Thursday, September 24, is a holiday in South Africa, and a day of celebration. Every year, Heritage Day invites South Africans to celebrate the cultures, languages and traditions of a country with twelve official languages. This year is a little different. The national celebrations are taking place in Oudtshoorn, a small town in the Western Cape best known for its ostrich farms, where Cyril Ramaphosa is due to give the official address.
There is a story behind the choice of venue. The celebrations were first planned for KwaZulu-Natal. The government then decided to leave the stage to uMkhosi weLembe, the ceremony at which the Zulu nation honors King Shaka, who died on September 24, 1828. The link matters. The public holiday was born in 1995 out of a compromise with the Inkatha Freedom Party, which refused to see Shaka Day dropped from the calendar. Parliament turned it into a celebration of everyone’s heritage, and the date stayed.
A host town then had to be found at very short notice. George pulled out for lack of time, and Oudtshoorn stepped in. « They were given less time than anyone has ever been given for an event of this stature, and they said yes without hesitation, » said Gayton McKenzie, Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture. Bongolethu Stadium can hold 5,000 people, with free entry from 9 a.m. This year’s theme, « Celebrating Our Living Heritage: Strengthening the Ties That Bind Us, » carries weight in a country where social divides still run deep.
For many families, the day comes down to one ritual: lighting the fire. For about twenty years, Heritage Day has also been known as « National Braai Day. » Some find the nickname irritating, seeing it as a way of emptying the holiday of its meaning. Others see it as one of the few traditions that all South Africans truly share.
Away from the official ceremonies, culture is also being celebrated outdoors. Near Durban, on the shores of Inanda Dam, the twelfth Botho Heritage International Festival runs until September 27 at the Wushwini Pan African Centre. For five days, theater, music, dance, storytelling, film, literature and crafts come together in the Valley of a Thousand Hills. The festival is aimed at the whole continent, not only at South African audiences.
In Oudtshoorn as in Inanda, the message is the same. Thirty years after this holiday was created, South Africa is still looking for what holds it together. Every September 24, it finds a little of it around a fire, a little in a dance, and a great deal in the memory of those who came before.