The 2016 Heritage Month Celebrations take place under the theme, “Celebrating Human Treasures by Asserting our African Identity”.
Fort Hare University celebrated hundred years this year and this milestone is directly linked with Chief Tyali’s legacy. Before his death on the 12th of May 1942, Chief Tyali gave explicit instruction that some of the area along the Tyhume River should be overseen by the Scotland Missionaries as an educational springboard of the African Nation (Mqhayi, 1972). It is in this area where both Lovedale College as well as Fort Hare University were later built for the benefit of the African Children.
“We need to continue to embrace and celebrate our African identity in its entirety. In the clothing that we dress, in the cuisine that we eat, in the hairstyles we adorn ourselves with, in the languages we speak in our daily lives, in our idiomatic expressions and in the content of our conversations, in our embrace of Ubuntu, in the plans and dreams we have for this country together, in the multilateralism that we hold dear in our global relations, we are African and we proudly assert our African identity,”emphasised Minister Mthethwa.
South Africa will commemorate the 2016 National Heritage Day celebrations on 24 September 2016 at Galeshewe Stadium in Kimberly, Northern Cape.
Members of the Media are invited to attend as follows:
Event: Unveiling of the renovated grave of Chief Tyali and Celebrations of Provincial Heritage Day
Date: Friday, 16 September 2016
Time: 09:00