what's in a heritage?

so today is the youngest of South African national holidays, Heritage Day. Or is it? Some refer to this day as Shaka Day. Others, actually most people, refer to it as National Braai Day. Listen to the radio shows, read the newspaper articles, and hear people speak about this day this week, and you would not be blamed for thinking that South Africa dedicated an entire day to celebrate braai-ing, or bbq-ing (for my non south african buddies). Although we saw almost no sunshine today, i'm sure this did not keep thousands, millions, from braai-ing and preparing potjies (pronounced "po-i-keys"). So why are south africans celebrating braai meat? What heritage are they celebrating?

I managed to come across this unbiased (i think) background of heritage day:

In KwaZulu-Natal, the 24th of September was known as Shaka Day, in commemoration of the Zulu King. Shaka was the legendary Zulu King who played an important role in uniting disparate Zulu clans into a cohesive nation.  The Public Holidays Bill presented to the Parliament of South Africa at the time did not have the 24th of September included on the list of proposed public holidays. As a result of this exclusion, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), a South African political party with a large Zulu membership, objected to the bill. Parliament and the IFP reached a compromise and the day was given its present title and seen as a public holiday.

  

So are we then meant to celebrate the Zulu kingdom today? and how does braai-ing fit into the culture of the zulus? i spoke to a few south africans about my many questions and they gave me many interesting responses. most agreed that it was a day to celebrate sa's many diverse cultures and its ability to understand, tolerate, and share in others' cultures. 15 years ago, former president nelson mandela stated that the reason for declaring this day a holiday was to acknowledge that the rich and varied heritages in sa have a profound power to help build the new nation. He added that in order to rise from the ashes of division and conflict, it was essential for sa to acknowledge the sacrifices and talents of all the cultures residing in these borders. Yesterday, many organisations encouraged their employees to come to work dressed to showcase their cultures. At my client i saw several people dressed in full indian attire, zulu and xhosa wear. there were even some in "other" african wear, from east and west africa.

However, i didn't see anyone in afrikaans gear or british gear. those from british descendants claimed they hardly have a culture to display. i guess i can't blame them for that! however, the afrikaans have a very rich and celebrated culture. why were they not participating in this national holiday. ask many of them what they're doing to celebrate the holiday and they would give you a stare like you were the dumbest thing in the world, and almost in unison tell you they were going to braai, all saturday. of course. in all fairness, quite a few/a lot of blacks, indians, etc also use this day to braai and affectionately label the holiday as national braai day. but how did that come to be? how did heritage day become braai day? seems to water down the significance of the holiday no? or perhaps, it seeks to find some common ground, as with rugby or cricket, that most south africans can cling to in hopes of finding some sense of commonality - a hope for a nation striving to come together?

For the all-too-educated blacks i spoke with, this watering down of an important holiday to something as meaningless as burnt meat did not fly too well. one replied to my questions by stating:

"first we need to reflect on what we have inherited before creating a new so-called heritages of a new consensus. And truth is that what we have inherited this far is causing discomfort to those that stand to loose from the critical review"

That's deep and powerful and all-too-personal for so many. He added:

Braai day is a good idea, they just need to find a separate date for it and not undermine the significance of what brought about heritage day. People died a people suffered for this day to be symbolic.

other bloggers and twitter-ers shared similar sentiments. everyone loves to braai or to go to a braai in sa. that's a national consensus! but should this "new heritage" overshadow the real significance of heritage day? on a broader note, shouldn't we as a society be careful not to lose historical significance of our history, lest we forget where we came from and where we're going? do we all wanna end up like the british decendants who seem to believe they have no heritage? my father loves to remind his children to never forget whose we are and where we come from. he was reminding us in a way, not to lose our heritage, perhaps knowing full well how easy and convenient it often is to forget.

Happy Heritage Day South Africa! and in the words of a twitter-er that i fully respect: "Celebrate your roots but let other people braai too"

madiba: savior, saint, or common man?

  

Last week, i was invited to join a discussion with a group that i described as young energetic south african youth leaders (or YESAYLs). No, these were not political youth leaders in the mold of julius malema (good ole juju). and they probably wouldnt consider themselves youth leaders...yet...but imo they're well on their way to defining and shaping the conversations in south africa in the years to come. and that's a good thing. i'm not 100% sure why i was invited; though being a friend of one of these YESAYLs didn't hurt i guess. I'd also like to think that i was invited because one of the YESAYL thought I had something to add to the topic. and she knew me enough to know that i would never turn down a chance for a good debate.

The topic: Mandela Day and Mandela, in general.

Before I got the invite, I had a pre-debate with aforementioned YESAYL about Mandela day and the activities set apart for that day, particularly the one organised by the cheesekids organisation. See, every July 18 (or thereabouts), south africa celebrates the former president's (and living icon's) birthday and 67 years of service. Mandela has made a point in recent years to remind south africans this should never be seen as a holiday (which it isnt), but as a national day of service - a day set apart to do something, anything, for at least 67 minutes to help someone else or some community or some school, etc. People proudly boasted of the 67 minutes they spent cleaning up their local park, their local roads, taking food to the homeless, reading to kids, painting schools, etc. instead of south africa looking for a moment to unite around during world cups and sporting events, you would have thought they found one during mandela day. people were reporting from all over the country what they had just done and how proud they were of themselves. it was a time to be proud to be south african, or for people like me, proud to be among proud south africans. or was it?

at least one group of young intellectuals (mostly black south africans) found something fundamentally wrong with these kinds of activities. Enter the previously mentioned YESAYLs. They criticised the cheesekids organisation for organising an event that was supposed to be about giving back, but rather turned into a publicity stunt with "famous" people showing up to sign autographs and the organisation spending lots more money on concerts and PR than actually focusing on helping people. They questioned how much "help" or effect the 67 minutes really had on the communities. Were township kids really better off for kicking a ball around for 67 minutes? Were students smarter and better equiped to succeed academically thanks to the new hastily painted hallways? Were the homeless better off for the bland soup made and distributed within the allotted 67 minutes? Or was it a day to feed white guilt and make people (white, black, indian, green, purple, yellow...) feel good about themselves, because, hey they've done their 67 minutes of service and now they can relax in anticipation of next year's 67 minutes? (one YESAYL wrote a brilliant piece about this in the leading mail & guardian newspaper; check it out at here)

This was the starting point for last week's discussions facilitated by these YESAYLs. you may have noticed me or others tweeting with #madiba. These were the instructions of the group for those that chose to tweet the debate. I resisted at first, but just like my resistance of twitter, i had to give in to the urge! Moving on, the convo quickly turned from the pointed debate on mandela day to the "issue" of mandela himself.

The sub-topic: do we still need mandela?

As south africans, these YESAYLs all had valid points; I learned quite a bit from them. there was no debate that madiba was needed in the early 90s. As the struggle went global, it was necessary to have a face for the movement. when blacks were liberated, but tensions existed between zulu's and xhosa's, for example, madiba was absolutely necessary. despite his many flaws, madiba the saint was needed for a time period. the question now remained, do we still need madiba today? do we need a saint? a savior? do we need to look at our past to determine where we're headed or do we need to look to ourselves to find the savior within?

Intellectually, the arguments of the YESAYLs made sense. Painting a school for 67 minutes or giving bread and sweets to a homeless person may actually do more evil than good. Ideally, we would all want people to have a more sustained commitment to helping those in need. going to a school every week to tutor and mentor is obviously much better than going once a year, for an hour, and kicking a soccer ball around, then turning around, getting the hell out of there as fast as possible and going back to enjoying drinks, dancing and music in a much more comfortable northern suburb (which is some people's recollection of what happened on mandela day). And yes, ideally, we would leave madiba alone and let the man be in peace and move on. we wouldn't use him as a crutch or elevate him to a pedestal he never asked to be on. we wouldn't use him as the only reason to do something for a purpose greater than ourselves. what happens when the man dies? we would have to move on sometime, no? why not now? but is this only an intellectual argument?

for those students of south african history and the history of the struggle - as most of these YESAYLs were - its easy to recognise madiba for the ordinary man that he is and therefore to place too much value on the intellectual and fact based arguments. but for people like me - and i would dare say many other non-south africans - #madiba represents more than himself. i challenged the group to look beyond the intellectual argument and towards a more emotional and realistic one. to remember what madiba stood for and represents to the rest of the world. he was the face of the black struggle. to move on from that so quickly, risks "moving on" too quickly from the plight of the black south african - a struggle that still continues in full force today. to move on from the ideal that is madiba risks moving on from the ideal of forgiveness and nation building. as an alternative to madiba, many may turn to a more militant and less thoughtful juju- a scenario, i don't even wish to entertain. dead or alive, if people can look at madiba and be inspired to learn more about south africans or to act in an unselfish manner, with a greater purpose, if madiba represents the aspirations of a nation and the ideal of freedom and reconciliation, then why are we so quick to want to discard that? although fully aware of his faults, i was inspired by madiba and what he represents and represented. an ideal he was willing to die for - words i can only aspire to say one day.

and what about mandela day. once upon a time, i used to hate people that come through inner cities or townships once or twice a year and pass out candies or play soccer with the kids for an hour, give them some soup and then leave. I agreed with the group that it helps the "volunteer's" egos and guilt way more than he helps the communities and kids. but then i thought some more about this and the ideal of the majority of ONE. if events like the one organised by cheesekids (however flawed) allowed just one person to experience something they would normally have not in a community they would normally not visit; if the call to service opened the eyes of one teenager to think of others above themselves, even for a few minutes, and sacrifice some of their time and resources; if all the festivities introduced only one person to the idea of giving more regularly and volunteering more actively, then in some way it has its value. i think we may need to start viewing development of people, communities, nations, in such a light. As we await the lightning bolt to hit, eradicating poverty and solving world hunger, perhaps we can take solace knowing that one person has been given an opportunity to have a view into the world of helping people help themselves, perhaps meeting others with the same goals, and perhaps going on to make it a sustained habit.

these YESAYLs have decided to start a youth think tank. i look forward to watching them grow and hearing great things about them!