Heritage Day

Just a short week into my start at Bula Moyako South Africa celebrated Heritage Day (September 24th). Coming into work was great fun and helped me learn more about the cultures people connected to Bula come from. Of course instead of my traditional American apparel, I decided to wear my Congolese dress, which was an appreciated surprise and made for a fun day. I also was invited to sit in on a counseling session to observe and the headscarf made it a bit hard when it falls into my eyes.



The commentary on Heritage really intrigued me though and was a good learning point in South Africa. It is also known as Braai Day (Braai very South African/ like our BBQ) and people throughout South Africa braai. However, in a place with such recent history of intense separation, in a country like the rest of the world grappling with modernization/ western influence and tradition, in an area with 11 official languages there are also many questions around Heritage Day. Most of thee thoughts come from a radio show that people were calling into on my way home from Bula before the official holiday on Friday. And I was impressed with how genuine the discussion unfolded. How do you celebrate everyone’s culture in South Africa and how do you find common unity of culture to also celebrate. The difficulties of the beautiful diversity of language were brought up. Some serious concerns were brought up and even parallels to the United States.

In the end I was still left with an extreme appreciation for the sincerity the holiday was taken with and the way the issues it brought up were discussed. And I think around the world how we uphold tradition is becoming more of a challenge. But it helps us remember life is more than work and how do we live a life filled with both tradition and the culture we choose.

It’s interesting to be an American writing this, but also important as I honor and respect other cultures to start understanding what mine really is.