Africa is a continent that is known for a lot of civil wars and human instublity, but on the other hand respecting culture and being proud of who we are is one fo our strong points and no one realises that except Africans themselseves. The spirit of Love, Unity, Ubuntu and Peace , was the order of the day. The theme was “We are all Africans, we are all one” and the spirirt of love and unity prevailed more than anything, how can we forget the beautifull colours of the traditional attires of our fellow african brothers and sisters . They all came together to celebrate at a Heritage Day Celebration, which was held at the Marice Freeman Recreation Centre on the 24th of September in Beetrams, Johannesburg.The event was organised by the Refugee Aid Organisation, in the aim of making assylum seekers feel free, apreciated and welcomed in South Africa despite their Culture, Custorms, background and Believes.
The crowd was entertained by cultural dances from different countries, amongst the perfoming groups were a group from Zimbabwe, Somalia, Burundi, Democratic Replubic of Congo and South African. The people enjoyed themselves, they embraced the moment of being together as africans, having fun and learning about other cultutes. One of the assylum seekers from Somalia, explained how happy he was to be in South Africa and celebrating Heritage Day “ I feel happy to be part of South Africa, to be expiriencing a lot of cultural differences and being in the same room as my fellow africans celebrating our different cultures and custorms.” Said Amin Salat
One of the crowd from Democratic Republic of Congo, who has been in South Africa for more than ten years also explained how happy she was “ I really enjoyed, I had fun it really felt great being in the same room with fellow africans, just having fun, singing and dancing. I feel at home, South Africa is my home.” Said Bawili Toy
A representative from the organisation is happy that everything went arccoding to plan and everyone was happy, which was their aim for the day “ We worked so hard for this function and Iam really happy that everything was perfect, the people were happy, they learned about different cultures and custorms.” Said Miss Nozipho Ncube
