HERITAGE DAY AS A COLOURED PERSON
Traditional Food and Clothing
So today is Heritage Day in South Africa and its a time to celebrate all the different cultures and traditions that we enjoy in South Africa.
My kids school celebrated Heritage Day on Friday and the brief was to dress them in traditional clothing and provide them with traditional food.
Now when I was in school, this was always a problem for me. I never knew what to wear because as a Coloured girl and growing up in a Coloured household, we never really had any sort of specific traditional clothing. I don’t really remember a time when I actually wore anything traditional to school on Heritage Day.
I know many others would either wear traditional Zulu clothing or Indian clothing like a Sari or something.
For me it just didn’t feel right. Don’t get me wrong, I love all the traditions we have in South Africa, but just once it would have been nice to wear something that represented Coloured people.
My go-to outfit was always a jean and t-shirt.
I don’t know if there are Khoi-San in my family tree and I don’t know if I have true Irish blood running through my veins or whether or not there are Indian people in my family tree.
Al I know is my mother is from Namibia and my father is from South Africa. They are both pure bred Coloureds as far as I know.
We would dress in anything and everything. I always felt a bit of envy as a child when everyone else came in their beautiful traditional attire and they all knew what it meant to wear it.
I didn’t want my children to feel that way but then it dawned on me.
It’s okay not to have traditional clothing. If I had to do extensive research and go back into our family history, I’m sure I would find some sort of history of tradition but I wasn’t going to over-complicate it for my toddlers.
My daughter loves princesses and ballet and hence she was perfectly happy wearing her princess dress and she looked beautiful.
My son is 2 so there was no pressure to simply make him look cute.
Every year on social media I read posts by coloured people that go something like this:
- What is a coloured person’s tradition?
- What are the traditional clothing of a coloured person?
- Do coloured people even have a tradition?
Now, before we go any futher, let’s define the word, “Tradition”
What that basically means is that it is things that families and cultures have been doing for generations and that have been passed on.
Can traditions be changed on modified to fit in with the current generation?
I personally think so, there will always be a touch of history in any tradition that you have but if it needs to be changed slightly or something should be added or something should be excluded, then so be it. It doesn’t take away from the history or the meaning of the tradition. But I can understand that many people would feel differently about this.
During my research on this post, I googled “Traditional Coloured clothing” and this is what came up;
None of the above symbolises what coloured people really are but then again, we are a very versatile race and if I have to be honest, we can pretty much wear anything.
Anoter thing I always wonder about when it comes to Heritage Day and Coloured people is whether or not we actually do celebrate it or whether its just like any other regular day.
With food is was always much easier,traditional Coloured food would be Milktart or Koeksisters and Braai food (BBQ)
What this post comes down to however, is that as a Coloured person, I grapple with the same issue every year and I have noticed this year especially on social media, that many other Coloured people are asking the same question;
What exactly is our tradition?
What I do know is that we are a very proud race, sometimes I think we thrive on the stereotypes that make us.
The good ones and the bad ones.
In reality, we are a bit of everything and I think that’s exactly what makes us such a beautiful race.
I AM COLOURED.
I AM SOUTH AFRICAN.
