AmaNdebele are tired of being sidelined

AmaNdebele are one of the cultural people we have in this country.They still perform their rituals and they follow their tradition. Most of isiNdebele speakers are situated in Mpumalanga in a place called kwaNdebele.They are well known for their colourful drawings in the houses and their colourful attire.

Some of the Ndebele people had took an initiative on the 26 of January 2017. They had marched to Auckland Park (SABC) to deliver their grievances. They are saying they  want to see Ndebele speaking people in television, they said they hardly see their music, actors and actresses expresses themselves in isiNdebele. They are not happy with SABC cultural show called Roots for playing playing Ndebele music once a month or sometimes not playing it at all.

It was sad to them when they hear that the statistics is saying that there is less than one million of Ndebele speaking people in a country meanwhile they know that kwaNdebele alone accommodate approximately five million Ndebele speaking people. They know that there is less than two percent of Ndebele speaking in media and they are prepared to change that.

They feel as if their culture is not taken serious because many people take them for granted and that is the reason they are sidelined."Ndebele people who go to media are denied a chance to give their lines in isiNdebele, they are ordered to speak any other language beside isiNdebele" said Mbali one of the Ndebele sister. On the day of the march one of the Ndebele sister was allowed to give her lines in isiNdebele, and that have shown that they are getting somewhere with their initiative.

I think what they are doing its great because they are fighting for their rights as the Constitution of South Africa stated that we are all equal. They are also protecting their culture from fading away, they want young people who speak isiNdebele to know and to be proud of their culture. They want them to speak their language without fear of being underestimated.