kobudo in Zimbabwe, developing over 30 athletes ready to compete internationally. In October, 20 of his students will participate in the ICO World Championships in Frankfurt as part of the Zimbabwe Kobudo national team.
Shidoshi Mashaya is the only representative from Africa attending this event, which will feature martial arts masters and grandmasters from countries such as Poland, France, Serbia, Germany, Netherlands, Slovenia, Macedonia, Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro.
During the training seminar, these experts will share their knowledge and expertise in Ninjutsu, Kyokushin Karate, Shotokan Karate, Kung fu, Mixed Martial Arts, Taekwondo, Jujitsu, and Kickboxing, among others, providing Mashaya with invaluable insights that he can then bring back to Zimbabwe.
The event’s founding organiser, Bujinkan Ninjutsu Grandmaster Dai Shihan Predrag Lazarevic, spoke highly of Shidoshi Mashaya.
“We have been following your work for a long time especially your performance at the 2018 and 2022 festivals when you made a great contribution to the progress of this festival and presented your country of Zimbabwe in the best light. So we are of the opinion that you are an exceptional example of a person fighting through life, always moving forward and not falling through obstacles in front of obstacles,” Shihan Lazarevic expressed.
“We are sure that you are a real example to youth, and driven by that fact and the assessment of your expertise, we believe that your presence at this festival will contribute to its better realization and thus help save as many children and youth and include them in sports driven by the motto that it is better to have 100 athletes a year than 100 lost lives.”
Shidoshi Mashaya is excited to be part of this prestigious event and honoured to be among the elite martial arts experts present. He is the only one from Africa attending this event.
” So I’m going to receive an award there being chosen by the organizers. And I’m happy that through this, it helps in the visibility of Zimbabwe, showing that Zimbabwe has got what it takes being chosen by European masters to come and grace this prestigious occasion,” Mashaya explained.
“The main event is today starting with a training seminar where masters from around the world will be changing one after the other, sharing their skills with others in their different fields of martial arts. Masters of Taekwondo, masters of Karate, masters of Ninjutsu, masters of Judo, masters of Wushu, different masters of many martial arts styles sharing their knowledge.”
