Miles, I was inspired by your Blog( https://www.mileskubheka.com/vernacular-private-schools/) to have an event at my daughters pre-school during this heritage day month. After a few discussions with the Headmistress and Teachers they obliged and where thrilled and kindly allowed me to fit this into their curriculum. After some research, I discovered that in my daughters class she had classmates whose parents are from Congo, Nigeria, Malawi,Zimbabwe and obviously SA.
Your Blog resonated deep within me and make me act, in essence, it propelled me. Words are powerful. Your words stayed me with for a whole week and I started talking about it then eventually the emotion got too much and I decided to act.
The Activities on the day will include;
· Different Sounds of Africa (each child will bring music from their country of origin
· Story Telling Africa (Beatrice Achaleke will read a chapter of her book to the children)
· Culinary Trip Through Africa (short cooking demo of different African Cuisines.
· Each child will be given homework a week before the event to come and share something about their heritage; this will be an interactive activity.
· Each child will be given an opportunity to also share a few words in his or her language.
After also speaking to some of the parents, this is something we need to take ownership of in our homes. Parents speak to each other in their native languages but will speak to their children in English. If we can get children at this young age to understand what a beautiful heritage they have and diversity should not mean division it will eradicate things like Xenophobia on our Continent
Perhaps next year we can have a bigger event and have you reading your children’s book (hint hint) .
Again thank you for sharing a little of your world with us.
Blessings xxx
Angela Mhlanga