As part of Heritage Day celebrations at the office, there is nothing wrong with Frikkie from finance adorned in Ndebele garb or Sibongile from sales looking demure in her Indian sari.
But it's also time for South Africans to move beyond traditional attire as the primary way of celebrating Heritage Month. There's a great need for cultural initiatives such as the Folklore Festival that promotes resonant and sometimes uncomfortable conversations about diversity, culture and inclusivity.
“Just from a generational perspective, it's difficult for our young people to retain their heritage due to external influences such as TV and social media. South Africa has changed from when my generation was growing up, where parents and other community members used to pass down traditions and customs orally,” says one of the festival’s performers, Madala Kunene, widely regarded as a musical and cultural shaman.
These days, if a youth doesn't agree with what their elder is teaching them, they can even report the elder to the authorities.”
The 65-year-old Cato Manor native strummed his first makeshift guitar crafted from cooking oil tins and fish gut along Durban’s beachfront.
Despite his humble beginnings, his works became respected narratives of ancestral Zulu folklore.
“It didn't sit well with me that African heritage was slowly being watered down and lost, so I started to compose songs that would be a repository for traditions. For example, something as simple as the lyrics to the musical games we used to play as kids are not being documented anywhere. There was wordplay and academic intelligence in what we did, and my music hopefully will inform future generations,” he says.
Much like other commemorative periods in South Africa, Heritage Month has been catapulted into a commercial showcase where well-funded topics such as “Braai Day” dominate public-facing platforms.
This means alternative content from cultural activists, storytellers, authors, filmmakers, thespians, oral traditionalists, poets and cultural strategists finds itself vying for limited attention.
“A cultural strategist is an individual who finds ways of collaborating with various people with the purpose of culture being placed in conventional and unconventional spaces, where cultural practitioners wouldn't see an opportunity. For example, I would ask what significance does culture and tradition play in South Africa’s financial system,” says Muriel Mokgathi-Mvubu, known by her pen name MoAfrika wa Mokgathi.
“The idea would be based on the historical fact that the bartering system was used as a currency back in the day, so I'd use that approach in modern times. Perhaps a photographer and a poet could barter services in order to promote today’s creative arts industry.”
Hailing from Mamelodi, she's a revered poet, author, translator and teaching artist. Her collection of poetry titled My Tongue is a Rainbow was launched in Washington DC in 2019 as part of the Azania to DC Poetry Tour and Cultural Exchange.
The works explore painful parts of what seem to be part of South Africa’s unflattering heritage including topics such as gender-based violence and femicide, and inequality and marginalised languages that are dying out, such as Kilobedu, sign language and Khoi San mother tongues.
“Language is as important as breathing. It's a way of life, as it moulds culture which then determines a nation’s patterns of behaviour. The morale of a society is also influenced by language. The informal hello is different to the Tswana thobela, which has a certain tone and reference to it. As a creative writing teacher, I ensure my students are intentional when it comes the choice of language they use as this has an impact in their style of writing and their approach to storytelling,” says Mokgathi-Mvubu.
“Some African languages are dying out and I've made it my life’s mission to try and preserve them. When I have conversations with younger poets who write predominantly in English, I introduce the possibility of them writing in their mother tongue and my mind has been blown by what they've produced.
“A while ago I started mother-tongue slam poetry sessions, and I was particularly impressed by young poets who challenged themselves to pen works in various languages. As much as some languages are dying out from being marginalised, some such as Sepedi and Venda are gaining popularity in cultural circles,” she adds.
Last week, famed mbongi [Xhosa praise singer] Jessica Mbangeni passed away, leaving a vacuum in the arts and culture community. She was well-known for her vibrant Xhosa poetry, dance and African fashion as well as her ability to fuse contemporary art with deep-rooted traditions.
“South Africa is the only country in the world that opens parliament by using poetry and this shows just how seriously this art is taken at the highest levels of government. Dikgoro [advisers who would use poetry to counsel figures of authority] were important back in the day, and this shows that a cultural discipline like poetry has far-reaching impact on our society. It's affirming that spoken word artists are being amplified at such important outings,” she says.
The Folklore Fringe Festival takes place during the month of September in Joburg, Tshwane and Cape Town. The main Folklore Festival event will be held on the September 14 at the Women’s Jail at Constitutional Hill, Joburg. Visit folklore.community for more information.
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