EFF STATEMENT ON HERITAGE DAY
Sunday, September 24, 2017
The EFF joins in the celebration of Heritage Day, placing the emphasis on the African heritage that continues to suffer the same colonial marginalization 23 years after democracy. It is a fact that European colonial conquest designed and perfected the demonization of African customs, idioms, religions and cultures whilst elevating European ways of being in the world.
As a result, colonization created an environment of shame when it comes to the African past. Our people do not have a healthy relationship with their customs, whether they deem these relevant or not to their everyday life. To be modern continues to be considered as being more European than any other culture.
Today it is, therefore, a day to truly reflect about this phenomenon and embrace our true identity in all that we do; music, dance, film, art, education, business and spirituality.
We reiterate our calls for the decolonization of the curriculum in South African universities. We call on scholarship funding to be created on studies that promote usage of our indigenous languages and histories. In Africa, knowledge production ought to be about Africans, for Africans and by Africans as much as possible without denying a universal signature.
In the name of Heritage Day, we call on Die Stem to fall from our national anthem. Die Stem is an apartheid anti-black war song that belongs in the dustbin of history. It does not belong in the proud melodies of a multiracial democratic South African. Our national anthem must be Nkosi Sikelela as sung during the liberation struggle; it is complete and enough without the European languages.
We further call on all apartheid and colonial symbols to fall from our proud public spaces. They too belong in the dustbin of history.
The EFF reiterates that without land and ownership of the minerals beneath the soil; celebrating heritage is futile. A landless people ought to use their heritage to marshal their collective strength to fight for a place to call home. We call on the return of the land to its rightful owners, the African people through the principle of expropriation of land without compensation for equal redistribution.
Finally, we call on all our people to be proud Africans and never seek to escape themselves trying to imitate the West. Let us be proud of our heritage, and critically remember our past as we use it to make an even better future.
Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, 26 September 2017
