Posted
on September 24, 2016
"When
our first democratically-elected government decided to make Heritage
Day one of our national days, we did so because we knew that our rich
and varied cultural heritage has a profound power to help build our
new nation.” – Nelson Mandela
To
match South Africa's rainbow-ish flag, the former Archbishop Desmond
Tutu has called it the “Rainbow Nation,” acknowledging all the
ethnic and cultural diversity.
One
of the provinces of South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, used to celebrate
September 24 as Shaka Day, in honor of the legendary Zulu King Shaka.
When the lawmakers of South Africa were hashing out the Public
Holidays Bill in 1995, the Zulu people objected to the bill because
it didn't include Shaka Day. As a compromise, Heritage Day was
created.
Heritage
Day is often celebrated with braais, which are barbecues –
informal backyard get-togethers, good food on the grill. This has
been so popular that, to some extent, some people have been calling
the holiday “National Braai Day.” I'm not sure that this
rebranding will maintain “the reason for the season”...as some
concerned South Africans have commented.
Here
are some of the groups that make up the nation:
Zulu,
Xhosa, Tsonga, Tswana, Swazi, Pedi, Sotho, Venda, Ndebele, Afrikaans
(descendents of Dutch setters), descendents of British colonizers,
and descendents from Indonesia, India, France, Germany, and Portugal.
One
can see some of this variety in the fact that there are eleven
official languages plus quite a few unofficial languages! In
contrast, many nations have only one official, national language (the
U.K., France, Germany are just a few examples).
Of
course, many of these groups live in urban areas and wear “modern”
or “Westernized” clothes, but here are a few clothing traditions:
 |
| Ndebele |
 |
| Indian |
 |
| Afrikaan |
 |
| Tsonga |
 |
| Venda |
 |
| Xhosa |
 |
| Zulu |
Also
on this date:
Plan
ahead:
Check out my Pinterest boards for:
And
here are my Pinterest boards for:
No comments:
Post a Comment