Cultural Heritage in Mokala National Park
South Africa has 11 official languages. Sotho,
Tswana, Xhosa, Xhoisan, Nama and Afrikaans are just some of the cultures found
in the Northern Cape, just one of the 9 provinces in the country. Diversity?
South Africa surely invented the term.
As a way to
celebrate all of this diversity, Mokala National Park hosted the annual Arid
Region Cultural Heritage Event. This event rotates through the five national
parks in the Arid Region (Namaqua, Kgalagadi, Augrabies, |Ai-|Ais/Richtersveld
and Mokala) each year and is a celebration of the broad diversity of cultures
found in the Northern Cape. Individuals from communities surrounding each of
the five parks came together to join in a day filled with vibrant expressions of
culture.
The day was filled with fantastic displays of traditional music,
dance, poetry and food. It was amazing to see how alive culture is in the
Northern Cape, and how fiercely proud people are of their heritage,
particularly the young school children who took part in the event. My personal
favourite performance was a very powerful poem written by two young students
from Ritchie about their vision for the future of South Africa.
The preparations for the event
were intense and very tiring, but in the end every ounce of effort paid off and
the event was a complete success with smiles all around!
Written By: Caitlin Cunningham
GVI Volunteer in Mokala National Park
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