Lighting the fires of heritage

So it was Heritage Day v #BraaiDay – and the Twitter war was on …

For some it unified, for others it divided …

Heritage Day celebrates the uniqueness of the country’s genetic makeup. South Africa has many kinds of people; descendants of people from Asia, those from Europe, others from Africa and the original inhabitants of the land … we are a blanket weaved from beautiful, vibrant and different fabrics.

Originally Heritage Day was Shaka Day – only thing is that I’m not Zulu. So in a bid to be inclusive, the word “heritage” encompasses us all. South Africa as a whole gets to enjoy a day without it being exclusively for one nation, tribe, colour or creed.

The whole braai day exercise, on the other hand, is yet another veiled attempt at removing a unifying, inclusive measure and giving it ownership to a population demographic – why?

I walked into the office in my traditional attire behind two men dressed as farmers, with velskoene and shorts shorter than the ones I wear on weekends. They embraced Heritage Day as boere. For all I know they are English, but does it really matter?

Is it not about different cultures? Is it not about displaying the beauty of our uniqueness? Why attempt to take that away by putting boerewors on a braai?

My team shared different foods of different cultures throughout the day – a window to different worlds was opened. That is what Heritage Day should be about.

We braai after almost every payday. Orlando Pirates clinch a win over their rivals, we braai. We braai even if we have nothing to fill our days …

South Africa needs to take ownership of its amazingly beautiful identity – we need to stop shunning away from the quite obvious fact that the person sitting beside us may not look the same, or even speak the same.

How else are we to view the whole #BraaiDay initiative if not as a way to curtail the exercise of us donning our traditional attire in celebration of who we are?

We need to stop tearing down means that may unite us. Some fights are really not worth the effort.

Kekeletso Nakeli-Dhliwayo.

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