Glendale celebrates its heritage
Heritage is about more than just food, dress and culture, it’s also about knowing the past to face the future, Glendale Secondary School teacher Loren Arries- Hendricks told pupils during the school’s Heritage Day celebrations last Thursday.
"Heritage means looking back at what I have inherited from the generations or my ancestors or my family line, my community line and my country line before me and looking forward,“ she said.
“I want you to take what you have inherited as a Glendalian, as a student and may you not only pass well and take education but surpass what has been given to you. All of the diversity you are seeing around you today, it is part of what makes us as Glendale strong but also as a Mitchell’s Plain and Khayelitsha strong,” she said.
Ms Arries-Hendricks said that Heritage Day, celebrated annually on September 24, was originally known as Shaka Day, in honour of Shaka, a famous Zulu king, but it had become a celebration of South Africa’s diversity as encapsulated in the term “rainbow nation” used by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.
“I want you to know that you come from greatness and you are at a school, where teachers are bringing excellence in facilitating your growth - all of us as teachers, as support staff and as the feeding scheme only have one aim and that is you must surpass what we have achieved,” she said.
Ms Arries-Hendricks recalled a visit to the school by Nelson Mandela 30 years earlier ahead of the first democratic elections.
“We were at the cusp of a civil war,” she said.
Ms Arries-Hendricks said the pupils now faced a new struggle.
“You need to fight for safe communities and employment in your communities,” she said.
Pupils sang, danced, read poetry and recited some oral history during the celebrations.
