Heritage Day, Shaka Day or Braai? What is 24 September to you? Picture: Twitter and iStock
Heritage Day on 24 September is a public holiday that encourages people in South Africa to celebrate their cultures in a broader context because the country’s make-up is so diverse. Even gathering over a braai has added more conversation of the day.
South Africa’s history isn’t one that has been smooth. There are different beliefs, traditions and cultural heritage that add extra weight to the pot.
So how do South Africans mark this day?
According to SA History, the day in KwaZulu-Natal is marked as Shaka’s Day to commemorate the iconic Zulu King Shaka Zulu.
The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), which is a party that has a largely Zulu membership, rejected calls to omit Shaka’s Day just before the dawn of democracy during the proposed public holidays bill discussion in the early 90s. In a compromise, an agreement was reached for an inclusive day for all South Africans to observe and celebrate their heritage.
Former President Nelson Mandela said, in 1996, marking Heritage Day, the reason to mark this day is that they knew how “rich and varied cultural heritage has a profound power to help build our new nation”.
In a country that has battled decades-long segregation, institutionalised racism and violence, the logic behind celebrating a unifying national heritage was simple; but how people do it is not.
What has become a contentious term on the same day, Braai Day was created in hopes of unifying through a common shared culture of having a braai in SA.
Started by Jan Braai, real name Jan Scannell, Braai4Heritage or National Braai Day, the cookbook author has sold more than 140,000 copies internationally. Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu endorsed Braai Day in 2007, saying irrespective of our differences citizens always gather around the fire.
Some people feel Braai Day has hijacked and whitewashed Heritage Day.
This year’s theme of Heritage Day is “The year of Charlotte Maxeke: Celebrating South Africa’s Intangible Cultural Heritage”. President Cyril Ramaphosa will make a keynote speech on Friday at 12pm.
Twitter users shared their photos celebrating their cultures and what they thought the day meant to them.
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