Cape Malay performances shine at Heritage Day Youth Festival

As South Africans celebrate their diversity and history, various Cape Malay performances have been showcased at a Heritage Day Youth Festival in Cape Town.

Organisers say the two-fold event is to get young people interested in their heritage and culture and to keep them away from social ills.

Children from various communities took to the stage to display their dance moves and singing prowess. They took to the streets to the sounds of the ghoema.

Youth from various underprivileged communities were invited to celebrate Heritage Day in this special way.

Spokesperson for the organiser, Thabiet Gierdien, says they want to prevent youth delinquency and promote cultural practices stemming from the time of slavery at the Cape.

“The significance of today is to create that heritage feeling and the value that our forefathers left behind for us, and we got the youth; we’re going to use raw talent; we’re going to use instruments that were used in the yesteryears, like the gummies you are hearing here; it’s free for everyone to come and join us to give significance to the day of heritage.”

Marking #HeritageDay in the Keep the Dream Heritage Procession from District Six to the Cape Town City Hall this morning. The Procession consists of various Cape Malay Choirs from across the Cape Flats reviving & preserving the historic Ghoema drum sound of the Cape pic.twitter.com/YX8iIsJCkI

— ANC Western Cape Caucus (@ANCWCCaucus) September 24, 2024

Cape Town is the birthplace of Islam in South Africa.

The religion was brought to the Cape by slaves and religious leaders from the East during the time of colonialism, when many were banished from their countries.

They also brought with them Ratiep, a trance-like spiritual practice that incorporates drumming, piercings, and prayer.

Abubakar Lakay, the leader of the Ratiep Dance, explains its origins: “The Ratiep has a long history; if we’re talking about 17 centuries back, it started with all these people coming to the Cape Shores, and one of them from Macassar. They all came together by him, and he figured out what they could do to teach the other slaves more about the idea of Islam. All of them came together and figured out we were going to do this to teach our people the Ratiep.”

Young dancers from a Woodstock high school showcased their moves, which has won them multiple accolades, while young singers from Bridgetown in Athlone belted out a few Nederlandse liedjies songs.

These are songs, which also originate from the time of Dutch rule and slavery in the Cape.

Keep The Dream Forum President, Yassien Floris, says, “Nederlandse leidjies originates from the slaves when they were banished from their various countries to Cape Ton, and it originates where the slaves interacted with the masters, and they were singing songs like Dutch songs, and they were actually sending messages to one another because some of these things the master didn’t understand, en dan gooi hulle skim.”

“Our forefathers and great-grandparents brought it along, and that is why we are preserving it because there is a uniqueness in it. You get the Dutch lieder the way we sing it; you get a lead singer, and then you get your choir, so the lead singer will sing in the eastern scale and the choir will sing in the western scale.”

Heritage Day celebrations in Cape Town: