KNOW YOUR CULTURE

Heritage Day is one of the newly created South African public holidays. It is a day in which we are all encouraged to celebrate their cultural traditions in the wider context of the great diversity of cultures, beliefs, and traditions that make up the nation of South Africa. In is very important for an individual to know their roots, where they were born and at least have their traditional attire.

Knowing your culture does not necessarily mean you have to be on your tradition attire everyday and behave  differently. You can still embrace it by not forgetting where you come from, being able to speak your home language and  know where your people come from. These days i have noticed that people no longer practice  or respect their culture. We are now westernized and follow what other western countries and forgetting that we are South Africans.

I was born in the Setswana tribe but i can tell you that i do not know most of what we practice. At some point i asked my parents why they did not take me to township schools to learn my home language. There was a point i blamed them that during school holidays they should have taken us home(in North West) so to learn about our culture.But at the end of the day i should have pushed them to teach me what i need to know while its still early.

 They say that the Tswana tribe who migrated from the East Africa to Southern Africa during the 14th century. The origin of the name "Tswana" is mystery but applied to a number of groups who all speak the same language, have similar customs but separate names. This makes me wander who are the 1st generation of our culture.

I personally encourage people to to know their culture so they will not be lost. For me i feel kind of lost  because i use my fathers Step-dad surname and i was told that he was from an international country. Question is am i international or from the Setswana tribe? At the end of the day i console myself by saying God is the who really knows who i am.

"South Africa is Diverse and proud of the different cultures we have".