Heritage Day | |
---|---|
Observed by | South Africans |
Date | 24 September |
Next time | 24 September 2024 |
Frequency | Annual |
First time | 24 September 1995 |
Heritage Day (Afrikaans : Erfenisdag; Xhosa : Usuku Lwamagugu, Usuku lokugubha amasiko) is a South African public holiday celebrated on 24 September. On this day, South Africans 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.
When Heritage Day falls on a Sunday, the following Monday is observed as a public holiday. [1]
In KwaZulu-Natal, 24 September was known as Shaka Day for most people, in commemoration of Shaka, the Zulu king of southern Africa, on the presumed date of his death on this date 1828. [2] [3] Shaka played an important role in uniting the desperate Nguni clans into a cohesive Zulu nation. [4] Each year people gather at the Shaka Memorial to honor him on this day. [3] The Public Holidays Bill presented to the post-Apartheid Parliament of South Africa in 1996 did not include 24 September on the list of proposed public holidays. As a result of this exclusion, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), a South African political party with a large Zulu membership, objected to the bill. Parliament and the ANC reached a compromise and the day was given its present title and accepted as a public holiday now known as heritage day. [2]
... when South Africans celebrate the diverse cultural heritage that makes up "rainbow nation". It is the day to celebrate the contribution of all South Africans to the building of South Africa
Shortage of history....for kids who research about it for school based assignments
South Africans celebrate the day by remembering the cultural heritage of the many cultures that make up the population of South Africa. Various events are staged throughout the country such as braai to commemorate/remember this day. [5]
Former Western Cape Provincial Premier Ebrahim Rasool addressed the public at a Heritage Day celebration at the Gugulethu Heritage trail in 2007 in Gugulethu. [6] In Hout Bay, there is an army procession and a recreation of the battle fought there.[ citation needed ]
In 2005, Jan Scannell (known as "Jan Braai") started a media campaign proposing that the holiday be renamed as National Braai Day, in commemoration of the culinary tradition of informal backyard barbecues, known as braais. [7] [8] On 5 September 2007, Archbishop Desmond Tutu celebrated his appointment as patron of South Africa's Braai Day, [9] affirming it to be a unifying force in a divided country (by donning an apron and enthusiastically eating a boerewors sausage). [10] In 2008, the initiative received the endorsement of South Africa's glad National Heritage Council. [5] Scannell said that the aim is to hold small events with friends and family, and not to have a mass braai. [10] [7] [11]
Shaka kaSenzangakhona, also known as Shaka Zulu and Sigidi kaSenzangakhona, was the king of the Zulu Kingdom from 1816 to 1828. One of the most influential monarchs of the Zulu, he ordered wide-reaching reforms that reorganized the military into a formidable force.
Zulu people are a native people of Southern Africa of the Nguni. The Zulu people are the largest ethnic group and nation in South Africa, with an estimated 13.56 million people, living mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.
Barbecue or barbeque is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that employ live fire and smoke to cook the food. The term is also generally applied to the devices associated with those methods, the broader cuisines that these methods produce, and the meals or gatherings at which this style of food is cooked and served. The cooking methods associated with barbecuing vary significantly but most involve outdoor cooking.
The Geloftedag is a public holiday in South Africa held annually on 16 December. The holiday came into effect in 1995 after the end of apartheid, with the intention of fostering reconciliation and national unity for the country. Recognising the need for racial harmony, the government chose the date for its significance to both Afrikaner and indigenous South African cultures. The celebration of the Day of Reconciliation can take the form of remembering past history, recognising veteran's contributions, marching, and other festivities.
Durban is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South Africa, on the Natal Bay of the Indian Ocean, Durban is South Africa's busiest port and was formerly named Port Natal. North of the harbour and city centre lies the mouth of the Umgeni River; the flat city centre rises to the hills of the Berea on the west; and to the south, running along the coast, is the Bluff. Durban is the seat of the larger eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, which spans an area of 2,556 km2 (987 sq mi) and had a population of 4.2 million in 2022, making the metropolitan population one of Africa's largest on the Indian Ocean. Within the city limits, Durban's population was 595,061 in 2011. The city has a humid subtropical climate, with hot, wet summers and mild, dry winters.
Prince Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi was a South African politician and Zulu prince who served as the traditional prime minister to the Zulu royal family from 1954 until his death in 2023. He was appointed to this post by King Bhekuzulu, the son of King Solomon kaDinuzulu, a brother to Buthelezi's mother Princess Magogo kaDinuzulu. Buthelezi was chief minister of the KwaZulu bantustan during apartheid and founded the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in 1975, leading it until 2019, and became its president emeritus soon after that. He was a political leader during Nelson Mandela's incarceration (1964–1990) and continued to be so in the post-apartheid era, when he was appointed by Mandela as Minister of Home Affairs, serving from 1994 to 2004.
Benedict Wallet Vilakazi was a South African novelist, linguist, a descendant of the Zulu royal family, and a radically innovative poet who created a combination of traditional and Romantic poetry in the Zulu language. Vilakazi was also a professor at the University of Witwatersrand, where he became the first Black South African to teach University classes to White South Africans. In 1946, Vilakazi also became the first Black South African to receive a PhD.
Shaka Zulu is a 1986 South African television series directed by William C. Faure and written by Joshua Sinclair for the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), based on his 1985 novel of the same name.
Barbecue varies by the type of meat, sauce, rub, or other flavorings used, the point in barbecuing at which they are added, the role smoke plays, the equipment and fuel used, cooking temperature, and cooking time.
Gugulethu is a township in the Western Cape, South Africa and is 15 km from Cape Town. Its name is a contraction of igugu lethu, which is Xhosa for our pride. The township was established along with Nyanga in the 1960s.
The Day of the Vow is a religious public holiday in South Africa. It is an important day for Afrikaners, originating from the Battle of Blood River on 16 December 1838, before which about 400 Voortrekkers made a promise to God that if he rescued them out of the hands of the approximately 20,000 Zulu warriors they were facing, they would honour that day as a sabbath day in remembrance of what God did for them.
Mazisi (Raymond) Kunene was a South African poet best known for his translation of the epic Zulu poem Emperor Shaka the Great. While in exile from South Africa's apartheid regime, Kunene was an active supporter and organiser of the anti-apartheid movement in Europe and Africa. He later taught at the University of California, Los Angeles, and become Africa's and South Africa's first poet laureate.
Desmond Tutu was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 to 1996, in both cases being the first Black African to hold the position. Theologically, he sought to fuse ideas from Black theology with African theology.
Religion in South Africa is dominated by various branches of Christianity, which collectively represent around 78% of the country's total population.
The Zulu Kingdom, sometimes referred to as the Zulu Empire or the Kingdom of Zululand, was a monarchy in Southern Africa. During the 1810s, Shaka established a standing army that consolidated rival clans and built a large following which ruled a wide expanse of Southern Africa that extended along the coast of the Indian Ocean from the Tugela River in the south to the Pongola River in the north.
Mzoli's was a butchery in Gugulethu, a township on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. Since Mzoli's opened in early 2003, the restaurant had become a popular gathering spot for Cape Town residents and a tourist attraction. Amongst Gugulethu's residents, Mzoli's Place has a reputation for public drunkenness and disrespect for the local community. Mzoli's is named after the founder and owner, Mzoli Ngcawuzele. The restaurant closed indefinitely in May 2021 partly due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Shaka Memorial is a provincial heritage site in KwaDukuza in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. It marks the resting place of the Zulu King Shaka near the site where he was assassinated by his half-brothers Dingane and Mhlangana while sitting on a rock near the barracks at his capital Dukuza.
Emperor Shaka the Great is an epic poem based on the Zulu oral tradition, compiled in Zulu then translated by South African poet Mazisi Kunene and published in 1979 in the Heinemann African Writers Series. The poem follows the life of Shaka Zulu, documenting his exploits as a king of the Zulu people, who produced considerable advances in State structure and military technologies of the Zulu. Some critics express concern over the historicity of the retelling. However, Kunene's embrace of an African perspective on Shaka's rule expresses an attempt at understanding the apparent horrors observed by Europeans in the history of Shaka.
James Steven Mzilikazi Khumalo was a South African composer and professor emeritus of African languages at the University of the Witwatersrand.
The National Heritage Monument is a group of copper statues representing anti-apartheid activists, Zulu chiefs and missionaries in Groenkloof Nature Reserve, South Africa. The monument is meant to reflect the struggle for liberation going back into the 1600s. The project was started in 2010, but as of 2015, only has 55 statues. A total of 400 to 500 statues are planned. When complete, the monument will be called "The Long March to Freedom".