THE heritage centre in Alex lived up to its name when it hosted an array of cultural activities in honour of Heritage Day.
Convened by Botle Bo Africa movement, the occasion brought together cultural activists who displayed traditional artefacts, attire and painting, and spoke of traditional religion and healing, entertaining the crowd with traditional dances.
Mmapelle Beea of the movement, said the occasion was important to all Africans and was a moment to convey and reflect self love and neighbourliness. She expressed concern that many aspects of the African culture were in danger of extinction as they were being replaced by Western norms, values and beliefs.
She said no nation or people can have an identity, self love and pride in themselves without a culture. Beea urged residents to reflect deeply on this challenge which was changing their lifestyles and the food they ate which contributed to many ailments. The languages they spoke alienated the elderly and discouraged respect of the elderly who felt insecure in their own community, she said.
Beea urged cultural activists and practitioners to restore African traditions by calling on government to include cultural education in the curriculum. She encouraged society to respect and also seek healing from authentic traditional healers and to promote African poetry which promoted Africanness, respect and self realisation.
Mpedi Dunn of the national school governing bodies (which ones) said the department of education needed to do more to promote African culture. She said it mostly promoted African music and not the history of the music. She said it needed to include more important African cultural issues, concepts and practices.
She added that many African children struggled with discipline issues because they were brought up mimicking other cultures and lacked essential cultural traits to help them resolve personal challenges. She said this made them look down on their elders who they regarded as illiterate.
Joel Legketho, an African cultural activist and mediator, urged Africans to live their culture daily in the workplace and at home and also to celebrate African practices regularly. He said some of the current Western knowledge and practices drew from African culture like medicines made from roots, and mitigation in conflict situations which drew from African traditional court systems.
He urged different racial groups to respect each other as they had many common interests such as peace, respect and justice which both the bible and ubuntu principles promoted.
