..:: AUTO REPORT AFRICA ::..
Related Articles
September 24, 2023 was South Africa’s Heritage Day to observe the nations rich and diversified people, traditions, and cultures whose continuities survive history. The day is usually observed through festivities of various tribes of people clad in colourful traditional attires, a display of creative crafts including beadworks, clay pots and paintings, traditional delicacies to entice even the most jaded appetites and music matched with dances that resonate with culture.
While preserving these modalities of identities is important, the NMRW further stresses the importance of heritage as a useful tool for intellectual, social, and economic development.
Intellectual development through heritage forms part of the Indigenous body of Knowledge, derived from the homegrown wisdom of locals, transferred from – and sometimes lost between – primitive generations to succeeding generations. Prior to Western cultural imperialism, as a nation made up of diverse ethnic groups, South Africans developed distinctly natural methods and practices for survival. These include the use of plants to remedy ailments, erection of habitation structures using soil and animal waste, originating clothing from animal skin and plants as well as harnessing energy using human and animal waste to name a few.
South African societies abound with indigenous knowledge which has attracted growing interest of science and technology in this body of knowledge. Opportunities through collaboration of research and skills transfer with local and rural communities provide benefits for sustainable development.
As an Economic medium, heritage sites and monuments have a proven track record of attracting tourism and solving critical issues of local job creation, necessary to alleviate poverty. According to Stats SA, South Africa’s tourism contributes significantly to the economy with a GDP contribution of 3.2 percent in 2021. Interestingly, The White Paper on the Development and Promotion of Tourism in South Africa (DEAT 1996) states that prime tourism attractions are not located in the city centres but rather in rural areas.
This demonstrates the importance of preserving heritage sites not only for historical evidence, but their significance in combating the displacement and brain drain of rare local talent such as Orators who eloquently narrate the depth of our histories. Human capital as an economic source of every society is the heritage of that society.
South Africa is a nation fraught with inequality due to the legacy of a racialised social structure devised by the apartheid government. The commemoration of Heritage Day strategically promotes an appreciation for our different cultures, languages and expressions building towards social cohesion and wellbeing of citizens. When every South African culture is represented within society, it creates a sense of belonging, necessary for harmony and promotes nation-building and unity for a nation as diversified as South Africa.
National Movement of Rural Women
The NMRW is a non-profit, grassroots organisation founded in April 1990 by a network of 16 women’s groups across the then Transvaal region of South Africa. Before 1990, the network of women had been engaging through the Transvaal Action Committee (TRAC) which was formed in 1986. The NMRW has regional offices in four provinces, namely KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and the Northwest with head offices in Gauteng Province.
Tasked with the purpose of giving rural women in South Africa a voice, the organisation focuses on Project Support and Social Justice. Under the Project Support work, the NMRW identifies self-started, women- dominated community projects and aids in capacity building by equipping project members with skills such as: financial management, product quality improvement and resource management. The objective of Project Support is to turn these projects into profit generating enterprises and create employment within these communities. The projects are wholly owned by community members and assist with improving food security and eradicating rural poverty.
Sectors of supported projects are within Agriculture, Confectionary, Construction and Crafts. While Project Support advances an economic objective, the work ethic and methods underpinning these enterprises embodies the cultural value of the hereditary spirit of Ubuntu which guides the African traditional life in working together towards the common good of society. Project members play an important role of preserving indigenous traditional delicacies through the food produced in the agricultural sector such as Morogo – nutritious leafy dark green vegetables. The crafts sector preserves local identities through crafting of beadwork and diverse traditional attires that adorn special occasions such as Heritage Day.
The Social Justice arm champions the organisations founding objective of advocating for the rights of rural communities; educate them on their rights, laws, and policies; and expose people residing in rural areas to the effects of climate change and covid with an objective of facilitating understanding of what is happening in the country and dedicate efforts to mitigate against some of these hazards.
Currently, the NMRW’s Social Justice research topics include Family (Maintenance, and Marriage), Governance (Traditional Leadership and others), Climate Change and Land. For Social Justice, the aspect of heritage is an inherent concern in every research topic; The question of Land prompts the spiritual, economic, historical, and ancestral origins of inhabitants.
Family is the institution through which traditional values and customs are passed and without which they would become extinct. Climate Change poses a threat of deteriorating heritage sites, the environment, and species therein. Whereas government and leadership structures play a major role in establishing and enforcing policies that ensure the survival the tangible, intangible and natural heritage.
Conscience of preserving the linguistic heritage of its constituencies, Social Justice unpacks and delivers the information in the varied languages of communities they present to through workshops and functions where members of the community are encouraged to grace the occasions in their traditional attires.
Equipped with consolidated information on rural communities’ concerns, needs and experiences, the NMRW forms a vital resource base for law and policy development. Feedback gathered from these events is used to make submissions to Parliament and the National Council of Provinces’ reports and bills through forums seeking to regulate and legislate on the above-mentioned areas of interest. Through their Social Justice work, the NMRW ensures that rural communities gain access to constitutionally entrenched socio-economic and cultural rights by making gender equality and women’s empowerment central to their development efforts.
