Heritage Day 2024

On the 24th of September annually, South Africa celebrates Heritage Day. This day was first declared as a public holiday in 1996 with the intention of encouraging South African’s to “celebrate the day by remembering the cultural heritage of the many cultures that make up the population of South Africa.” This is especially pertinent in a country as culturally diverse as South Africa, as the acknowledgement of our cultures plays a big role in shaping the future too. South Africa is known as the ‘Rainbow Nation’ for precisely this reason. It is also known as a ‘Rainbow Nation’ due to the different ethnic groups that our country is home to, the majority of the population consists of black Africans, followed by the Coloured population, Indian, Asian and White people. Our country is home to many cultures, religions and languages including our eleven official languages, namely: isiZulu, Sepedi (also known as Sesotho sa Leboa), Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele and isiXhosa.

Culturally, according to Stats SA, the South African “population consists of the Nguni (comprising the Zulu, Xhosa, Ndebele and Swazi people); Sotho-Tswana, who include the Southern, Northern and Western Sotho (Tswana people); Tsonga; Venda; Afrikaners; English; Coloured people; Indian people; and those who have immigrated to South Africa from the rest of Africa, Europe and Asia and who maintain a strong cultural identity. Members of the Khoi and the San also live in South Africa.” Outside of the official languages, South African Sign Language (SASL) and Khoi, Nama and San are also promoted and highlighted as languages of importance. From a religious standpoint, almost 80% of South Africa’s population follows the Christian faith in some shape or form. This is followed by other major religious groups including Hinduism, Muslim, Judaism and Buddhists. There is also a contingent of the population that doesn’t follow any specific religion, but still considers themselves ‘traditionalist.’ Looking at the population from a gender perspective, almost 52% of South Africa’s population is female.

The South African Government would like “Living Heritage” to be the foundation of all communities as the “essential source of identity and continuity.” Living Heritage entails “cultural tradition, oral history, performance, ritual, popular memory, skills, techniques, indigenous knowledge system, and the holistic approach to nature, society and social relationships.” May we all continue to celebrate and live our heritage daily, not just on its designated day.