As the Heritage Month approaches, South Africans who have the country’s rich heritage very close to their hearts and minds, are on different pilgrimages with the purpose of promoting their traditions and cultures.
As part of its Heritage Month programme, the Mthatha’s Yokhe Multi-Arts Discipline visited Parliament of the Republic of South Africa yesterday. According to the leader of the group, Ms Khuthala Mditshane, the group of young Xhosa teenagers who have been longing to see their Parliament and to be inside its chambers to observe Members of Parliament when they engage each other, was in the National Assembly’s gallery yesterday. “Indeed media platforms bring Parliament to us even in remote areas, but being in the chamber is a totally different and exciting experience,” said Ms Mditshane.
According to Ms Mditshane, the group of young virgin teenagers promotes, among other things, the original Xhosa traditions on sex. It encourages young girls and boys to abstain from sex. “We do that also as a strategy to fight teenage pregnancy and HIV/Aids as the large number of HIV/Aids victims are young people.”
Ms Mditshane said the kids want to know more about Xhosa culture, which they are told that it was a pillar of discipline among Xhosa communities in the past. But because of the fast-changing world and the domination of foreign cultures, some valuable aspects of Xhosa traditions withered away.
“One of the objectives of the group is to claim back those lost aspects of the Xhosa traditions. They are told that in the past, teenagers used to go naked without fear of rape or sexual harassment. We are teaching them to reclaim that dignity of a girl child where they used to go naked without any fear,” said Ms Mditshane.
This group is in partnership with Cape Town’s Camps Bay High School’s Xhosa Section.
By Zizipho Klaas
24 August 2018
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