The month of September is known in South Africa as the Heritage Month. During this month South Africans are encouraged to celebrate their cultural heritage, different traditions and the diversity of their heritage. A heritage is something that we inherit from one generation to another.
A heritage could also be defined as something that comes or belongs to one by reason of birth. We celebrate the Heritage month on the basis that we are in possession of beliefs, norms, traditions, cultures that were handed down to us by those who lived before us. Thus, a heritage is an inheritance.
On a broader spectrum of things we have a lot to celebrate. Celebrating our heritage implies the celebration of our history. History and heritage are two inseparable constructs. We are in possession of our heritage as a result of our history. It is not repetitive to assert that history and heritage are intertwined.
As a country, we have quite a colossal history filled with comfortable, uncomfortable, desirable, detestable, pleasurable and painful memories. We are sitting on a repertoire of memories that we call a heritage. We are known to have come from a painful past architectured by the apartheid regime. I recently watched the film Kalushi and I must say; it takes a conscious decision to view it as a glance into the formation of the heritage we now have.
Films such as Sarafina ‘force’ you to partake in the taste of apartheid and to further appreciate the proceeds of freedom. These movies and others, paint you a high-definition picture of where we come from as a nation. Again, you have to consciously decide to see the positives.
On a very extreme end of the pendulum, one could argue that these movies and related materials have a potential to worsen our already delicate race relations. Apartheid gave birth to some aspects of our heritage. Although we cannot celebrate it, as a system of governance, we have to acknowledge the role it played in making us who we are as a nation.
South Africa is known for diversity. Diversity runs through the veins of our identity. We are the Rainbow nation. We are a multi-racial and multi-faith society. However, diversity is inherently divisive depending on where you are looking at it. Our intention to celebrate it is an attempt to thwart, if not to inhibit its divisive nature.
I think it is somewhat in our nature to want to hold in high regard our own race, tribe, culture, practice, language and norms. Every tribe and race believes that it is somewhat superior to other races and tribes.
Thus, Xhosa women may hold that they are more beautiful than women of other tribes; Tsonga people may hold that they are more humble than other tribes; Venda people may hold that they are more intelligent than other tribes. These tribalistic stereotypes and tendencies are still dominant and perpetuated in this day and age.
Thus, inferiority and superiority complex do not only exist in our relations with white people. I argued in my book titled The Ecclesiastes that we are fundamentally similar in many aspects and therefore it is futile to undermine our tribes. It is fine to be a proud Motswana but do not look down on Mopedi. We are diverse to complement each other.
One of the ‘things’ we celebrate as our heritage is our diverse languages. Language is an important vehicle through which information gets conveyed. Language is a means through which we communicate our messages. Part of celebrating a heritage is preserving the same heritage. We need to preserve the use of our languages for the sake of identity and diversity and owing to the divisive nature of the past.
One of the unfortunate outcomes of apartheid was its ability to make us look down upon our own languages. There is a sense of language inferiority complex we are experiencing as a black society. It disturbs me that there are black South Africans who still cannot differentiate between Tshivenda and Xitsonga, Sepedi, Setswana and Sesotho. It disturbs me that there are black South Africans who find pleasure in making mockery of other languages.
It is disturbing to often hear our black South Africans explicitly stating their unwillingness to learn other languages. Some of our black South Africans who think they have made it in life seem to position English at the apex of the hierarchy of languages. We need to preserve our languages because the children of those who have made it in life speak English as their first language. If indeed language is our heritage we seriously need to preserve it. I am afraid that there is a generation that will witness the demise of our languages.
We certainly have a lot to celebrate. Heritage is about language, race, culture, attire and food to name but a few. No doubt we still have a lot to do. I am of the view that our heritage has not found full expression even today. Why am I saying this?
Selection interviews are still predominantly conducted in English, we wear our so-called African attire only in September and most restaurants do not provide African food.
There is a lot we still need to do to create a space for our heritage to express itself. We need to change how we think of who we are, where we are and what we have.
