I want to share with you the wonderful opportunity I had of being among all the learners and educators from all over South Africa who celebrated Heritage day this year in the mother city, Cape Town.
The greatest experience was participating in the ‘All winners” competition . The theme for this was ‘Our roots are speaking” — and they were indeed speaking loud and clear, everybody heard.
We were all one, and everybody’s language and culture was embraced. You wouldn’t say that we were from nine different provinces, speaking 11 different official languages. The cherry on the top was a group of learners from Mali with their unique African hairstyles who shared the stage with us.
Everything went smoothly — even the weather, expected to be changeable, was fine and made it possible for us to visit Robben Island. Everyone was dying to see the historical place, which we learnt was first used by the British and as an isolation station for lepers. Later it was used as a jail and isolation station for freedom fighters. It is, of course, also an education institute where some of the prisoners who were illiterate studied up to university level despite their difficult circumstances.
Setting foot in Parliament was a dream I never thought would come true for me as an ordinary educator. Learners were over the moon and some commented that in future they would be sitting in those chairs as members of Parliament.
Also heartwarming was how the physically challenged learners from Gauteng led us in singing the national anthem using sign language. Thumbs up to them — everybody is a teacher, not only educators.
All of this built on the other highlight of my year, which was attending the International Association of School Libraries conference in Durban in July. It was another eye opener, breaking down my barriers of ignorance about what a library is. Anyone can start a library — in fact, a person and the place where he/she lives is already a library. Materials made by yourself
or learners can make a library. It’s all about ways of passing on knowledge and experience.
We learnt about libraries in poor countries — some with mobile libraries pulled by donkeys to make sure they reach everyone.
And this is what it is all really about — because reading is for everyone, not only people in urban areas. That is what the Masifunde Sonke campaign is all about.
A big thank you to the Department of Education and all the stakeholders for always exposing us to situations that build our knowledge competency.
NR Mkhwanazi
Kwa Makhutha