By Mpho Mabala

Limpopo Province

Being South African starts from the inside. It starts from the deepest recesses of our minds and soul. Knowing your soul, and knowing your genetic make-up, connecting all these to the majestic mountains, green rich succulent-matted grass, flowing rivers, big cities, suburb houses, kasi train houses and rural shoddy tatched houses and picturesque places of South Africa. It’s about knowing where you come from as a South African, it’s about being patriotic enough without transcending to the level of jingoism. Since South Africa is a plural society, being South African is being able to interact with various people from various racial groups, and various tribes, tribes that constitute South Africa.


It is about being able to interact with different people from various socio-economic, cultural and religious backgrounds. One who shows a blinkered view on other people' cultures and religions is not a real South African. It’s about being proud of who you are, being able to take the South African soul with you wherever you going, and being able to tell non-south Africans about our people, people of South Afrika, batho ba afrika borwa, mzansi,their way of living, their indigenious food, their animals, their totems,their cultures, their past, their challenges, their music, etc . BEING ABLE TO KNOW SOUTH AFRICA AND BEING ABLE TO EMBRACE ITS DIVERSITY.