'We don’t even own our music, films, art and memorial lands': Mbuyiseni Ndlozi reflects on Heritage Day
Image: Gallo images
While many South Africans celebrated Heritage Day by showcasing their cultures, EFF MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi took the day to reflect on SA's collective “dispossession”.
On Thursday, Ndlozi said the cultural day was a “game” and that it was a “general comedy” used to dispossess SA of what really matters.
“During 'Heritage Day' we play a game, fooling and tricking ourselves in the general comedy that is our dispossessed lives,” said Ndlozi.
He said SA's heritage was rooted in music, films, art and memorial lands, and without these there was no heritage to celebrate.
During “Heritage Day” we play a game, fooling & tricking ourselves in the general comedy that is our dispossessed lives! We don’t even own our music, films, art, & memorial lands. We sing Die Stem & accept all colonial statues & insignia- street & town names! Heritage Games!
— Mbuyiseni Ndlozi (@MbuyiseniNdlozi) September 24, 2020
No land, no heritage!
— Mbuyiseni Ndlozi (@MbuyiseniNdlozi) September 24, 2020
Ndlozi questioned how SA's ideology masked “our colonial reality function”.
How does the ideology masking our colonial reality function?
— Mbuyiseni Ndlozi (@MbuyiseniNdlozi) September 24, 2020
You know you don’t have the land, but you act everyday as if you don’t know that you don’t have the land!
Similarly:
You know they are racist, but you act everyday as if you don’t know that they are racist!
In a statement, the EFF echoed Ndlozi's statement regarding celebrating Heritage Day with no land.
The party's national spokesperson Vuyani Pambo said there was no heritage to celebrate as long as the majority of the population remained landless and on the margins of the economy.
“To have heritage means to be able to exist with pride, a pride in the identity that defines our forebears and us, and carrying our heritage, languages and symbols which are inextricably linked to our relationship with the land,” said Pambo.
“As a concrete move from meaningless reconciliation towards a heritage founded on justice, the EFF reiterates its call for land expropriation without compensation. The spiritual, cultural and economic strength of a people is dependent on the land, and without the land we have no ability to call our souls our own.”
He said a genuine celebration of SA’s heritage can only be achieved if the injustices of the past are corrected.
“This can only be achieved through the fulfilment of the above. Only then can South Africans truly claim to be on the path of reconciliation and pride.”