About 30 women dressed up in different cultural attire, created displays and cooked specific dishes at the Rylands civic centre last Wednesday to celebrate Heritage Month, marked in September.
There was excitement as the aromas of different cultural dishes filled the air including potjie kos, boeber, dumplings and curry. Cucumber sandwiches, coffee and tea, and cake, were also on the menu as women from the Rylands library’s book club came together to learn about different cultures.
Chairwoman of the Rylands Neighbourhood Watch and member of Rylands library book club, Fowzia Veerasamy said that their theme for the month was culture so they decided to host an event to learn about different cultures.
Each group did a dance, shared research and explained how the culture they represented came into the country and what they did here.
Ms Veerasamy said that it was interesting to learn about other cultures, traditions and religions.
“I was able to trace back my heritage and look into our culture. This was really important to revive our cultures, and our roots, what we know and don’t know and what we can teach each other,” she said.
Lekeasha An from Kewtown, represented the Chinese culture as her dad is Chinese. She said that she found the event fun and informative.
“It was very different to what I expected. We dressed up and interacted. It was fun and care-free. I learnt a lot today. I spoke about the Chinese language and culture and made dumplings, chow main, and fried rice,” she said.
Librarian at Rylands library, Nombeko Buqa, started the book club in July this year. She said that it was good to keep one’s heritage alive.
“We started our book club in July this year and then we decided to have events relevant to the month. The idea was that everyone had to choose a different culture other than theirs. It was really important to have this so that people could reconnect after Covid-19 which really cut our movement and limited what we could and couldn’t do,” she said.
Shamima Jacobs from Gatesville represented the English culture. She said that it was interesting to get to know different cultures – how they lived then and how we live now.
“There’s lots of comparison, our traditions are very similar. The most interesting thing I learnt today is unity. Different cultures coming together to celebrate heritage. We had lots of fun,” she said.