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Changing face of culture

Heritage day is here again. While other groups in South Africa have defined their cultural practices, some remain confused and lost. This day is also known to others as a national braai day. Well, who does not like a braai in South Africa? This is a cultural practice and acceptable. However, the notion of culture as a whole in South Africa is trivialised and then reduced to convenience. My simple understanding of culture is that it is about beliefs of the society, customs or a way of life, in the current time. Therefore, celebrating heritage day cannot only be about braai. The definition of culture includes language, food, historical aspects, indigenous knowledge and many more.

In my opinion this is the time for Africans to revive their cultural practices and not just dress up the African way in garments made in African style from China, but consider what makes an African who they are.  Instead, anything African has taken a back seat and African custom is regarded as mediocre, like eating masonja (Mopani worms), Umqombothi (African beer), etc. Well, the use of language is also associated with intelligence, as we see the promotion of English over African languages accelerating at speed of light. The erosion of African origins in Africa is currently in place and Africans have not embraced their identity to integrate well with other groups in a modern Africa. The integration took place from the foundations laid by Apartheid system, which for instance excluded other languages such as Sepulane, Shangaan and Khelobedu and other minority languages.

These are regional languages that are spoken every day in parts of Mpumalanga and Limpopo, and therefore form part of culture, but as Apartheid excluded them from language policies, they remain marginalised today as if Apartheid is a blue print for democracy. Part of colonising a nation, is in the language, and history of Africa is evidence to such statement. Sepulane remain resilient to the erosive nature of the past system and today as we celebrate heritage day, there are young artists who wrap in sepulane, movies are in place, books are on the way and the general nation of Mapulana wants to revive their origin. This is the call to PANSALB to wake up from hypnotic Apartheid past and realise that while other groups in South Africa desert their origin, Mapulana want their dignity restored. The language was classified as Northern Sotho during Apartheid but it is completely different from Sepedi, even Bapedi have difficulty understanding what Mapaulana are saying when they speak in their language.

Therefore, politicians need to stop finishing what Apartheid started and define what it means to be an African! No one is holding a gun against us to force such policies to us; it is our own mediocre from hypnotic spell of the past that is further dismantling Africa. You will respect the fact that the use of Afrikaans language gained more than 30% since the dawn of democracy, as there are more materials in form of books, language, movies and others. This is because their identity is clear to them and they are proud of who they are! Whereas in townships and rural areas we left schools in conditions they were during apartheid and send our children to former model C schools, just because we can afford, thereby, turning our schools into museums of victimhood. When are we going to wake up to the fact that we have power to advance to our destiny? Well, do we even know our destiny? Tsoga moAfrica, wake up from the spell, ke nako, it is time!

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