Local pupils celebrate Heritage Day

Norwood Primary School led the way in teaching the community to embrace their roots when the school hosted a cultural day at the school.

Principal Africa Hlongwane said celebrating heritage would encourage social cohesion. He said, “We want to recognise the diverse cultures in our school as we have children from different ethnic groups and races as well as those from other African countries.”

Hlongwane added that to the school, Heritage Day was also about embracing the beauty of diverse and unique cultures.

“Our theme is ‘Unity in diversity’: we want our pupils to grow up without having low esteem because they are not confident about their home language or culture.” He added that the celebrations would also heal past divisions. “It will encourage social cohesion as we strive to co-exist with other cultures, which is relevant to Gauteng as the province is host to many diverse cultures.”

Heritage Day is officially celebrated on 24 September but the school decided to host an early event as the date falls during the school holidays.

The event began with pupils singing their beautiful school song which starts with the words ‘Bless the school, let peace dwell here’ and ends with ‘Norwood you teach us all we need to know and you give us all we need to grow’. This was followed with the national anthem which they sang perfectly.

The Grade 1s started with modern dance followed by their seniors performing an assortment of dances, plays and speeches. One pupil recited former President Thabo Mbeki’s speech, ‘I am an African’. The pupils also voiced their excitement about the event.

Keena Moonsamy (12) said, “I feel good about today as we celebrate heritage. We learn about where we are coming from and also how we can appreciate our cultures. It is also about expressing our feelings about our cultures.”

Another learner, Celine Shabalala, said, “We learn about our cultural roots, background and the importance of our heritage in our way forward.”

In his message to the pupils, Hlongwane commented, “The pupils should take a baton and run with it and pass it to the next generation.”

The teachers were also not out-done by their pupils as they cooked various traditional African and Indian food, including samp and beans, mogodu (tripe), morogo (spinach), and samoosas.