Heritage Can Be Old and New

As South Africa enters September, we find ourselves in Heritage Month. This is a great opportunity to engage with cultural elements of the past which can inform our present — but we should also be aware of the dangers of how we present and celebrate heritage.

The month itself has an interesting heritage. It carries this name because of the public holiday on September 24 which is now called Heritage Day. But older readers may recall that this used to be commemorated (in some parts of the country) as King Shaka Day, marking the date of his death in 1828.

When the Inkatha Freedom Party, as one of the junior members in the first government of national unity post-1994, failed to have Shaka’s Day converted into a new national holiday, the compromise was to keep the date but rename it “Heritage Day”. So the Zulus could celebrate the heritage of King Shaka, and this date could also now provide a platform for other parts of the new nation to celebrate their various heritages.

All very well-intentioned, but how has this now evolved? Sitting in Durban with its very strong and diverse cultural roots — Zulu, Indian and British — I am conscious that these celebrations of heritage tend not to be occasions that unify. In fact, inadvertently, they end up reinforcing divisions. So the Zulu celebrations of Zulu heritage are attended only by Zulus; the Indian celebrations of Indian heritage are attended only by Indians, and so on. Actually, all these events are being attended by South Africans, but in this context it is not “South Africans” that we see, but “Zulus” and “Indians”.

It is good that we have these opportunities to help people understand their ancestral heritage and better appreciate the music and costumes and customs of the past. However, they are rarely designed in a way to make them accessible or even appealing to people from outside that community.

Yet that is what we should be aiming for, so that we can draw on our different pasts to prepare for a new future together. Can the different threads of heritage in this country become more intertwined to create a uniquely South African heritage?

The wearing of cultural clothing on Heritage Day could provide a way of literally developing this idea. On Heritage Day, we often see people in traditional clothing — South Africans in knee socks or saris or skins, or foreign nationals in kikoi or kente or kilts. Sadly, people are now anxious about wearing “someone else’s uniform” for fear of being accused of cultural appropriation. And this approach also leaves behind groups without a distinctive costume (unless I wear my bowler hat!).

Draw traditions together

However, couldn’t we be developing costumes that draw together different traditions? It would be good to have something visual which says “universally South African” with more style than a Springbok jersey.

This is initially hard because we assume that heritage is fixed. But, of course, it is always evolving and what we have now was not always in place. The Scottish kilt tradition, for example, was invented only in the 19th century. I enjoy participating in heritage events that push the boundaries.

So I was pleased to be part of a concert of patriotic British music held in Durban after the coronation of King Charles III — after all Durban used to claim to be “the last outpost of Empire”. It was well attended, though I could not help noticing that almost everyone in the audience was white (and I imagine of British heritage), even though the music of Elgar and the Beatles and Lloyd Webber has a much wider appeal.

By being there — and dressing up as a Beefeater — I was making the point to all these (white) South Africans of British heritage that I was proud to be a (brown) Briton who now lives in South Africa. Britain might have been quite monochromatic when their ancestors left in 1820 but it isn’t now.

In fact, one of the pleasures for me was to see the British king crowned in a ceremony where the director of music, the prime minister, and the first minister of Scotland were all brown-skinned — the Empire Strikes Back!

Fatima for all

Within the Catholic Church, we also have an opportunity to celebrate heritage in a way that is inclusive and not exclusionary, which is evolving and not static. It is wonderful, for example, that Catholics of Portuguese origin organise processions in honour of Our Lady of Fatima; but even more wonderful when those events are attended by Catholics with no link to Portugal and they then begin to include new elements. After all, the apparitions at Fatima were the gift of Mary to the whole Church.

I was recently in Oudtshoorn and was fascinated as Bishop Noel Rucastle told me with great pride about the story of the Polish orphans who were brought there during the Second World War. They are commemorated in the crypt of the magnificent cathedral of St Saviour and another image of Mary — Our Lady of Czestochowa — adorns the chapel.

Again, a great opportunity for Catholics in the Karoo — very few of whom I imagine are of Polish origin, including their Capetonian bishop — to learn about and appreciate a fascinating part of Catholic heritage that is for the universal Church, and not just for Poles. And Czestochowa is a Catholic heritage which in KwaZulu-Natal has evolved into the name of the mission Centocow.

Furthermore, we can share our heritage in a way that reaches out to others. Later in September, a public monument is being unveiled in Oudtshoorn to celebrate those Polish orphans. And though there will be descendants present who are of (partly) Polish origin, there will also be the full mix of local residents of a variety of colours and religious traditions. And this in a town which, a few years ago, would not have embraced the Catholics as part of their common local heritage.

I imagine at that event there will be a good buffet of bobotie and koeksisters and kielbasa. Food is one of the ways in which we can most easily share our own heritage and enjoy the heritage of other traditions. Perhaps that is why we take the safe way of marking Heritage Day as National Braai Day: one thing that (almost) all South Africans share is their devotion to grilled meat!

But even these events sometimes go awry. I know a Catholic parish that hosts a Heritage Sunday lunch at which parishioners are encouraged to bring and share food from their various cuisines. Not only is there a variety of South African foods but also, given the diversity of the community, dishes from all across the African continent. A wonderful and inclusive celebration! Except that a few years ago when — by invitation — local homeless people joined the queue to taste the delicacies, some parishioners told them that they were not welcome because “this food is just for us”.

So do plan your events for Heritage Month! Deepen your understanding of your own cultural inheritance. But also find out about and learn to appreciate other cultures and traditions. And develop ways to share what you enjoy and cherish in ways that others can understand and enjoy them too.

Heritage is not for guarding and preserving but for sharing and nourishing us all, as it evolves for future generations.

Published in the September issue of The Southern Cross magazine