Does Heritage month succeed in amplifying South Africa’s indigenous cultures?

Mmasekepe Matsebane – The New Age reporterDr Nokuzola Mndende – Founder of the Icamagu Institute. She is also an academic, a diviner and above all, a practitioner and leader of African Indigenous ReligionProffessor Natasha Erlank – Proffessor in the Historical department at the University of Johannesburg Cynthia Kros – Historian and heritage specialist and research associate of the WITS history workshop Rejoice Mabhudafhasi - Deputy Minister of Arts & Culture“Seeing black people subjected to celebrate who they are once a year for likes on Facebook and for validation of their humanness from their white bosses just for one day really hurts….….It may not be Heritage Day today (which is now hijacked to braai day. Blacks have allowed it because they also call it that), but given the number of people draped in traditional attire to work and school and their children alike, I have found it important to note that a little taste of who we used to be and who we should or who we are only allowed to be once a year hurts!We will not begin to claim our land, our economy when we cannot even see the need to claim our person-hood. We can only begin to claim that once we know who we are, where we come from, how our history penned out the way it did, how we got through those atrocities, where are at the moment and how we view our past once we claim who we truly are.