INDICATORS
A
s my four-year-old grandson and his mother were driving to my house recently, he remarked to her out of the blue: “Just think, Mom –
none of us would be here if Granny hadn’t laid us.” Which, when you think about it,
neatly sums up Women’s Month and Heritage Day. None of you would be here if it weren’t for your grannies, oumas, gogos and moms. And there’d be no heritage. (Yes, I know men also play a part in the story, but I’ll get to that later.) So back to women and heritage. We females may have been mere
gatherers in our early cavewomen days, but we gathered far more than just roots and berries. We gathered skills. We collected information and passed it on to future generations. We were the ones who almost certainly found out how to brew and how to braai. And we’ve continued to produce amazing children. Leonardo da Vinci, King Solomon, Rumi, Shaka Zulu, Jan van Riebeeck, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela may have made the headlines and are forever inscribed
in history, but who first put the paintbrush, toy sceptre, words, spear, wanderlust, determination and courage into their sticky little hands and impressionable minds? Without doubt their grannies and mothers. And who ensured that our diverse
heritage survived? Who sewed us clothes in the traditional way, cooked food as it had been cooked for generations, sang the songs of long ago and told us stories from our collective past? Women’s Day has its origins in
9 August 1956, when a bunch of incredibly brave and formidable women led 20 000 other women from all walks of life to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest the appalling pass laws enforced on black South Africans by the apartheid regime. And Heritage Day on
24 September (originally King Shaka Day, but renamed in 1995 to honour the diverse cultural legacy of our rainbow nation) allows us to honour our different cultures, beliefs and traditions. So it’s time for a twofold celebration.
Ladies, spoil yourselves: remember how important you are, don your most glamorous traditional attire and strut your stuff. Time now to bring in the guys. Yes,
you’ve played your part too and now it’s time to step up again. Cherish your grandmothers, mothers, wives, sweethearts, daughters, sisters and other womenfolk. Tell them how much you love and appreciate them. Even your mother-in-law. And keep your heritage alive in
your sons and all the male members of your family. Dig out that kurta, that leopard-skin headband, that freshly washed dhoti, those veldskoene and that home-knitted yarmulke and wear them with pride. Then let’s all celebrate. It’s something
we do extremely well in our country. In fact, nobody can party like South Afri-CANS!
KATE TURKINGTON SEES GOOD REASON TO CELEBRATE OF HEROINES AND HISTORY Kate Turkington is one of SA’s best-loved broadcasters and travel writers.
She’s interviewed almost everybody from the Beatles to royalty, the Dalai Lama and even a talking dog. Her popular new book, Yes, Really (Tafelberg), has been described as “boisterous and brave, shocking and sexy”.
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IMAGE: HANNERIE DE WET
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