GEORGE NEWS - The 24th of September is celebrated as Heritage Day in South Africa to encourage citizens to celebrate their culture, beliefs, and traditions. South Africa has a rich diversity, many cultures and different traditions.
Heritage is the shared characteristics, traditions, practices and beliefs that a family, community or social group passes down from one generation to the next. Our heritage can include our natural resources as well as our culture.
This year the department of arts and culture will host the national celebration at Kokstad in KwaZulu-Natal to pay tribute to the Griqua community and their late chief, Adam Kok, under the theme "The Year of Nelson Mandela: advancing transformation of South Africa's heritage landscape".
Minister Nathi Mthethwa said, "The choice of Kokstad is significant in many ways.
"Firstly, it is our way of reaffirming our commitment and reassuring the Griqua community and other communities which may have some ambivalence about their sense of belonging, that they too matter, that they too are part of the broader South African society and have not been forgotten. In that regard, it may also be opportune and apt that we pay tribute to Adam Kok, his reigning dynasty and the Griqua community at large for their courage, determination and fortitude in resisting colonial occupation and the prize that many have had to pay - including death."
Who was Adam Kok?
Adam Kok III was the great-grandson of Adam Kok I. He was the chief of the Kok clan of the Griquas and ruled the eastern Griqua at Philippolis in the Free State from 1837 until the early 1860s, when he and his people trekked across the Drakensberg to settle in an area that became known as Griqualand East. In 1874, after more than a decade of independence, the British-ruled Cape Colony placed Griqualand East under custodial government. Although he retained a measure of power, he never regained full control of the Griquas.
He was a well-loved leader, admired for the length of time he upheld the Griqua dynasty against the power of the British empire. Descriptions of Kok III after 1860 pictured a kindly, astute, rather melancholic old man who was always courteous, with a particular fondness for children.
He died when he fell off his buggy in an accident on his way from Kokstad to Umzimkulu. Many regarded him as the greatest of the many Kok chiefs.
Adam Kok III.
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