IT’S Heritage Day and I don’t know what to wear! And this time around it’s not just because I’m a woman – but a mixed race one at that.
Unlike comedian Trevor Noah who refers to himself as ‘first generation coloured’ born to a Swiss dad and Xhosa mother (we all know how the Swiss love chocolate), my perspective and circumstances are quite different.
I often get strange looks followed by a laugh and a reminder that we’re not living in the UK and there’s no need to use the politically correct term ‘mixed race’ every time I refer to myself.
A white German grandfather, a black Xhosa grandmother, resulting in my coloured mother and a father who’s Eastern (muslim) is why I can’t be placed in a box as coloured.
A lot of people consider any mix of races as coloured but I find it to be an incorrect reflection of one’s ethnicity.
Coloured people come from somewhere.
There are people who are a result of 10th generation coloured marriages and do not know their family tree. I guarantee that somewhere down the line there is a Hendrick who met a Zodwa.
So, on this day as South Africans across the spectrum are encouraged to celebrate their culture and the diversity of their beliefs and traditions, in the wider context of a nation that belongs to all its people, here I am wearing four outfits in one and sitting down to a plate of phutu and sauerkraut with a side serving of curry.
