What is heritage mom?

What is heritage mom?

“What does heritage mean mom?”  My eight-year-old son Kennedy asked me and I was reluctant to explain it but then he insisted on a detailed answer to this question for his homework.

It was a good day for this question because we had no electricity that night it was quiet and everyone was home waiting for me to finish cooking using a gas stove.  No television or radio was switched on.

As a third grader, he was asked to list things that are associated with heritage in preparation of a “heritage dress Friday” at school.  The teacher told him that your parents should explain your heritage and prepare a costume that best reflects your heritage.

As a seasoned Audio/Video Editor, I had worked on productions that showcased a variety of traditional dancers, fashion shows and television programs with heritage themes and messages but never took time to think about my own.

Now here I was with my son and had to explain to him our heritage and go a step further to buy a fabric and make a costume. 

Growing-up we used to be sent to the village in Gokwe for holidays where we would work in the fields. One holiday we would plough using an ox-drawn plough, during that season we would do weeding using wooden-handled hoes.  The following holiday we would go back to pick the cotton, maize or groundnuts.

So I started telling my son about those holidays and he was so excited to her more because he was only a toddler since I took him to the village.  As I was narrating those stories my elder son Charles who is twelve years old come and added his experiences.

At least the elder brother Charles was fortunate to have had opportunities to go to the village several times and knew quite a bit.  He then started talking about the folk stories around the fire and what used to happen.

I thought I had finished my job of talking about our heritage but the boy wanted to know more about our traditional dances and clothing.  Being a Christian I tried to divert the subject but this time I was then placed between a rock and a hard place.

I remember an occasion back in 1989, when we lost our grand father and we went for the burial in Masvingo, Chirimuhanzu.

I knew we are vaKaranga who use ngoma  and Hosho and Magagada to create our music wearing animal skins to cover our private parts and a cloth to cover our breasts and I could not imagine him going to school wearing Nhembe ne Shashiko (animal skins covering bottom parts).

Then I remembered that maybe it would be best if I spoke to my in-laws especially my father in-law.  But then I thought no because if he were to start teaching him Gule-waMulungu from Malawi he would be ruined forever. 

So I then decided to go-it my way and get a nice African print fabric and ask my friend to stitch a shirt I designed for him. For the accessories got a polished walking stick like the one my late-father had a hat and black jeans to go with it.

I didn’t rest through, I went on the net to find out more and the search within 0.27 seconds gave me about 4567 000 000 search results in google.com and I was overwhelmed with the information.

After this experience I decided to search for answers so that next time I will have a better understanding of my heritage issues.  It is a fact that there is a lot to learn and teach our children at the same time.