How Heritage Day was captured by the Stellenbosch billionaire’s club
Heritage Day
Posted inEquality, General
Of monuments and men
A visual reading of the “Monumentaal” concert’s flyer raises questions about Afrikaner masculinity and celebrations of heritage
Posted inEquality, General
No language is superior to any other, except for English, apparently
We must stop the systematic favouring of European languages in Africa
Posted inEquality, Gender violence
Let’s end our dual heritage of resilience and predation
South Africa needs to address the systems that enable predators of all kinds to delay equity
Posted inNews/Politics
Heritage Day: What’s wrong with this picture?
I have a love-hate relationship with Heritage Day. Beyond the warm and fuzzy feelings of seeing people in different and beautiful outfits representing their heritage — our diversity as the rainbow nation — it’s also a point of tension and possibly pain. In the wake of a cultural appropriation incident a few months ago, Heritage […]
Posted inEquality, General
The things we do in the name of transformation
I came across the recent cover of Independent Education and I was troubled. It is a picture of a black boy donned in Scottish garb while participating in a parade. The blurb inside the magazine explaining the front cover reads: “About our cover: Grade 10 student Sanele Mboto is the current drum major of the St […]
Posted inEnvironment, Equality, News/Politics
Our diverse cultural heritage defies the stereotype, let’s keep it that way
By Busani Ngcaweni It was January 2000. Heavy rains in the north-eastern parts of KwaZulu-Natal were causing mayhem for rural communities and across the border in neighbouring Mozambique where search-and-rescue teams from the South African National Defence Force were in full force. Apart from the environmental and livelihoods impact of these heavy rains in this […]
Posted inGeneral
Celebrating our heritage beyond braais and traditional outfits
On September 24 we will once again celebrate Heritage Day in South Africa. This is a day on which South Africans across the spectrum are encouraged to celebrate their culture and the diversity of their beliefs and traditions. Although the vision of this day resonates with me, in reality I experience it as incredibly superficial. […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle, News/Politics
The braai or shisa nyama is not heritage
By Unéné Gregory We brand our beautiful country as a rainbow nation, one with people of various backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities. We are a country unlike any other and one of the days to acknowledge our diversity and actively learn about one another is Heritage Day. Formerly celebrated only in KwaZulu-Natal as King Shaka day our […]
Posted inGeneral
Braaing on Heritage Day
Is it OK to call Heritage Day Braai Day? I’m a feral academic who works in advertising, which means that debates like this are especially interesting to me. I wrote my thesis on the role of advertising in post-apartheid South African identity, and nothing crystallises the arguments over exactly what we stand for quite like […]