Celebrating Heritage Day

City Year kicked off its Heritage Day celebrations in a different way.

City Year is an organisation which aims to bring together young people from across the country to engage in acts of voluntary service and leadership development to create responsible future participants in society.

For Heritage Day, the organisation decided that instead of just making its favourite dishes and sharing them at the office, it would rather become the change agents who leave a lasting impression on all South Africans who have become westernised.

Lebogang Malebana, organiser of the event at the City Year office on Commissioner Street in Johannesburg, explained why this type of celebration was necessary.

“Today we’re celebrating Heritage Day by going back to our roots,” Malebana said.

“The reason behind this is that we noticed that the youth have lost their sense of belonging and their culture due to media influence. So as an organisation we’re trying to bring back their sense of being African.”

Different ethnic groups at the organisation were encouraged to team up and present a cultural exhibition where other ethnic groups could read about the variations between them.

Each ethnic group prepared and enjoyed in the traditional foods presented, allowing each person to engage in the traditions of others, learn something and maybe even taste something new and delicious.

Believing that the youth has lost their culture, City Year aims to implement a strategy to get the country involved in preserving their heritage. “After this event, we plan to have regular reflections to see if we met our targets and to see if everyone will find their belonging, as an African.

“We are all African so take the opportunity to learn about another African culture. Be African. Africa united.”

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