The whole concept of padare has been to introduce a meetingplace of ideas, a marketplace where everyone is included, giving and receiving gifts of wonderful work from across the globe.
On the other hand it should be mentioned that padare as an open gatheringplace of frank discussion, can be both a safe and risky place. The meetingsare generative and intense, and participants may be too many for the bandwithavailable. Possibilities for follow-up are good but cannot be assured. That isthe structure of padare; a place to provide encounters with newness ofsharing and uniqueness of exchange. Padare is about consensus through open dialogue and mutual respect. Dare is the traditional Shona term which denotes the special meeting placewhich, before colonialism, functioned at many levels of Zimbabwean society.		Padare (a Zimbabwean word meaning "meeting place")		Within the family, the dare was the time and place in which men mettogether, along with the boys of the household. It was a resting placeand the place where they ate. It was also a place of counseling and formationwhere the older generation passed on wisdom to the young. Women within a family also met together, but in a different place tothe men. They called their meetings kutandare. At the village level the padare was also a mainly male grouping. Here,it provided community building, counseling of the young, and judicial decisionsin the face of disputes. The gender-specific character of these groups is not something thatone would normally consider desirable today. However, there are other aspectsto the Shona tradition of padare which Zimbabweans are currently re-evaluatingand reclaiming.
The dare was a place where all participants became equals.It was also a place of consensus; there was never a rush to reach decisions,for that would have prevented the building of community.