I Matsepe-Casaburri: Heritage Day celebration during Heritage
Month

24 September 2007

Minister of Arts and Culture, Dr Pallo Jordan
Premier of the Free State, Beatrice Marshoff
Members of the Provincial Executive Committee
Members of Parliament
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

It is a pleasure and a privilege for me to be here with you today, as we
celebrate the national Heritage Day. On behalf of the government of our country
I convey special greetings from our President who could not be with us today,
as he is attending the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Let me convey
our warmest regards to all the people of the Free State province as well as the
entire South African nation.

Following from our last year's heritage celebrations successfully held under
the theme "Celebrating Our Music." We are gathered here today to celebrate our
heritage day once more under the theme: "Celebrating Our Poetry." The choice of
this year's theme is most appropriate as it aptly captures the logical link
between music and poetry. Music and poetry in the evolution of the African
artistic expression have always existed as twin partners working together,
among other things, as the major depositories of our collective memory and
cultural values.

Our collective memory is an integral part of our living heritage. A people
without memory, a people without an awareness of where they come from, cannot
be in a position to reclaim their history to enable themselves to deploy the
vital aspects of that history to chart their path to the future. Poetry plays a
significant role in the restoration of the memory of a nation. Through our
poetry we enter one of the most crucial sites of our struggle to reclaim and
activate our sense of ourselves as people who are proud of their South African
identity.

In Africa, we also have what is called Izibongo/Lithoko or praise poems,
which have played, and still do play, an important role in traditional society
and the role of an imbongi is very important in African societies as izimbongi
are historians of the nation. As an historian of the nation, the imbongi has a
deep understanding of that history and ensures that the nation learns from its
previous experiences.

In praising the king, an imbongi will recite and explain where the roots of
that nation are found and mention the important historical events of the
nation. The role of the traditional praise poet is also a complex one, since he
is also expected to criticise the king when the king has erred, and praise him
for his good deeds. In the past poetry played an important role during the time
when our people were engaged in the struggle to liberate their country, poets
played their role by being social critics and were critical in mobilising,
conscientising and educating the people.

Many poets inspired and sensitised the oppressed about the conditions that
were taking place in their country. Our country has seen a number of major
poets emerging out of our country that we need to celebrate among them SEK
Mqhayi, BW Vilakazi, HIE Dhlomo, Mazisi Kunene, Mongane Serote, DO Mattera,
Breyten Bretenbach, Antjie Krog, Dennis Brutus, Alfred Qabula, Gcina Mhlophe
and many others.

When we look at our past we have many poems which appealed to the social
conscience of the people. Here is one poem from our past which projects our
poets as social critics.

"For Don M Banned:
It is a dry white season dark leaves don't last,
their brief lives dry out and with a broken heart they dive down gently headed
for the earth, not even bleeding.
it is a dry white season brother, only trees know
the pain as they still stand erect
dry like steel, their branches dry like wire,
indeed, it is a dry white season but seasons come to pass"
Mongane Wally Serote.

The poet here was attacking the political order of the day and the
conditions that existed in his country where people could be detained without
trial, in this case another poet Don Mattera, but he is also giving a message
of hope to the people. This is the role that many poets played in our country
during times of hardships.

Poets are also patriotic people as we can hear from the following poem.
Here, I would like to share a poem with you, written by Sandile Dikeni of
"Guava Juice" and "Telegraph to the Sky" fame, titled: "Love poem for my
country."

"Love poem for my country"
My country is for love so say its valleys
where ancient rivers flow the full circle of life
under the proud eye of birds adorning the sky

My country is for peace so says the veld
where reptiles caress its surface with elegant motions
glittering in their pride
My country is for joy so talk the mountains
with baboons hopping from boulder to boulder
in the majestic delight of cliffs and peaks
My country is for health and wealth
see the blue of the sea and beneath
the jewels of fish deep under the bowels of soil
hear the golden voice
of a miner's praise for my country
My country is for unity
feel the millions see their passion
their hands are joined together
there is hope in their eyes
we shall celebrate
Sandile Dikeni

Here, clearly, the poet, true to his calling, is both the celebrant and a
skilful social commentator. And that, perhaps, is the "vibrant aesthetic of our
Being" which Mark Espin, then a young contributor to the development of our
poetry, called for about two decades ago.

In Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali, the griot starts off by identifying
himself, not only in terms of his family (a long line of griots), but also in
terms of his relationship and responsibility to his society and his competence
in his role, winding up, finally, by pointing out that as a repository of his
people's memory their history, that is he teaches the young generations the
past so that in the present they will have the clarity of vision to aspire to
shape the future.

In other words expressive language, the means of communication in the hands
of the poet who is also historian, philosopher and social critic, to name some
of the demands of his calling, serves the educational development of a people.
This has always been part of the work of the poet in any African society. Even
children's rhymes can be seen to be didactic, witness this one by Sam Mafonyane
in Setswana:

Tsogatsoga, dumedisa
Tlhapatlhapa, o feele
Tsaa dijo, o fitlhole
Fa o fetsa, tlhatswa sejana
Se boloke, tsaa kwalo,
Dumedisa, o tsamaye
Mme ke gone, o mo nakong,
Ka malatsi, a sekolo,
Le mo gae: ke molao
Wa tshiamo, wa banyana
Ba dithuto tsa sekolo;
Tiego ke tatlhegelo.
Sam Mafonyane

Dr Pallo Jordan, our Minister of Arts and Culture, at the launch of Heritage
Month two weeks ago, said: "The art of the bard was about memory. It was by
honing and developing his/her skill to compose and perform highly memorable
poetry that a poet established a reputation. Orature, the systems of oral
transmission of information was probably humanity's first means of mass
communication. Once the art of writing had been mastered, human beings acquired
an even more flexible means of transmitting information.

Since the first hieroglyphic was inscribed, humanity has evolved amazing
ways of recording, storing and transmitting information. Memory thus became not
solely a function of the human mind, but could be mechanically assisted first
by producing symbols representing words, until we evolved the means to
mechanically reproduce and preserve the actual spoken words themselves!
Therefore it could be said that it is through memory that we have been able to
make and re-make ourselves as a human race. Memory too will help us to scale
the heights of achievement and create a better world."

As the custodian of our national heritage the memory that "will help us to
scale the heights of achievement and create a better world" the Department of
Arts and Culture (DAC) is committed to promoting a culture of reading and
writing, as well as to the equitable development of all South African
languages. Thus the celebration of our poetry resonates with the initiatives
undertaken by the DAC to reclaim and revitalise our indigenous languages and
literatures in both their oral and written forms.

This is crucial in the process of transformation; in the re-creation of
ourselves as a nation; in the building of a new South Africa united in its
wealth of cultural and multilingual diversity. However, this monumental task
and social responsibility cannot be carried out by the Department of Arts and
Culture alone. We must, together, government and organs of civil society, forge
partnerships to ensure the success of this noble initiative to build a better
South Africa.

Our poets will, of course, be the beneficiaries of and major contributors to
this revitalisation of our languages and literatures. Let me end with a few
lines from a poem by our national poet laureate, Keorapetse Kgositsile, in
which he invokes one of our struggle icons, the late Moses Kotane:

Come Malome Come
Come we say
Not that we are dotard enough
To think we can bring back the dead
Kotanekind come bind us
Come bind the poets
To create to laugh to work
And sing the deaths that we welcome as ours
And the birth from the dust that is green
Not that we are strangers to fear
But we love freedom and peace more
And for this we work and fight
Keorapetse Kgositsile
With these few words and poems, I wish all of you an enjoyable heritage day and
hope that, you will celebrate this day in music and poetry.

Kea leboga. Net daar! I thank you.

Issued by: The Presidency
24 September 2007
Source: The Presidency (http://www.thepresidency.gov.za)