,' Unit', _·- .. - . .

, 2 Cultures and moral lessons

GLOSSARY

diversity: a range

of many people or things that

are very different

from each other

symbolise: a person, an object

or an event that

represents a more

g_eneral quality or situation

Diversity in south Africa Archbishop Desmond Tutu was the first leader to call

South Afr ica our 'rainbow nation' • Although we arl: a

country of many cultures we are united as one nation.

So the rainbow colours are a symbol of the diver~ity and

coming together of South Africa's many different cultural

groups. The rainbow symbolises hope and a bright future.:.

I'm Xhosa and l

live in Gauteng but my

parents were born in

. ----..... I'm an Afrikaans-speaking South

; the Eastern Cape.

African. My ancestors came from

Holland a long, long time ago. l live in the

Karoo, also called the Northern Cape.

Curry is a popular Muslim dish

A Zulu meal of pap (iphalish1) and meat

stew (nenyama)

l live in KwaZulu-Natal. My great­

grandparents were brought to South

Africa from India on ships to work on

the sugar plantations.

l'm Sotho. My family has

always lived in the area that

is now called the Free State.

Traditional meals "A curry is a hot, spicy stew made with vegetables

beans, meat or fish ," says Fuad "We eat c .' h .

d

· urry wit nee

an flat dough pancakes called rotis."

"Jzinkobe_is a snack made from dried mealies which is

~aten on its own. We eat boiled umfino ( wild spinach).

omet1m~s we also have sweet potatoes, known as

ubhatata, says Buyi.

196 WEEK 1 TERM 3

A vegetarian Hindu meal

A Jewish meal

A typical braaivleis

GLOSSARY

sabbath: day of rest and prayer

orthodox: following

tradit ional beliefs

of a religion

h'lh1dirional H.indu food is vegetarian," says Yuven.

"Instead of meat, we eat dried ,beans, lentils and plenty of

vcgttables. I love caring sugar-hc~m curry with rice, naan

bread and thin, crispy pancakes called poppad.oms."

''Every Friday night, we eat a special meal to mark the

beginning of the Sabbath," says Natasha. ,,·we dri.nk

sweer wine and eat a plaited bread loaf caHed cha!ltt

with our meal. Orthodox Jews never ear meat and milk

products together in the same meal."

"On weekends, I help my Dad to braai," says Jaco. "He

cooks chops and boerewors on a special fireplace outside in

the garden. We eat the cooked food with salad and pap."

The Afrikaans word braaivleis means grilled meat. South

Africans from many c:Ufferent cultural groups all like to braai.

Activity 1

Work in a group. Talk about the foods your families like

to eat.

1. Which of these foods comes from your culture?

2. Do you eat any foods from other cultures?

Planning a meal Here is a plan for a meal known as a menu.

~tartir ~pringbok bi I tong shavings on Oume's f erm-bnrnd fingirs

Main cour${l Chicki n sti w with prunis end yi llow r ici

CVi$~irt Pestry twists wi th suger topping

A menu for a meal

---- -- -- ----------------- ----WEEK 1 TERM 3 197

GLOSSARY

course: part of

a meal

GLOSSARY

moral: lesson

about what to do

or how to behave

trunk: very

long nose of an elephant

Activity 2

Create a meal with a partner

1. Each course (sraner, main course and dessert) Ill LL\ t

come from a different culture.

2. Write down the courses in the fo rm of a menu.

3. Illustrate the menu using photographs or drawing~.

4. Display the menu in your classroom.

Stories with moral lessons Do you like listening to stories? Why do you like them:

What are your favourite kinds of stories?

Have you ever heard a story that really made you think

about something, or see things differently? When stories

teach us lessons about life, we call the lessons morals .

Do you know what a folktale is? Does your culture have

any folktales? A folktale is a very old traditional story. It

is usually passed on from one person to the next person

as a spoken story. Traditional people often used folktales

to explain why certain things were the way they were.

The Venda folktale you will read next explains why

elephants have trunks.

Activity 3

Read a Venda folktale

1. Why was Elephant embarrassed by his trunk?

2. After a while, Elephant learnt that his trunk was

quite useful. What could he do with it?

3. What do you think this story teaches us? What is the

moral of the story?

V199:88-;W;E;E;Kzs ~1-;-2~TE~R~M:-3:------- - -------- -----~

GLOSSARY

snout: nose of

some animals,

for example, pigs

Why Elephant has a trunk When the world was young, elephants had snouts.

One day, a herd of thirsty elephants made a long

journey to a waterhole to drink. This waterhole was

the home of a hungry old crocodile. The elephants

knelt at the water's edge to drink. The cunning

crocodile grabbed a young elephant by the snout and

tried to pull him into the river.

Elephant and Crocodile struggled and struggled, but

in the end, Crocod ile grew t ired and let go. There was

on ly one problem. Elephant 's snout had stretched

into a long, wobbly trunk.

Poor Elephant was embarrassed by his trunk. He tried

everything to shrink it, but nothing worked. All the other

animals teased him about his strange-looking trunk.

After a while, though, Elephant realised his trunk was

useful. It made eating and drinking much qu icker and

easier. He could reach fruit and leaves high on the trees.

WEEK 2 TERM 3 199

---------- - - -- ----- ---- -- -·-

He could pick up sticks to scratch his ~ack. He could ,

sniff the air and smell danger more quickly. Soon the l other elephants saw how good it was to have a trunk

It wasn't long before they also went down to the rive ·

to get Crocodile to stretch their snouts into trunks. r

Mama Bulelwa and the cracked pot

In a Transkei village lived a wise and wonderful

woman called Mama Bulelwa. She lived on her own in

a round house with a thatched roof and a couple of

chickens in the yard.

Mama Bulelwa did not have much money but she

was very good at taking care of herself. Every day

she collected eggs that the chickens had laid in the

bushes around her hut. She sewed her own skirts and

aprons and made extra aprons to sell to the other

people in the village. She used the red clay near the

river to make pots for her home - little pots to keep

buttons and threads in, medium pots to store flour

and sugar and two large pots for fetching fresh water

from the river.

One of these large pots was absolutely perfect. It was

round, shiny and never spilt a drop of water on the

way back from the river. The other pot, poor thing,

was quite a different story. It wasn't perfectly round.

It wasn't the same beautiful red colour as the other

pot. But worst of all, it had a little crack in it. When

Mama Bulelwa walked back from the river with her

one perfect pot that never spilt a drop, this other pot

left a drip, drip, drip along the path, all the way back

to the hut.

Although Mama Bulelwa was very wise, even she was

surprised one day when the cracked pot spoke to her,

"Ah, Mama B," the pot sighed. "I live my days in misery.

Every day you take us all the way down to the river

and the other pot doesn't spill a drop of your precious

water. But every day I let you down with the drip, drip,

drip of water that falls from the crack in my side."

As amazed as she was by a talking pot, Mama

Bulelwa's wisdom didn't fail her. She gently lifted the

cracked pot and said, "Come with me. I want to show

you something." And so she took the pot along the

path that she walked every day down to the river and

said, "See there. You are right that my other pot is

perfect and never spills a drop. But look along the

path. Here where you drip your water every day the

most beautiful flowers have sprung up next to the

path. So though you don't bring me as much water

as my perfect pot, your crack has helped make some

beauty in my life."

WEEK 2 TERM 3 201

-- --~ .... - ----- --.- t and the last that the pot ever \ That day was the ~ir~elwa sometimes imagined that spoke, but M~m~ tuhe crack every time they passed she saw a smile ,n the path. the beautiful flowers along

Activity 4 1. Why did the cracked pot feel ashamed? 2. How did the pot's imperfection create beauty in

Mama Bulelwa's life? 3. What should you do when you have made

a mistake? 4. How should you respond when someone else has

made a mistake? 5. What is the moral or lesson of this story?

Activity S

1. Find a moral story from your own culture. You can either ask someone at home or go to the library and find a story.

2. Read the story or listen to it carefully. 3. You will need to remember it, write it down or bring

it to school.

4. Tell your group a summary of the story. 5. Finish by explaining the moral of the story.

202 WEEK 3 TERM 3

eo and Sesomo

There were once two girls called

Dineo and Sesomo. Dineo's parents

had died and she lived with Sesomo's

mother, Mma Sesomo.

Dineo had to work all t he t ime but

Sesomo did no work at all. When the

village ran out of water Dineo had to

fetch water from the well far away.

Dineo was tired when she got to the well but she greeted the old man there

before she took her water.

Earrings, beads, a beautiful

When Dineo arrived home Mma

Sesomo was angry to see her beautiful

clothes. So the next day she sent

Sesomo to the well to fetch water and

get even more beautiful clothes.

When Sesomo reached the well She

took her water but did not greet the

old man.

Why don't you

come and see for

yourself I see cattle

horns and rags.

SeSOfrio,

what do

you see in

the Wei'?

Suddenly Sesomo was dressed in the rags with the horns stuck to her head.

~hen s_he got home, people hid away from her because she was so ugly. But

Dineo lived a happy life.

QUESTIONS

1. Did you enjoy this story? Wh .

2. Wh ich part d d · Y or why not? 1 you like best?