D-Empress - Contributed

In 1996 when former South African President Nelson Mandela spoke of how cultural heritage had the 'profound power to help build a new nation', he was making a call to South Africans of all ethnic groups to claim their identity in the new South Africa.

It was a heady time! Heritage Day, a newly instituted national public holiday, was created by the first democratically elected government of South Africa. Heritage, sometimes a slippery concept, was touted as the cornerstone of building a new nation of tolerance, justice and equality.

This Thursday (September 24) 13 years on since Mandela spoke, South Africa will once more celebrate Heritage Day.

Heritage became a buzzword and many have jumped on the band-wagon but to what effect when, just last year, communities were on fire in horrific protest against people who looked like each other? The victims spoke a different language, fashioned in different lands and for that some were killed. Others were maimed and many run from their homes. The embers of the xenophobic attacks of 2008 are still smoking and we regularly hear of attacks on foreign nationals today.

So what are we celebrating? On Heritage Day, Tata Madiba (Mandela) called us to reflect on our heritage, our culture and by implication the acquisition of moral and ethical wealth in our acceptance of each other.

Profound power

Wealth creation is the buzzword of the day now. Wealth consultants, get-rich-quick self-help books and increasing bank fees are all on the move in a bid to convince us that we can touch that wealthy life that many (secretly) desire.

Maybe we're looking but can't see the wealth that immediately surrounds us. As we forge ahead in the rat race, we sometimes leave our heritage behind in our footprints. Behind or in front? That is the question.

Mandela spoke of the profound power of heritage to build a new nation. I'm for accessing the profound power that speaks to the revivification of ourselves as women in the new world order.

As we strive to access wealth and power, the perennial chase may lead us astray from the heritage that is our real wealth. The wealth of the wisdom keepers - yes, our matriarchs. They say our heritage is our wealth. It's locked in the indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) which breathe life into our reason for being.

Female-centric space

I see the profound power in the concept of a system for life based on our heritage - indigenous knowledge. Tag on my favourite topic of the day, a matriarch, and now together we can explore matriarchal IKS from a female-centric space.

When last did you connect with the source, your heritage, your origins? Go find your family matriarch and luxuriate in the indigenous knowledge systems held by the female elders in our lives.

I see it like this: indigenous - the source, the origin. The knowledge system - a systematic way of sharing knowledge and living. Put your matriarch in it and you will have a design for life.

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