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Colonialism Deprived Africans of Land: SA Officials Deliberate on Heritage Day

CC BY 2.0 / UN Photo/A Tannenbaum / Segregated beach at Stranofontein near Cape Town
Segregated beach at Stranofontein near Cape Town - Sputnik Africa, 1920, 22.09.2023
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Heritage Day is celebrated annually in South Africa on September 24. It is a national holiday to honor the "Rainbow Nation's" rich and vibrant cultural and religious diversity. On the eve of the holiday, a debate was held in the National Assembly under the theme "Celebrating our cultural diversity in a democratic South Africa."
Colonial powers and the apartheid government took away the heritage of many South Africans by taking their land, Mkhuleko Hlengwa, the Inkatha Freedom Party lawmaker, has said.

"As sons and daughters of Africa; land is our first heritage. As Africans and South Africans, our identity, beliefs and our very livelihoods are all intrinsically connected to the land. Our very being is tied to the land of our birth. Yet, many South Africans were dispossessed of this heritage under the colonizers, under the Apartheid regime, forcibly removed and sent to resettling places with no connection to our heritage, culture and to our roots," he stressed.

He was echoed by Deputy Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Nocawe Mafu, who noted that colonialism and the apartheid regime had "demonized" the heritage of the local people.

"For centuries, this country’s history was biased then served the colonial and apartheid regimes ideas. The living heritage of people indigenous to South Africa was marginalized, demonized and affected by dramatic changes in land ownership, livelihoods, language use and social structure," Mafu remarked.

She added that the nation's heritage must be valued and enjoyed in the present, and preserved and passed on to future generations.
 - Sputnik Africa, 1920, 20.09.2023
Sub-Saharan Africa
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Heritage Day was first celebrated in South Africa in 1995, a year after the end of apartheid. Prior to that, September 24 was honored by the Zulus, South Africa's largest ethnic group, as the day of Shaka Zula, who played an important role in uniting the disparate Zulu clans into a cohesive ethnic group.
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