Young people celebrate heritage
2007-09-20
David Joshua
TWELVE young people at the Reverend Abe Maart Oral History Institute are actively writing history and making a difference.
They were unemployed before joining the project, which is equipping them with journalistic and radio production skills and knowledge to record their history.
“It is interesting to note that during the early 1940s, Americans launched the Federal Writers Project. Thousands of life histories were recorded to document the diversity of experiences of ordinary Americans in dealing with the great depression.
Cloete says that oral history is a powerful means of recording and preserving the memories and life experiences of people whose stories might otherwise have been lost.
“A project like this can be used to bring generations together and offer youth the rare chance to question history,” Cloete said.
“Through the recording of life stories we are hoping and praying that writers and poets would be unearthed. We are dreaming of new songs, of plays and musicals, of new tourist routes being mapped out and economic revolution.
“Through the recording of history we wish to celebrate the efforts of a generation who made it despite gutter education, despite forced removals and the humiliation of being called boy. We must celebrate the efforts of those who made it against all odds.”
The group, spreading awareness through the Oral History Roadshow, have been working closely with community researcher Ivan Arendse.
They are visiting shopping malls and this Saturday they will be at the Mbekweni Mall. The Institute will later visit schools to spread the Oral History Story further.
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