By Sbongiseni Dladla
The residents of Ohlange, Inanda celebrated this year’s Mafukuzela week by honouring former President, Nelson Mandela. Mafukuzela week is dedicated to the founder of the school, Dr John Langalibalele Dube and, during the week, the learners at Ohlange Institute performed a series of activities in honour of the late founder. Mafukuzela week runs from the 11th to the 16th of February, coinciding with the State of the Nation address delivered by President Jacob Zuma. At this year’s event, praise poems and speeches were performed by learners in honouring Mandela’s legacy and the role he played for the school.
Mafukuzela Week acknowledges the tributes paid at Dube’s funeral and includes reading of his obituary and a memorial service. Dube was an educator, African nationalist and politician, ordained minister of the Congregational (American Board) Church, an essayist, philosopher, publisher, editor, novelist, and poet. He was also the founding president of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC), which became the African National Congress in 1923.
This year his memorial service included that of Nelson Mandela in honour of him as he cast his vote at the Ohlange Institute in South Africa’s first democratic elections on the 27th of April 1994.
Mafukuzela Week was instated in 1956 as people at Ohlange felt that there was a need for his story to be told by the people who lived in the area. This week draws people from all over the world to come and share their opinions on Dube’s political views. Through the institution, he sought to create a class of independent and educated entrepreneurs who would represent the political and economic ideas of an educated black demographic.
